Robert Holland, often referred to as "The Bastard of Exeter", is generally shown as an illegitimate son of Henry Holland, 4th Duke of Exeter, but which has recently been disproven on the basis of chronology. Robert was of the same generation as Henry. A more logical conclusion is that two "base sons" of a Duke of Exeter, the pair who died at Towton ... were half-brothers of Henry... sons of his father, John, the 3rd Duke, by an unknown mistress. This descent, with its more logical timeline, can be found in Douglas Richardson's Plantagenet Ancestry (2004), pp. 299-301.
Three years prior to his death, Sir Robert Holland – styled "bastard of Exeter" – witnessed a grant made on 28 September, 1458, by his half-brother, Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter.
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