Conville & Walsh

Joan of Kent was a woman who loved two heroes and lost them both, in a story of forced marriage, scandalous annulment, glamorous wifedom and tragic widowhood. 

Joan’s father was betrayed and executed by Queen Isabella, leaving 2 year old Joan in the hands of an indifferent mother.  At the age of 12, The Fair Maid of Kent secretly betrothed herself to a soldier, Thomas Holland.  But, her guardian married his famously beautiful ward to son and heir, William Montague.  When Thomas returned from battle in Prussia neither him nor William would give Joan up.  After Thomas petitioned with ransom money won in the French war, the Pope allowed him to marry Joan in 1349.

When tragedy struck and Thomas died, Joan secretly re-married to Edward, the Black Prince, and she became the Countess of Aquitaine. For a while, everything was perfect – they lived extravagantly and had two sons, Edward and Richard. But soon after an ill-advised campaign in Spain, Edward fell terminally ill and they were recalled to England, broke. 

Despite her private nightmares, Joan of Kent is remembered as a woman who loved with her whole being, and whose public life rang out through the courts.