General Notes

Earl of Kent, Governor of the Fort of Creyk

Earl of Kent, Governor of the Fort of Creyk

Sir Thomas de Holland, 2nd son of Robert de Holand, Lord Holland, having been engaged from the 14th to the 20th Edward III [1341-1347] in the wars of France and, in the last year commanded the van of Prince Edward's army at the famous battle of Cressy, was made a knight of the Garter and summoned to parliament as a baron.  At the siege of Caen, Sir Thomas had the good fortune to make prisoner of the Earl of Ewe [Eu], then constable of France, whom he delivered up to King Edward for the sum of 4000 florins, and he (Sir Thomas) subsequently assisted at the siege of Calais.  His lordship m.* Joane Plantagenet, celebrated for her beauty, under the name of "the Fair Maid of Kent," only dau. of Edmund Plantagenet, surnamed "of Woodstock," Earl of Kent, 2nd son 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 her father, and the Barony of Wake, a dignity of her mothers; from which latter peerage she styled herself "Lady of Wake."

In the 28th Edward III [1355], his lordship was made lieutenant and captain-general of the Dukedom of Brittany, and he was constituted, in two years afterwards, governor of the islands of Jersey and Guernsey.  He had summons to parliament as Lord Holland, from the 27th to the 31st Edward III [1354-1358], but in the 34th (anno 1360), he assumed the title of Earl of Kent, and was so summoned 20 November, in that year, in right of his wife, for it does not appear that he had any other sort of creation. In this year his lordship was appointed the king's lieutenant and captain-general in France and Normandy. He did not long, however, enjoy that high office for he d. 28 December, in the same year, leaving issue by the great heiress of Kent (who m. after his lordship's decease, Edward the Black Prince, and was mother of King Richard II), three sons and a dau., viz., Thomas, his successor; Edmund; John, created Earl of Huntingdon and Duke of Exeter]; Maud., m. 1st Hugh, 3rd son of Hugh, Earl of Devon, and 2ndly, Waleran, Earl of St. Paul.  Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, was s. by his eldest son, Thomas.  [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 279, Holland, Barons Holland, Earls of Kent]


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