On the 19th March 1329, a great English noble, Edmund, Earl of Kent, was beheaded outside the walls of Winchester. He was the youngest son of one of England’s noblest kings, Edward I.; but he was a weak, vain man, and in the troublous days which followed Edward I.’s death he had been used first by one party and then by another, until he had made many enemies and kept few friends. The wicked Queen Isabella, who had allowed her foolish husband, Edward II., to be murdered, and ruled the country with her favourite, Mortimer, in the name of her young son, Edward III., hated the Earl of Kent. She vowed his ruin and had him convicted of treason. Men did not love Kent, but it was thought a terrible thing that the son of Edward I. should perish like a traitor. Though he was condemned to death, no one dared lift their hand against him, and from morning till evening the great Earl waited, till a condemned criminal consented to win his own pardon by cutting off the Earl’s head. Kent’s youngest child, the little Joan, was then only a year old, and two years afterwards Philippa, Queen of Edward III., moved with compassion for her desolate state, took her under her care to bring her up at her court. Many stories told of Queen Philippa show the kindness of her heart, and we cannot doubt that the little Joan was happy under her care. She grew up in the court of Edward III., which after his successful wars in France became one of the most magnificent in Europe. Life was a ceaseless round of festivities and gaieties. Rich booty was brought back from the French wars, and the English ladies copied the extravagant fashions of the French. We read of the feather beds with gorgeous hangings which were used, of the rich furs, of the velvet robes embroidered in silk and pearls, of the trailing dresses which lay in heaps upon the ground in front as well as behind. Joan grew up to be a very beautiful girl and to be very fond of fine clothes. She is said to have been full of charm and to have been clever and brilliant as well. The king’s eldest son, Edward, afterwards known as the Black Prince, was two years younger than she, and growing up together, they seem to have learnt to love one another.

It was natural that Joan, who is described as the most beautiful and the most lovable of all the maidens of England, should have had many suitors. Her heart was won by Sir Thomas Holland, but whilst he was away at the wars, the Earl of Salisbury tried to win her as his wife. When Holland came back he petitioned the Pope to affirm his right to Joan’s hand, and after both sides had been heard, judgment was given that Joan was the wife of Holland. She was then just twenty-one, and shortly afterwards, as both her brothers died, she became her father’s heiress and Countess of Kent. Her husband was given various appointments in France, and Joan went there with him several times. She always surrounded herself with luxury of every kind and spent a great deal of money on dress. Holland died in 1360 leaving her still beautiful and charming, with three children. She was at once sought in marriage by many suitors, but she would listen to none of them. An old writer tells us that one day the Black Prince visited her and tried to persuade her to accept one of these suitors, who was a friend of his. She constantly refused, and at last answered, weeping, that she had given herself to the most noble knight under heaven, and that for love of him she would have no other husband as long as she lived, but that she knew that he could never be hers.

Then the Prince implored her to tell him who this most noble knight was, and when she would not speak, he went down on his knees saying that if she would not tell him, he would be her mortal enemy. At last he wrung from her the confession that it was he himself whom she meant, and when he heard this, he was filled with love for her, and vowed that he would never have any other wife so long as he lived. Edward was then thirty years of age, and had refused many princely offers of marriage. Perhaps he had never forgotten the beautiful cousin who had grown up with him, and now when she was free he rejoiced to make her his. It is said that Edward III. was very displeased when he heard that his son had made a marriage contract with Joan, but that Queen Philippa, who had always loved her tenderly, took their part. However this may be, we know that they were married by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Windsor, in the presence of the King, only ten months after the death of Joan’s first husband. The marriage took place in October, and they went afterwards to the Prince’s castle at Berkhamsted, where they spent Christmas.

In those days a great part of France was under the rule of the King of England, and the knights and nobles of the fair Duchy of Aquitaine which had belonged to the kings of England since the day when it had come to Henry II. through his wife Eleanor, asked Edward III. to send his son to rule over them. The Black Prince was famous for his courage and for the great victories he had won in battle against the King of France. Edward III. thought it only right that his son should have a distinguished position, and he appointed him Prince of Aquitaine. Then the Black Prince and Joan made great preparations for their departure, for they were determined to have a magnificent court in Aquitaine and to take with them many English knights and nobles. The English Parliament found it difficult to provide the large sums of money needed for the luxurious lives of Edward III. and his sons. It was hoped that Aquitaine would be able to provide for the needs of the Black Prince and his wife. But they spent so much before their departure in entertaining the King and court for Christmas at their castle, and in supplying themselves with clothes and furniture and all things needed for their journey, that they left England deeply in debt.

