Joan Holland

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Joan Holland
Duchess of York
Lady Willoughby de Eresby
Lady Scrope of Masham
Bornca. 1380
Upholland, Lancashire, England
Died12 April 1434(1434-04-12) (aged 53–54)
Spouse(s)
(m. 1393; died 1402)
(m. 1410; died 1415)
(m. 1416)
FatherThomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
MotherAlice FitzAlan

Joan Holland (ca. 1380–12 April 1434[1]) was the third daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, and Alice FitzAlan. She married four times. Her first husband was a duke, and the following three were barons. All of her marriages were most likely childless.[citation needed]

Family

Joan Holland was born around 1380 in

Margaret became Countess of Somerset and later Duchess of Clarence; Eleanor became Countess of Salisbury; Elizabeth married Sir John Neville;[2] and Bridget became a nun at Barking Abbey. Her eldest brother, Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, was beheaded in 1400 by a mob of angry citizens at Cirencester for his role in the Epiphany Rising, which was aimed against the life of King Henry IV of England, who had usurped the throne of King Richard. Thomas's heir to the earldom of Kent was her second eldest brother Edmund Holland.[3]

Life

Joan married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York,[4] son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, ca. 4 November 1393. As a result of this marriage, she was styled Duchess of York. They had no children.

In 1399, Joan and her sister

Margaret were invested as ”Lady Companions of the Garter”. They were granddaughters of Joan
, the "Fair Maid of Kent" who inspired Edward III's founding of the Order of the Garter, according to popular legend.

After Langley's death in 1402, Joan married (before 9 August 1404) William de Willoughby, 5th Lord Willoughby de Eresby[4] (c. 1370–1409), a Knight of the Garter, son of Robert de Willoughby, 4th Lord Willoughby de Eresby, and Alice Skipwith. Upon her marriage, she became The Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, or Lady Willoughby. Lord Willoughby died on 30 November 1409.[5]

Her third marriage (after 6 September 1410) was to

Yorkist
claimants achieving the throne.

Less than a year later, before 27 April 1416, Joan married her fourth and final husband, Sir Henry Bromflete, son of Sir Thomas Bromflete and his wife Margaret St John.

She died on 12 April 1434. Her last husband was summoned to Parliament as Baron Vessy on 24 January 1449 and died on 16 January 1469.

References

Works cited

  • Cokayne, G.E. (2000), The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, vol. XII/2 (Reprint in 6 volumes, new ed.), Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, pp. 548, 899