The Bourchier and Bowker Pages

Discovering the ancestry of the South African Bowkers, and the English Bourchiers

Joan Plantagenet, 4th Countess of Kent

Female 1328 - 1385  (56 years)


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Generation: 1

  1. 1.  Joan Plantagenet, 4th Countess of Kent was born on 19 Sep 1328; died on 7 Aug 1385.

    Notes:

    Joan, LG, suo jure 4th Countess of Kent, 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell (19 September 1328 – 7 August 1385), known to history as The Fair Maid of Kent, was the first post-conquest Princess of Wales as wife to Edward, the Black Prince, son and heir of King Edward III. Although the French chronicler Jean Froissart called her "the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving", the appellation "Fair Maid of Kent" does not appear to be contemporary.[1] Joan assumed the title of 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell after the death of her brother, John, in 1352.

    see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Kent

    Family/Spouse: Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Family/Spouse: William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Joan married Edward Plantagenet, The Black Prince on 10 Oct 1361. Edward (son of Edward Plantagenet, King Edward III and Philippa, of Hainault) was born on 15 Jun 1330 in Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, England; died on 8 Jun 1376. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Children:
    1. 2. King Richard Plantagenet, King Richard II  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 6 Jan 1367 in Bordeaux, Duchy of Aquitaine, France; died on 14 Feb 1400 in Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire, Engand; was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England.


Generation: 2

  1. 2.  King Richard Plantagenet, King Richard IIKing Richard Plantagenet, King Richard II Descendancy chart to this point (1.Joan1) was born on 6 Jan 1367 in Bordeaux, Duchy of Aquitaine, France; died on 14 Feb 1400 in Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire, Engand; was buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England.

    Notes:

    Richard II (6 January 1367 – c. 14 February 1400), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed on 30 September 1399.

    Richard, a son of Edward, the Black Prince, was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III. Richard was the younger brother of Edward of Angoulême; upon the death of this elder brother, Richard—at four years of age—became second in line to the throne after his father. Upon the death of Richard's father prior to the death of Edward III, Richard, by primogeniture, became the first in line for the throne. With Edward III's death the following year, Richard succeeded to the throne at the age of ten.

    During Richard's first years as king, government was in the hands of a series of councils. Most of the aristocracy preferred this to a regency led by the king's uncle, John of Gaunt, yet Gaunt remained highly influential. The first major challenge of the reign was the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The young king played a major part in the successful suppression of this crisis. In the following years, however, the king's dependence on a small number of courtiers caused discontent among the influential, and in 1387 control of government was taken over by a group of aristocrats known as the Lords Appellant. By 1389 Richard had regained control, and for the next eight years governed in relative harmony with his former opponents.

    In 1397, Richard took his revenge on the appellants, many of whom were executed or exiled. The next two years have been described by historians as Richard's "tyranny". In 1399, after John of Gaunt died, the king disinherited Gaunt's son, Henry of Bolingbroke, who had previously been exiled. Henry invaded England in June 1399 with a small force that quickly grew in numbers. Claiming initially that his goal was only to reclaim his patrimony, it soon became clear that he intended to claim the throne for himself. Meeting little resistance, Bolingbroke deposed Richard and had himself crowned as King Henry IV. Richard died in captivity in February 1400; he is thought to have been starved to death, though questions remain regarding his final fate.

    Richard was said to have been tall, good-looking and intelligent. Though probably not insane, as earlier historians used to believe, he may have suffered from what modern psychologists would call a "personality disorder" towards the end of his reign. Less warlike than either his father or grandfather, he sought to bring an end to the Hundred Years' War that Edward III had started. He was a firm believer in the royal prerogative, something which led him to restrain the power of the aristocracy, and to rely on a private retinue for military protection instead; in contrast to the fraternal, martial court of his grandfather, he cultivated a refined atmosphere at his court, in which the king was an elevated figure, with art and culture at the centre.

    Richard's posthumous reputation has to a large extent been shaped by Shakespeare, whose play Richard II portrayed Richard's misrule and his deposition by Bolingbroke as responsible for the fifteenth century Wars of the Roses. Modern historians do not accept this interpretation, while not exonerating Richard from responsibility for his own deposition. Most authorities agree that, even though his policies were not unprecedented or entirely unrealistic, the way in which he carried them out was unacceptable to the political establishment, and this led to his downfall.

    see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_II_of_England