English nobleman and military commander
Thomas Holland, 2nd Baron Holand
, and
jure uxoris
1st Earl of Kent
,
KG
(c. 1314 – 26 December 1360) was an
English
nobleman and military commander during the
Hundred Years' War
. By the time of the Crecy campaign, he had apparently lost one of his eyes.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
He was from a gentry family in
Upholland
,
Lancashire
. He was a son of
Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand
and Maud la Zouche. One of his brothers was
Otho Holand
, who was also made a Knight of the Garter.
Military career
[
edit
]
In his early military career, he fought in
Flanders
. He was engaged, in 1340, in the English expedition into Flanders and sent, two years later, with Sir John D'Artevelle to Bayonne, to defend the
Gascon
frontier against the French. In 1343, he was again on service in
France
.
In 1346, he attended
King Edward III
into Normandy in the immediate retinue of the
Earl of Warwick
; and, at the taking of
Caen
, the
Count of Eu and Guines, Constable of France
, and the Count De Tancarville surrendered themselves to him as prisoners.
According to chronicler
Jean le Bel
, they recognized Sir Thomas and his knights from earlier military campaigns on the continent during which they had traveled and fought side by side. Allegedly they shouted to him and his companions from the gatehouse window:
"Ah! In God's name, sir knights, come up here and save us from those pitiless men who'll kill us like all the others if they catch us!"
[1]
After securing the prisoners, Sir Thomas and the remainder of his retinue then allegedly returned to the fray, attempting to prevent further violence and protect the women and girls of the captured town.
[1]
This latter incident is remarkable, being one of the very few recorded instances of true mercy (as opposed to the ransom-motivated sparing of prisoners) shown to any of the inhabitants during the otherwise luridly barbaric sacking of Caen, during which many women and girls were raped
[1]
and an estimated 5,000 French were killed, the vast majority civilians.
[2]
It is unrecorded, however, to what extent Sir Thomas and his men were successful.
During the long journey of the English forces through the French countryside in the summer of 1346, Sir Thomas is recorded as having at one point ridden up to a bridge the French had broken at Elbeuf, killing two enemy soldiers and crying:
"St. George for Edward!"
[3]
At the
Battle of Crecy
, Sir Thomas was one of the principal commanders in the
vanguard
under the
Prince of Wales
and he, afterwards, served at the
Siege of Calais
in 1346?47. In 1348, he was invested as one of the founders and 13th Knight of the new
Order of the Garter
.
[4]
Around the same time as, or before, his first expedition, he secretly married the 12-year-old
Joan of Kent
, daughter of
Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent
and
Margaret Wake
, granddaughter of
Edward I
and
Margaret of France
. However, during his absence on foreign service, Joan, under pressure from her family, contracted another marriage with
William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury
(of whose household Holland had been
seneschal
). This second marriage was
annulled
in 1349, when Joan's previous marriage with Holland was proved to the satisfaction of the papal commissioners. Joan was ordered by the Pope to return to her husband and live with him as his lawful wife, which she did, and had 4 children by him.
Between 1353 and 1356, he was summoned to
Parliament
as
Baron de Holland
.
[
citation needed
]
His brother-in-law John, Earl of Kent, died in 1352, and Holland became Earl of Kent in right of his wife, although it was in 1360 that he was summoned to Parliament with that title.
[5]
In 1354, Holland was the king's lieutenant in
Brittany
during the minority of the Duke of Brittany, and in 1359 co-captain-general for all the English continental possessions.
Holland died of illness
[6]
in
Normandy
on 28 December 1360.
[5]
He was succeeded as baron by his son
Thomas
, the earldom still being held by his wife (though the son later became Earl in his own right). Another son,
John
, became
Earl of Huntingdon
and
Duke of Exeter
.
Children
[
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]
Thomas and Joan of Kent had five children:
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
le Bel, Jean; Bryant (trans.), Nigel (2011).
The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel
. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. p. 173.
ISBN
9781783270224
.
- ^
Sumption, Jonathan (1990).
The Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle
(vol. 1 ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 510.
ISBN
0812216555
.
- ^
Sumption, Jonathan (1990).
The Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle
(vol. 1 ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 514.
ISBN
0812216555
.
- ^
Shaw, Wm. A. (1971).
The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of All the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of the Knights Bachelors
. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 1.
OCLC
247620448
.
- ^
a
b
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Kent, Earls and Dukes of"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 734.
- ^
Lawne, Penny (2015).
Joan of Kent: The First Princess of Wales
. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 104.
ISBN
9781445644714
.
External links
[
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]