Edward & Joan: A Plantagenet Love Story

“The most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving,” fourteenth-century French chronicler, Jean Froissart once said of Joan of Kent. Joan, known by the sobriquet of “the Fair Maid of Kent,” was thirty-two and recently widowed upon the death of her late husband, Thomas de Holland, Earl of Kent.

A Woman of Controversy

From the beginning of Joan’s life, she wasn’t a stranger to controversy. When she was only three years old, her father Edmund, Earl of Kent was singled out by Queen Isabella the Fair and executed as an example. Edmund was the son of the legendary King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France. By his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, he had his heir, Edward II. Queen Isabella was the wife of Edward II and for years, she faced humiliation at the hands of her husband and his various favourites. In an attempt to seize the throne, she and her lover, Roger Mortimer initiated a coup. For the majority of the coup, Edmund was on the side of Isabella, mostly because he was in France at the time. Towards the end of the conflict, he had a change of heart. This fact alone gained him the queen’s fury and, not surprisingly, Edmund was beheaded before the year was out. Therefore, Joan grew up knowing that her father was a traitor to the crown.

For decades, she had been a figure attracting considerable controversy with her clandestine marriage to Thomas and then the forced match with William Montague, Earl of Salisbury. It turned out that whilst entering into the arranged marriage with William, either her family had no knowledge or if such was the case, it did not seem to concern them at all. The matter finally came to a head when, in 1349, Thomas de Holland had to appeal to Pope Clement VI to annul her marriage to William and to prove that he was the rightful husband.

Now twelve years later, Joan was a very wealthy and exceedingly beautiful heiress who finally came into her inheritance. While she possessed a great deal of wealth, the options for a widow in the Middle Ages were limited. Joan, akin to what her mother chose, could have spent the rest of her life as a widow, looking after the welfare of her four children. Erstwhile, she could have remarried, to a man of perhaps more wealth and a higher rank, something that would afford her a certain amount of protection otherwise not available to a widow. What Joan might not have expected was that there was a suitor who had eyes only for her, Edward, the Prince of Wales.

Enter The Prince

History knows Edward by the moniker of “the Black Prince” but scholars have been largely unable to pinpoint the reason he is called thus. There is a belief that perhaps his armour was black or that it was likely what the French referred to him as. Not only was Edward the Prince of Wales but he also was the Prince of Aquitaine, a land inherited from his ancestor, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Above all things, Edward was well-known for his courage in the face of battle. His chivalry, piety, skill at tournament games (such as jousting), and, most importantly, his compassion towards enemy soldiers. The court of Edward III was one filled with such romantic notions of chivalry and honour that growing up, Edward couldn’t help but be inspired to conduct himself in such a manner. As explained in Penny Lawne’s Joan of Kent: First Princess of Wales, Edward III and his wife, Philippa of Hainault were considered the perfect example of the ideals of chivalry and honour. Edward III was the hero, the great King of England and Philippa, in more of a supportive role, was his wife and his devoted queen. Edward, Prince of Wales, was the epitome of chivalry and courtly manners that were so celebrated during that time.

A Match Is Struck

Since Joan was brought up at the Royal Court, in the household of Queen Philippa, it means that she and Edward were playmates as children. It was a truth universally known that Edward had possessed a great affection for Joan. Albeit that Edward was a very valuable suitor based upon his titles, his battle prowess, and wealth alone, he was resolved only on marrying Joan. Author Penny Lawne points out her in a biography about Joan of Kent that nearly all of Edward III’s sons married wealthy heiresses rather than foreign princesses. Therefore, the event of Edward marrying Joan was something that wasn’t regarded as strange or rare, rather, it was considered commonplace and it gave her husband access to increased wealth. Not surprisingly, Edward III and Queen Philippa did not oppose the marriage, in fact, they supported it entirely.

Thomas de Holland died in December of 1360 and, by spring 1361, Joan was affianced to Edward. The Chronique Des Quatre Premiers Valois recounts a scene where Edward offers a proposal of marriage to Joan and it is reminiscent of something straight out of a fairytale. Upon receiving the proposal, Joan wept, but if it is sadness or joy, Edward cannot tell. It is then that Joan declares that she will never marry anyone but the most chivalrous knight in the world. Still somewhat befuddled, he asks for clarification. Joan claims it is Edward that she speaks of, stating that she will never marry any other man but him and to him she is solely devoted. In the next moment, he is then overcome by his emotions and he enfolds her in his arms, vowing to her that he will have no other woman but her for the rest of his life.

A Happy Marriage

On 10 October 1361 Edward and Joan had married in a formal ceremony. Pope Innocent VI had granted a papal dispensation, allowing the two of them to be wed, due to the degrees of consanguinity. As the wife of Edward, Joan was afforded the protection she needed, not only for herself but her four children as well. She was finally restored to the royal circle and was in a position of great respect and honour. In time, Edward was granted the rulership of the principality of Aquitaine and, in 1362, he and Joan moved from their native England to the capital city of Bordeaux. Aquitaine was once the homeland of Eleanor of Aquitaine as well as the seat of the great Angevin Empire in the existing centuries before.

In the time of Eleanor, it was a centre of wealth, culture, and great literature. However, in the time of Edward, it was a place of great conflict, where the royal couple had many enemies who wanted to seize it for themselves. Simply put, with the Hundred Years War transpiring between England and France, the French sought to invade Aquitaine. Whilst in Bordeaux, Edward and Joan conducted their court, and most importantly, Edward III had expected Aquitaine to finance itself without any financial help from the English crown. Thereafter, Edward and Joan had a rather happy marriage and produced two sons together: Edward of Angoulême (who would die young) and Richard (who would go on to become Richard II of England). Whenever Edward would suffer from war or battles, Joan was always there for him and even when he became ill in 1366, she was always by his side. He would go on to die ten years later in 1376, leaving Joan, a saddened widow. The rest of her life was dedicated to her son Richard, who ascended to the throne of England one year later, and to the rest of her children.

Picture credit: via Wikipedia [Public Domain]. Edward the Black Prince via Wikpedia [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons