Hello and welcome to the Queens of England podcast. Episode 21, Anne of Bohemia, a tiny scrap of humanity.

The woman who was expected to be Queen of England after the death of Edward III was Joan of Kent.

Joan was considered the most beautiful woman in all England and had married the black prince in contention circumstances in 1361.

He was in fact her second husband, after our first husband, a crusader called Thomas Holland, had died. With him, she had had two young daughters and two sons, Thomas Holland,

who had later be Earl of Kent, and John Holland, who would be Duke of Exeter. With the Black

Prince, she had two sons, that only one of them survived, and his name is Richard.

When the Black Prince died in 1376, Joan of Kent's attention fully transitioned to her son.

Edward III was clearly ailing and would not live much longer, but Richard was still a child.

Ensuring his accession would be tricky, as his uncle John of Gauntzic of Lancaster was hugely rich, powerful and most crucially, a man in his prime.

Now whether John actually had plans to make a play for the throne is unknown, but given the man's ambition, I think it highly unlikely that the thought had not at least crossed his mind.

This meant that when Edward finally died in 1377, Joan moved fast and already

had a deputation of London as petitioning Parliament to ensure that the 10-year-old Richard would

gain the throne rather than any other candidate. An inheritance crisis thus averted, Richard

was crowned as King Richard II on the 16th of July 1377, but his position was far from secure,

and the dangers of a gaunt led usurpation were far from over.

Joe needed secure allies for her son, and one easy way to do that was to arrange a marriage.

But who to choose?

The dilemma is well set out by Jean Foisin in his chronicle.

Now, I have translated this bit out of Middle English into modern English,

so this may be an inexact translation as I have sacrificed absolute accuracy for clarity.

Quote,

There was a great council in England for all the king's uncles and the bishops and barons of the realm

...