General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> Earl Of Kent
Sir Thomas de Holland, 2nd son of Robert de Holand, Lord Ho
lland, having been engaged from the 14th to the 20th Edwar
d III [1341-1347] in the wars of France and, in the last ye
ar commanded the van of Prince Edward's army at the famou
s battle of Cressy, was made a knight of the Garter and sum
moned to parliament as a baron. At the siege of Caen, Sir T
homas had the good fortune to make prisoner of the Earl o
f Ewe [Eu], then constable of France, whom he delivered u
p to King Edward for the sum of 4000 florins, and he (Sir T
homas) subsequently assisted at the siege of Calais. His lo
rdship m.* Joane Plantagenet, celebrated for her beauty, un
der the name of "the Fair Maid of Kent," only dau. of Edmun
d Plantagenet, surnamed "of Woodstock," Earl of Kent, 2nd s
on of King Edward III. This distinguished woman inherited
, upon the decease of her brother, John, 3rd Earl of Kent
, that dignity, with the Barony of Woodstock, honours of he
r father, and the Barony of Wake, a dignity of her mothers
; from which latter peerage she styled herself "Lady of Wak
e."
In the 28th Edward III [1355], his lordship was made lieute
nant and captain-general of the Dukedom of Brittany, and h
e was constituted, in two years afterwards, governor of th
e islands of Jersey and Guernsey. He had summons to parliam
ent as Lord Holland, from the 27th to the 31st Edward III [
1354-1358], but in the 34th (anno 1360), he assumed the tit
le of Earl of Kent, and was so summoned 20 November, in tha
t year, in right of his wife, for it does not appear that h
e had any other sort of creation. In this year his lordshi
p was appointed the king's lieutenant and captain-general i
n France and Normandy. He did not long, however, enjoy tha
t high office for he d. 28 December, in the same year, leav
ing issue by the great heiress of Kent (who m. after his lo
rdship's decease, Edward the Black Prince, and was mother o
f King Richard II), three sons and a dau., viz., Thomas, hi
s successor; Edmund; John, created Earl of Huntingdon and D
uke of Exeter]; Maud., m. 1st Hugh, 3rd son of Hugh, Earl o
f Devon, and 2ndly, Waleran, Earl of St. Paul. Thomas Holla
nd, Earl of Kent, was s. by his eldest son, Thomas. [Sir Be
rnard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerag
es, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 279, Holland, B
arons Holland, Earls of Kent]