Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent

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Coat of arms of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent

Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent ( 1350 - April 25, 1397 ), KG , was an English nobleman and military commander of the Hundred Years' War .

origin

Thomas Holland was the eldest son of Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent , and Joan of Kent . He had a younger brother, John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter and two sisters. The second marriage of his mother, who married the heir to the throne Edward of Woodstock in 1361, proved to be decisive for his career . Thomas became the eldest half-brother of their son Richard , born in 1367, who became King of England in 1377 at the age of ten.

Military career

After the death of his father in 1360 Thomas became 2nd Baron Holand . But since his mother retained the earliest dignity of Kent until her death in 1385, he had little own possessions and income even after his father's death. However, his wife, the daughter of the wealthy Earl of Arundel, received a large dowry from her father, and his stepfather Edward of Woodstock, who was also his godfather, gave him three estates in Yorkshire . In 1366 he became captain of the English armed forces in Aquitaine . His stepfather beat him during the campaign of Castile in March 1367 in Vitoria for Ritter . In April 1367 he fought there in the Battle of Nájera . In 1376 he was accepted into the Order of the Garter. In the same and the following year he fought again in France and accompanied the Earl of Cambridge and Johann , Duke of Brittany and husband of his sister Joan with 2,000 men in arms and 3,000 archers to Brittany.

Favorite of Richard II.

When his half-brother Richard became king in 1377, Thomas had a great influence on the young king. In the first year of the reign the king granted him an additional income of £ 200 annually and made him Warden of the New Forest in 1377 . Also in the next year he was awarded further offices and pensions, so that he came to an annual income of 1000 pounds. In December 1380 he traveled to King Wenceslas as ambassador to arrange a wedding between Anne , the king's sister, and Richard II. In 1381 he was made Earl of Kent and his mother gave him Talworth Manor in Surrey as his residence in October 1382 .

When the Peasants' Revolt broke out in Kent in May 1381 , he was made captain of the royal troops and was with his half-brother in the Tower of London when the insurgents moved into London. In the further course of the uprising he played no active role and was not present when the king moved to meet the rebels at Mile End . In November 1384 he was in command of Cherbourg, which was occupied by England . After his mother's death in August 1385, he inherited their estates and was now a wealthy peer , but played no major role during the political upheavals from 1386 to 1389. In 1389 he became Constable of the Tower and in the same year a member of the Privy Council . However, he retired from the farm in the 1390s and lived on his country estates at Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst in Hampshire . He was made Constable of Corfe Castle in May 1391 and was made Constable of Carisbrooke Castle in July 1396 , but died shortly thereafter and was buried at Bourne Abbey in Lincolnshire .

Thomas Holland was more of a minor character among Richard II's favorites, but he was considered cruel and selfish. He was also accused that his main goal was self-enrichment.

Family and offspring

He married in 1364 or 1366 Alice (around 1350-1416), a daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel . He had a total of nine children with her, including:

  1. ∞ Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March
  2. ∞ Edward Charlton, 5th Baron Charlton
  • Joan
  1. ∞ Edmund, Duke of York
  2. ∞ William Willoughby, 5th Baron Willoughby de Eresby
  3. ∞ Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham
  4. ∞ Henry Bromflete, 1st Baron Vescy
  • Margaret Holland
  1. ∞ John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset
  2. ∞ Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence

His widow Alice remained constable of Corfe Castle until 1407 and then retired to Beaulieu Abbey , where she died on March 17, 1416.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 4.
  2. ^ Oxford DNB: Holland, Thomas. Archived from the original on October 24, 2013 ; Retrieved October 19, 2013 .
  3. ↑ DNB Holland, Thomas (1350-1397). Retrieved October 19, 2013 .
predecessor Office successor
Thomas Holland Earl of Kent
Baron Holand
1360-1397 		Thomas Holland
Joan of Kent Earl of Kent
Baron Wake
1385-1397 		Thomas Holland
personal data
SURNAME Holland, Thomas, 2nd Earl of Kent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kent, Thomas Holland 2nd Earl of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman and military commander of the Hundred Years War
DATE OF BIRTH 1350
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1397