[YouTube Drop] The Black Prince & the Fair Maid of Kent

Renaissance English History Podcast: A Show About the Tudors

Heather Teysko

History

4.6 • 624 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Edward the Black Prince was Europe’s most celebrated warrior. Joan of Kent was already notorious for one secret marriage and an accidental second one that sparked a papal court battle. When the two married in secret in 1361, it created a royal crisis that threatened the legitimacy of England’s future heir. In this minicast, we follow Joan from her turbulent childhood and bigamy scandal to her marriage with the Black Prince, their years in Aquitaine, the deaths of their children, Edward’s decline, and her final role guiding young Richard II. A story of ambition, impulse, and a marriage that reshaped the Plantagenet line. Sign up for Yuletide with the Tudors here! https://www.englandcast.com/yuletide-with-the-tudors/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you were looking at England in the early 1360s, you would have seen a royal family that seemed almost impossibly secure.
0:09.4	At its center was Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince, who had built a reputation as the most formidable military commander of his generation.
0:20.0	Cresset, Poitier, a string of victories across France and Aquitaine.
0:25.5	His legend was already fixed, and the expectation was that he would cement England's future with a politically advantageous marriage.
0:35.5	Everyone assumed he would take a princess from Europe's top tier.
0:40.2	That was how the game was played.
0:42.3	Nobody, but nobody expected him to choose Joan of Kent.
0:46.9	Settle in, my friend, grab a beverage,
0:48.6	and let's discuss the marriage of Joan of Kent and Edward the Black Prince.
0:53.0	Music marriage of Joan of Kent and Edward the Black Prince.
1:04.0	Hey friend, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History podcast. I am your host, Heather, and I have been podcasting on Tudor England since 2009
1:09.9	with my show, which makes it the original
1:12.5	Tudor History podcast. I am, as always, just delighted that you are here with me today to talk
1:19.1	about scandal and romance, Joan and Edward. Let's dig in and start off by talking about
1:26.2	who Joan herself actually was.
1:30.0	Joan of Kent was admired for her beauty, her charm, her effortless ability to win affection.
1:36.8	But she was also known for the sort of marital complications that had fueled gossip for years. She had one secret marriage upheld by a papal court,
1:48.9	another marriage annulled out from under her, and an extended run of notoriety that followed her
1:54.8	everywhere she went. So how did England's most eligible prince risk scandal, excommunication, and political fallout by choosing her?
2:05.3	Well, their story pulls together ambition, personal desire, tangled family loyalties, and a series of decisions that eventually would shape the reign of Richard II.
2:21.2	So Joan was born around 1326 or 27 at Woodstock Palace, a royal granddaughter of Edward I through his son, Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent.
2:27.4	Her pedigree placed her close to the center of the Plantagenet world, but her childhood was
	...

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