Joan of Kent: The Woman Who Dared to Marry a Prince

Tudors Dynasty

RedTop Media / Rebecca Larson

History

4.4 • 794 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we dive into the dramatic and controversial life of Joan of Kent—daughter of scandal, wife of two men at once, and mother to a future king. Known for her beauty and boldness, Joan defied convention and royal expectation with a secret marriage that nearly brought down the crown. From forbidden love to political power, discover the woman who became England’s "Fair Maid" and changed royal history forever.

Would you prefer a commercial-free experience? Head over to my Patreon!

Narrated by: Rebecca Larson

Researched by: Emily Airey

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time. From startups to scaleups, online, in person and on the go shopify is made for entrepreneurs
0:23.3	like you sign up for your one dollar a month trial at shopify dot com slash setup the tudors dynasty
0:31.3	podcast hello and welcome back to the show i'm your host rebecca l. And today we're stepping back into the shadowed halls of 14th century England
0:42.6	to meet a woman whose life defied expectations and rewrote the rules of royal romance and political power.
0:51.3	Her name, Joan of Kent.
1:00.2	Joan was born on the 29th of September 1328, the granddaughter of Edward I and future mother of King Richard II. But Joan's life was anything but a fairy tale. Her father was
1:08.2	executed for treason when she was just two years old.
1:12.3	Imagine that, your family name dragged through scandal before you even knew what it meant.
1:19.3	Joan was raised in the royal household of Queen Philippa of Hnalt, who reportedly doted on the young Joan.
1:26.7	But even that royal closeness couldn't shield her from what would come next.
1:32.3	At the age of 12, Joan married Sir Thomas Holland, a knight in the service of the crown.
1:38.3	But shortly after their union, Holland left for a military campaign, and Joan? She was forcibly married to another man William
1:48.0	Montague the Earl of Salisbury let's pause there two husbands one very real one likely
1:58.6	imposed no divorce no annulment, just chaos. Here's later,
2:06.4	Holland returned and appealed to the Pope to recognize his original marriage. By 1349,
2:12.7	the Pope ruled in his favor, and Joan returned to him. They had five children together, two of whom Thomas
2:20.3	and John Holland would become half-brothers to King Richard II. When Holland died in 1360,
2:28.4	Joan appeared to mourn deeply. She was the grieving widow for about five minutes.
2:35.1	Because by the next spring, she was secretly betrothed to Prince Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince himself.
2:42.7	Yes, that Black Prince, military hero.
2:46.6	The heir to the throne of England.
2:48.7	This was a union no one saw coming.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from RedTop Media / Rebecca Larson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of RedTop Media / Rebecca Larson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.