Early in the year 1363, they landed at La Rochelle and were received by a great company of knights and gentlemen who welcomed them with much joy. Four days were spent at La Rochelle in feastings and merriment, and then they set out on their journey to Bordeaux. At every town through which they passed, they were received by all the nobles of the neighbourhood, who crowded to do homage to the Prince.

Aquitaine was a rich and flourishing country, covered with vineyards, and carried on a vigorous wine trade with England. The Prince set up his court at Bordeaux, and it soon became the most brilliant court in Europe. Both the Prince and Princess were alike in being very extravagant and in loving fine clothes and merry-making. Those were the days of chivalry, when the knights were brave and courteous to one another, and loved jousts and tournaments in which they fought together in the presence of noble ladies, and the winner received the prize for his valour from the hand of a fair lady. But in their pursuit of pleasure, the princes and nobles forgot their duties as wise rulers. As long as they could win fame for themselves, and get enough money for their wars and their luxuries, they cared very little for the well-being of the people. In the Black Prince’s court at Bordeaux, the pride and magnificence and neglect of the needs of the people which were the weakness of chivalry showed themselves most clearly.

The Black Prince was a noble host; he made every one around him happy. Eighty knights and four times as many squires feasted every day at his table. The princess never showed herself except surrounded by many ladies and fair maidens. The luxury of their dress, the strange new fashions in which their clothes were cut and their wonderful head-dresses embroidered with pearls shocked the people, who had been accustomed to simpler and severer manners. The princess seems never to have remembered that the money to pay for all these luxuries had to be wrung by taxation from the people. In other ways she ever showed herself warm-hearted and generous, and herself on one occasion pleaded with one of the nobles to diminish the ransom due to him from a prisoner taken in war.

The joyous life at Bordeaux was crowned by the birth of a son. Soon afterwards there began to be talk of war with Spain, and it was decided that the Black Prince should lead an expedition there. Great was the despair of the princess when she heard that he was to go. The old chronicler tells us that she lamented bitterly, saying, “Alas! what will happen to me if I shall lose the true flower of gentleness, the flower of magnanimity—him who in the world has no equal for courage? I have no heart, no blood, no veins, but every member fails me when I think of his departure.” But when the prince heard her lamentations, he comforted her and said, “Lady, cease your lament and be not dismayed, for God is able to do all things.” He took his leave of her very tenderly and said, lovingly, “Lady, we shall meet again in such case that we shall have joy both we and all our friends; for my heart tells me this.” Then they embraced with many tears, and all the dames and damsels of the court wept also, some weeping for their lovers, some for their husbands.

Shortly before the prince’s departure, Joan had given birth to a second son, Richard, called Richard of Bordeaux, from the place of his birth, who afterwards became King Richard II. The Black Prince was away in Spain for a year. He was victorious in the war and on his return he was magnificently welcomed at Bordeaux. A solemn procession of priests bearing crosses came out to meet him, followed by the princess with her elder son then three years old, surrounded by her ladies and her knights. They were full of joy at their meeting, and after tenderly embracing they walked hand in hand to their palace.

For the moment all seemed happy, but it soon appeared that the prince had come back tired and worn out. He had succeeded in Spain, but the cause for which he had fought was not a just one. The people of Aquitaine were discontented because of the heavy taxes they had to pay to keep up his luxurious court. It seemed to his enemies a good moment to attack him, and the King of France, anxious to win back some of the lands that he had lost, declared war against the English.

