Thomas Holand, 1st Earl of Kent, 2nd Baron Holand, KG^[1]

1314 - 1360  (~ 46 years)

• Name	Thomas Holand
  		Thomas de Holland 1st Earl of Kent, 1st Baron Holand, KG (c. 1314 – 26 December 1360)
  		Arms of Holand
  Suffix	1st Earl of Kent, 2nd Baron Holand, KG
  Born	ca. 1314	Up Holland, Lancashire
  Gender	Male
  Military	16 Jul 1346	Caen, Normandy, France   [2]
  	Edward III sacked Caen. Raoul de Brienne , count of Eu, surrendered the town to Thomas Holand.
  Military	26 Aug 1346	Crécy-en-Ponthieu, Somme, France
  		Battle of Crécy At Crécy, Edward III and his long-bowmen earned a signal victory over a numerically superior French force. Edward had the advantage of the high ground; moreover, the ground before him was terraced, a feature that forced the French cavalry to mass on Edward's right where his son was in command. Denied the ability to manuever, the numbers became a liability for the French. "[T]he majority were crushed to death," according to Geoffrey le Baker. The slaughter among the nobility was so great that Philip VI's ability to govern was materially impaired. English influence on the continent experienced a revival.
  Title	23 Apr 1348	Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire   [3]
  	Knight of the Garter (inaugural member).
  		Knights of the Order of St. George of the Garter "The Order of the Garter is the most senior and the oldest British Order of Chivalry and was founded by Edward III in 1348." The official website of the British Monarchy.
  		Thomas de Holland 1st Earl of Kent, 1st Baron Holand, KG (c. 1314 – 26 December 1360)
  Died	26 Dec 1360	Plouigneau, Brittany. France   [4]
  Notes	Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 27, "Holland, Thomas (d.1360)" by James Gainsborough Fotheringham. HOLLAND, Sir THOMAS, first Earl of Kent of the Holland family (d. 1360), soldier, was the second son of Sir Robert Holland of Holland, Lancashire, and Maud, daughter of Allan la Zouche of Ashby, Leicestershire. He joined the expedition to Flanders in 1340, and took part in the battle of Sluys. In 1342 he was sent to Bayonne with Sir John d'Artevelle to defend the Gascon frontier. In 1344 he was chosen one of the founders of the order of the Garter. In 1346 he received a yearly annuity from Edward III, and the same year he accompanied the king in his invasion of France. He took an active part in the siege of Caen. While the town was being sacked by the English soldiers, the Comte d'Eu and Guisnes, constable of France, who had command of the place, and the Comte de Tancarville, with their suites, appealed to him to save their lives. They surrendered to him, and he afterwards disposed of the Comte d'Eu to the king for eighty thousand florins (Foedera, iii. pt. i. 126). On the subsequent march of the army Holland had the command of the rear-guard. Some English soldiers, having either gone astray or been left behind at Poissy, were killed by the French. Holland thereupon returned with an armed force and burned the town (Froissart, i. § 265). At the battle of Crecy which ensued he held a command in the division of the Black Prince. After the battle he was appointed with four clerks to visit the field and make up lists of the killed. He was at the siege of Calais (1346-7). In 1354 he was appointed lieutenant of the king of England in Brittany and the adjoining parts of Poitou during the minority of the Duke of Brittany (Foedera, iii. pt. i. 273-4). He received also at the same time an assignation of the entire revenues of the duchy. In 1356 he was governor of the Channel Islands, and in the following year warden of the fortress of Oruyk in Normandy (ib. iii. pt. i. 452). He was summoned to parliament as Baron de Holland from 1353 to 1356 inclusive. In October 1359 he was appointed jointly with Philip of Navarre lieutenant and captain-general in all the English possessions in France and Normandy, and next year he assumed the title of Earl of Kent, in right of his wife, who had succeeded to her brother John, earl of Kent. His crown is included in the armorial of Guildres Herald. He died in Normandy on 28 Dec. 1360. He married before 1347 Joan Plantagenet, daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, earl of Kent [q. v.], and granddaughter of Edward I, who shortly after his death married the Black Prince. In his absence abroad his wife married William de Montagu, second earl of Salisbury, but on Holland's return this union was dissolved by papal commission (1349). He left three sons: Thomas [q. v.], who succeeded, Edmund, and John, afterwards duke of Exeter [q. v.]; and two daughters, one of whom, Matilda, married Hugh, grandson of Hugh Courtenay, second earl of Devon. [Froissart, ed. Luce; Rymer's Foedera, ed. 1830; Ashmole's Order of the Garter; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 74; Doyle's Official Baronage, ii. 276; Beltz's Memorials of the Garter.] J. G. F. [5]
  Person ID	I12387	Dickinson
  Last Modified	24 May 2018

