Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent


Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent was an English nobleman and a councillor of his half-brother, King Richard II of England.

Family and early Life

Thomas Holland was born in Upholand, 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

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

  1. Thomas Holland, 3rd Earl of Kent, 1st Duke of Surrey, eldest son and heir, created Duke of Surrey. Died without children.
  2. John Holland, second son, died without children
  3. Richard Holland, third son
  4. Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, 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, Henry Tudor, 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:
  1. Eleanor I Holland, alias Alianore. Married firstly to Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, 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, 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.
  2. Joan Holland, married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
  3. Margaret Holland, married first John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, and second Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence
  4. Elizabeth Holland, who married Sir John Neville, 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.
  5. Eleanor II Holland, who bore the same first name as her eldest sister, married Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury
  6. Bridget Holland, who became a nun

    Ancestry

Footnotes