When the war began, the Black Prince was helpless with illness. He was so furious with the French that he had himself carried in a litter to attack them, and, for the first time, he showed himself cruel to the people he conquered. Everything seemed to go wrong. Their eldest son died, to the great grief of the prince and princess, and at last the prince was so ill that he had to give up the command of his army to his brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and return to England. It was a sad coming home, very different from their joyous setting out for France. In England, too, things were going badly; the king was old, and the people were discontented because of the extravagance of the court and the nobles. The Black Prince and his wife retired to their castle at Berkhamsted. He was afflicted with a grievous malady and suffered terribly, but he interested himself in the affairs of the country and supported the Parliament, which was trying to remedy some of the abuses of the government. In order to do this, he moved up to London to the royal palace at Westminster. It was there that he died after four years of illness and suffering. He commended his wife and his little son Richard to the care of his father and brothers, and begged his followers that as they had served him, so they would serve his little son. The princess was broken-hearted at her husband’s death and bewailed herself with bitter tears and lamentations. She was named guardian of her little son Richard, who was then ten years old; he was made Prince of Wales and declared heir to the throne, and only a year passed before, at his grandfather’s death, he became King of England.

Those were anxious days in England. The country was worn out with the expenses of long wars and of an extravagant court. The people had suffered from a terrible pestilence called the Black Death. Everywhere there was want and scarcity, which led to bitter discontent. The boy king was surrounded by his uncles, ambitious men, who each wished to be the chief power in the country. His mother, the Princess Joan, does not seem to have had any ambition to take part in public affairs; we do not hear of her mixing herself up in any of the intrigues that went on round the little king; only once or twice she seems to have come forward to make peace. She is said to have been interested in the teaching of John Wiclif, a learned clergyman. Disgusted with the corruption of many of the clergy, he was trying to teach a purer faith, and he had translated the Bible into English so that even the unlearned might read it. But we hear so little about Joan that it is clear that she must have lived very quietly during these troubled days.

The discontent of the people at last led the peasants to rise in revolt in many different parts of the country, and to march on London in order to get redress for their wrongs. Princess Joan had been on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, where the Black Prince lay buried, when, on her way back, she fell in on crossing Blackheath with a crowd of the rebels. The rough men surrounded her, but the charm and beauty which she still possessed won their respect and the protection of their leaders. It is said that, after asking her for some kisses, they allowed her to pass on her way unharmed. She went to join her son in the Tower. Richard, then a boy of fifteen, was not frightened by the rebels, who swarmed round the Tower and asked that the king should come out and hear their grievances. He rode out with one or two followers and went to meet the rebels at Mile End, where he promised all that they asked him. But whilst he was away, another band of rebels broke into the Tower. They forced their way into the princess’s room and treated her with rough familiarity and rudeness. They plunged daggers into her bed to see if anything was hidden there, and terrified her so much that she fainted. Then her ladies carried her away, and conveyed her in an open boat across the river to a house belonging to the king called the Wardrobe, and there Richard joined her. Meanwhile the rebels had seized and murdered the Archbishop, the chief minister of the king. In the end the rebels were put down after much bloodshed.

Richard II. seems to have had the charm and beauty of his mother, and as a boy at least, the courage of his father, but he did not grow up to be a wise king. He quarrelled with his powerful uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who was suspected of wishing to make himself king, and John, angry with his nephew, shut himself up in his castle at Pontefract. The Princess Joan was ill and had grown so stout that travelling was very difficult for her, but in spite of her sufferings she made several journeys to Pontefract to see John of Gaunt and at last succeeded in reconciling him with Richard. Richard treated her with great respect, and when he went away to make war in Scotland, he appointed five noble gentlemen to stay with her for her protection, wherever she chose to live. But she could not always persuade him to do as she wished. Her son by her first marriage, John Holland, had a quarrel with another gentleman and slew him treacherously. Richard to punish him seized his lands, and when Joan implored his pardon refused to listen to her. This so grieved her that she fell ill and died whilst Richard was still away in Scotland. In her will she asked to be buried near her first husband in the church at Stamford; and there on Richard’s return her funeral took place. The quarrels between her son and his uncles which she had tried to heal grew worse after her death, till they ended in the deposition of Richard, and the choice of John of Gaunt’s son, Henry, as king.

Joan was not in any way a great woman, but we feel that there must have been something uncommon about her beauty and her charm for the memory of it to have lasted as it did. It was some time after her death that the name of the Fair Maid of Kent was given her. She is an example of the great lady of those days, kindly, generous, loving brave men, trying to promote peace and kindliness, but extravagant and pleasure-seeking. No evil is told of her, and she seems to have loved both her husbands dearly and to have won their love in return.