  
  

  Father	Robert Holand of Upholland, 1st Baron Holand,   b. ca. 1270,   d. 7 Oct 1328  (Age ~ 58 years)
  Relationship	Birth
  Mother	Matilda la Zouche, Baroness Holand,   b. ca. 1289,   d. 31 May 1349  (Age ~ 60 years)
  Relationship	Birth
  Family ID	F4377	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Joan of Kent, Princess of Wales,   b. 29 Sep 1328,   d. 7 Aug 1385, Wallingford Castle, Wallingford, Oxfordshire  (Age 56 years)
  Married	May 1340  [6]
  	"In October 1347, one of the heroes of the Crécy campaign, Sir Thomas Holland, made a starling revelation. He announced that Joan's match with the earl of Salisbury was invalid because he had in fact married her first, in May 1340 (some eight months before her marriage to the earl). The two of them had consummated the relationship and had kept their marriage secret. Holland went on to claim that later, when he was on crusade in Prussia, Joan- 'not wishing to contradict the wishes of her relatives and friend' -had been married to the earl 'by their arrangment'. Salisbury, aided and abetted by Joan's mother, refused to acknowledge Holland's claim and the following year, in 1348, appealed to the pope." [6]
  Children	+ 1. Thomas Holand, 2nd Earl of Kent, 3rd Baron Holand, KG,   b. ca. 1350, Up Holland, Lancashire ,   d. 25 Apr 1397, Arundel Castle, Arundel, Sussex  (Age ~ 47 years)  [Birth]   2. Joan de Holand, Duchess of Brittany,   b. 1350,   d. Nov 1384, Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, Pays de la Loire, France  (Age 34 years)  [Birth] + 3. John de Holand, 1st Duke of Exeter, KG,   b. Aft 1358,   d. 9 Jan 1400, Pleshey, Essex, England  (Age ~ 41 years)  [Birth]   4. Matilda de Holand, Countess of Ligny and Saint-Pol,   b. ca. 1359,   d. bef. 13 Apr 1392  (Age ~ 33 years)  [Birth]
  Last Modified	18 May 2018
  Family ID	F3516	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Born - ca. 1314 - Up Holland, Lancashire Military - 26 Aug 1346 - Crécy-en-Ponthieu, Somme, France Title - Knight of the Garter (inaugural member). - 23 Apr 1348 - Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire Died - 26 Dec 1360 - Plouigneau, Brittany. France  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Sources

  [S336463] Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families, Charles Cawley, (Online: The Foundation for Medieval Genealogy at http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/, 20XX), http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISH%20NOBILITY%20MEDIEVAL.htm#ThomasHolanddied1360B. [S518] The Black Prince: England's Greatest Medieval Warrior, Michael Jones, (New York: Pegasus Books, 2018), 90. [S518] The Black Prince: England's Greatest Medieval Warrior, Michael Jones, (New York: Pegasus Books, 2018), 128. [S518] The Black Prince: England's Greatest Medieval Warrior, Michael Jones, (New York: Pegasus Books, 2018), 259. [S336351] Dictionary of National Biography, 63 volumes, Sir Sidney Lee, ed., (New York: McMillan and Company, 1885-1900), Public Domain., vo. 26, 156. [S518] The Black Prince: England's Greatest Medieval Warrior, Michael Jones, (New York: Pegasus Books, 2018), 130.