Joan of Kent married in secret twice and became a king's mother
At about twelve, Joan of Kent quietly wed a 26-year-old knight without royal permission, then let her family marry her to an earl's heir while he was abroad. A papal ruling sorted it out years later. Her next secret wedding was to the heir to the English throne, and their son became Richard II.
Joan was born around 1328 at Woodstock Palace, a granddaughter of Edward I. Her father, Edmund, Earl of Kent, stayed loyal to Edward II and was executed in 1330 after that king's fall, leaving his widow and children under house arrest at Arundel Castle. Their fortunes recovered once her cousin Edward III came of age and took them under his care.
In 1340 she married Thomas Holland in secret. While he fought overseas, her family matched her with William Montagu, heir to the Earl of Salisbury; she later said she kept quiet for fear Holland would be executed for treason. When Holland came back around 1348 he confessed to the king and appealed to the Pope, while Salisbury kept Joan confined so she could not testify. In 1349 Pope Clement VI annulled the Montagu match. Joan and Holland had five children, and after her last sibling died in 1352 she inherited the Kent title.
Holland's death in 1360 left her free, and in spring 1361 she married Edward the Black Prince without telling the king or getting the Church's dispensations, despite their close kinship and his role as godfather to her son. Edward III helped secure four dispensations, and a public wedding followed at Windsor on 10 October 1361. The couple spent nine years in Bordeaux, where Richard was born on 6 January 1367, and Joan raised troops to defend Aquitaine while her husband fought in Spain.
The prince died in 1376, and Richard was crowned at ten the following year. Joan, admired as the Fair Maid of Kent, wielded influence behind the scenes; in 1381 rebels under Wat Tyler stopped her at Blackheath and then sent her on with kisses and an escort. She died in August 1385 after pleading for days for the life of her son John Holland, whom Richard pardoned.
Source: Joan of Kent
