Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
English nobleman
Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent KG English nobleman and a councillor of his half-brother, King Richard II of England .
Family and early life
Thomas Holland was born in Upholland , Lancashire , in 1350. He was the eldest surviving son of Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent , and Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent" . His mother was a daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent , and Margaret Wake . Edmund was in turn a son of Edward I of England and his second Queen consort Marguerite of France , and thus a younger half-brother of Edward II of England .
His father died in 1360, and later that year, on 28 December, Thomas became Baron Holand . His mother was still Countess of Kent in her own right, and in 1361 she married Edward, the Black Prince , the son of King Edward III .
Military career
At sixteen, in 1366, Holland was appointed captain of the English forces in Aquitaine . Over the next decade he fought in various campaigns, including the Battle of Nájera , under the command of his stepfather Edward, the Black Prince . He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1375.
Richard II became king in 1377, and soon Holland acquired great influence over his younger half-brother, which he used for his own enrichment. In 1381, he succeeded as Earl of Kent.
Later years and death
Prior to his death, Holland was appointed Governor of Carisbrooke Castle . Holland died at Arundel Castle , Sussex, England on 25 April 1397.
Titles
2nd Earl of Kent (26 December 1360 – 25 April 1397) of the 1360 creation
5th Earl of Kent (7 August 1385 – 25 April 1397) of the 1321 creation
2nd Baron Holand (26 December 1360 – 25 April 1397) of the 1353 creation
6th Baron Wake of Liddell (7 August 1385 – 25 April 1397) of the 1295 creation
Marriage and children
On 10 April 1364 Holland married Lady Alice FitzAlan , daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel by his wife Eleanor of Lancaster . By his wife he had four sons and six daughters. All the sons died without legitimate children, whereupon the daughters and their children became co-heiresses to the House of Holland. The children were as follows:
Sons
Thomas Holland, 3rd Earl of Kent, 1st Duke of Surrey (8 September 1372 – 7 January 1400), eldest son and heir, created Duke of Surrey . Died without children.John Holland (2 November 1374 – 5 November 1394), second son, died without children
Richard Holland (3 April 1376 – 21 May 1396), third son
Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent (9 January 1382 – 15 September 1408), heir to his elder brother. Died without legitimate children, but had an illegitimate child by his mistress Constance of York .
Daughters
By his daughters' marriages, he became the ancestor of many of the prominent figures in the Wars of the Roses , including Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (father of Kings Edward IV and Richard III ), Henry Tudor (later King Henry VII), and Warwick the Kingmaker , father of queen consort Anne Neville . He was also an ancestor of queen consort Catherine Parr , the sixth and last wife of King Henry VIII . His daughters were as follows:
Eleanor I Holland , alias Alianore (13 October 1370 – 23 October 1405). Married firstly to Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (1374–1398), for a time heir presumptive to his mother's first cousin King Richard II , and left children. Following the deposition of Richard II in 1399 by his own first cousin, Henry IV , the claim to the throne of England was pursued by Roger's and Alianore's grandson Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460), the drawn-out struggle of which formed the basis for the Wars of the Roses . Secondly, she married Edward Charleton, 5th Baron Cherleton , and left children.Joan Holland (c. 1380 – 12 April 1434), married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York Margaret Holland (1385 – 31 December 1439), married first John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset , and second Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence Elizabeth Holland, who married Sir John Neville (c.1387–1420), eldest son and heir of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland , and by him had three sons, Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland , John Neville, Baron Neville , and Sir Thomas Neville, and a daughter, Margaret Neville.[ 10]
Eleanor II Holland (1386 – after 1413), who bore the same first name as her eldest sister, married Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury Bridget Holland, who became a nun
Ancestry
Ancestors of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
References
Archbold, W.A.J. (1891). "Holland, Thomas, second Earl of Kent" Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography Cokayne, G. , ed. (1929). The Complete Peerage Lord Howard de Walden (2nd ed.). London: St. Catherine Press. Archived .CS1 maint: postscript (link ) Richardson, D. (2011). Kimball G. Everingham (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry ISBN 978-1-4499-6638-6 {{cite book }}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link )Richardson, D. (2011). Kimball G. Everingham (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry . Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 978-1-4499-6639-3 {{cite book }}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link )Stansfield, M.M.N. (13 January 1987). The Hollands, Dukes of Exeter, Earls of Kent and Huntingdon, 1352–1475 (PhD). Corpus Christi College, Oxford . Archived . CS1 maint: postscript (link ) Stansfield, M.M.N. (2004). "Holland, Thomas, fifth earl of Kent (1350–1397)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/13544 . (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
