• Born: 29 Sep 1328, Woodstock, Kent, England
• Married (1): Before May 1340
• Married (2): 10 Oct 1361
• Died: 8 Aug 1385, Wallingford Castle, Berkshire, England
• Buried: Grey Friars Church, Stamford, Lincolnshire, England

  Research Notes:

Named as a beneficiary in the Will of her father-in-law King Edward III of England (1376).

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She succeeded her brother in 1352 as Countess of Kent, Baroness Woodstock and Baroness Wake, suo iure. The papal dispensation for the marriage between “Edwardi regis Angliæ...filii...Edwardi de Wodestok principis Walliæ dicti regis primogeniti” and “Johannæ comitissæ Cantiæ” is dated 10 Sep 1361. A charter dated 10 Oct 1361 records the marriage between “domini Edwardi principis Walliæ...Edwardi regis Angliæ primogeniti” and “Johannæ comitissæ Cantiæ” is dated 10 Sep 1361. The Chronicon Angliæ records the marriage of “Edwardus princeps Walliæ” and “Johannam comitissam Canciæ relictam domini Thomæ de Holand”, adding that she had been separated “olim...a comite Sarisburiæ”, dated to 1361 from the context. ¹

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Joan of Kent [nicknamed Fair Maid of Kent], aged 24 or 26 in 1353. Married as her first husband, shortly before May 1340 in a clandestine ceremony Thomas de Holand, K.G. About 21 Jan 1340/1, during Thomas' absence in Prussia, Joan was coerced by her family into marrying William de Montagu, earl of Salisbury. On Thomas' return in 1341, Montagu refused to believe the validity of Holand's prior marriage to Joan. Shortly after 1347, Thomas submitted a petition to the Pope at Avignon and requested that Joan's marriage to Montagu be annulled and that she be restored forthwith to him as his wife. In 1349 Cardinal d'Albi declared Joan's marriage to William de Montagu null and void, and ordered that she be restored to Holand immediately and that their union be solemnized publicly.

In 1352 Joan was sole heiress to her brother, John, Earl of Kent, by which she inherited the titles of Countess of Kent, Lady Wake, and Lady Woodstock. ²

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The Will of Joan Princess of Wales,written 7 Aug 1385, proved 9 Dec 1385.

In the name, &c. In the year of our Lord, 1385, and of the reign of my dear son Richard, King of England and France, the 9th, at my Castle of Walyngford, in the Diocese of Salisbury, the 7th of August, I, Joan Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester, and Lady Wake. My body to be buried in my chapel at Stanford, near the monument of our late lord and husband, the Earl of Kent. To my dear son the King, my new bed of red velvet, embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver, and heads of leopards of gold with boughs and leaves issuing out of their mouths. To my dearest son Thomas Earl of Kent, my bed of red camak paied with red and rays of gold. To my dear son John Holland, a bed of red camak. To my dear son Richard, King of England and France, &c. And I appoint the Venerable Father in Christ, my dear friend and cousin, Robert Bishop of London; William Bishop of Winchester; John Lord Cobham; William de Beauchamp, William de Nevill, Simon de Burlee, Lewis Clifford, Richard Atterbury, John Clanvow, Richard Stury, John Worthe, stewards of my lands, and John le Vache, Knights; together with my dear chaplains, William de Fulburn and John de Yernemouth; and my loving esquires, William de Harpele and William Norton, my executors.
Witnessed by the Prior of Walynforde and John James.
Proved 9th December, 1385. ³