by Penny Lawne
The other intriguing aspect of the affair is what role, if any, the king and queen played in it. Joan had been living under their protection, and arguably the whole Holand marriage debacle was the result of their failure to provide her with sufficient chaperonage and protection. Margaret may well have felt strongly that Edward III had once again let her family down. It is difficult to believe that Edward III and Philippa were not made aware of the whole sorry story once it came out, if not by Margaret and Thomas Wake then by the Earl of Salisbury. Salisbury was the king’s closest friend, and at the time he was arranging his son’s marriage to Joan he was also acting for the king in a matter of considerable importance. When Edward III returned from France in November 1340 he had been furious with the council which he had left to handle affairs in his absence, blaming them for the lack of funds which had caused his allies to withdraw their support, and he had summarily dismissed the council members, including Thomas Wake. The head of the council, Archbishop Stratford, who enjoyed powerful support in the City of London, refused to be intimidated, and launched a sustained attack on the king. Edward III found himself without support and faced by a constitutional crisis which paralysed the government. As before, when in trouble, the king turned to his friends for help. He asked Salisbury to be his intermediary and negotiate with Stratford along with the Earl of Northampton.19 Their successful intervention in April 1341 restored the equilibrium and enabled domestic harmony to be restored. The relationship between the king and Salisbury was one of great trust as well as friendship, and it would be natural for the earl to discuss the problem over his son’s marriage with Edward III. As the king was overwhelmed by the distractions of the political crisis he was more than happy to leave his friend to sort out the problem. His agreement to Salisbury’s grant of land to William and Joan was a clear endorsement of his friend’s actions.
It is hard not to feel considerable sympathy for Joan, still no more than a child. She had first been flattered and cajoled by an attractive and strong man into agreeing to a secret marriage, then bullied and persuaded by her family to enter into a bigamous marriage. Thomas’ behaviour towards Joan can hardly be regarded as chivalrous, as he took advantage of her youth and her lack of protection to rush her ruthlessly into a clandestine marriage without the approval or knowledge of her family. Yet it is striking that when the Montague marriage was proposed and Joan’s secret marriage was revealed, she received no support or assistance from anyone. She might at least have expected sympathy from her mother, but Margaret forced her to enter into the marriage with William despite her objections, suggesting a lack of empathy between mother and daughter. Perhaps the separation in early childhood with Joan living in the royal household and Margaret attending to family affairs meant they had never enjoyed a close or particularly affectionate relationship. Certainly their separation while Joan was in Ghent had not helped. Joan might also have looked to the queen for support, as she had, after all, been under her protection, and it is indeed curious that Philippa, so notable for her willingness to intervene on behalf of others, did not become involved. The most obvious explanation is that, however sympathetic Philippa was towards Joan, the queen felt obliged to support the stance taken by her husband, albeit against her own wishes. It is difficult to see how Joan, on her own, could have withstood the pressure on her to marry William, and with no one apparently on her side it is remarkable that she still tried so hard to convince her family that she was not free to marry. The attitude taken by all concerned showed both a lack of concern for Joan as an individual, and ambivalence towards the institution of marriage. Joan was treated simply as a rich matrimonial prize, and her secret marriage to Thomas Holand perceived as a surmountable hurdle. Had he been killed in Prussia it is doubtful that their marriage would ever have become known. However, he survived.
It is not clear when Thomas returned from Prussia to England, but it was probably sometime between the summer of 1341, when the campaign ended, and the spring of 1342. Certainly by May 1342 he was back in the king’s service and, according to Froissart, guarding the border at Bayonne in France with John Darvel.20 On his return to England he was immediately faced with a situation he had not anticipated. Instead of being able to present his case to the king and obtain royal approval, he was confronted with Joan’s marriage to William Montague as a fait accompli. He may not even have been able to see Joan, as it is not known if she was staying with her mother or had remained with princesses Isabella and Joan in the royal household. Undaunted, Thomas presented himself to Margaret and asserted his claim to Joan. However unwelcome his declaration, it did not come as a surprise to Margaret and Thomas Wake as his return had been envisaged as a possibility. On the other hand, they had assumed that the Earl of Salisbury would be on hand to deal with Thomas, and unfortunately he was not. The earl had returned to France to complete the arrangements for the payment of his ransom, a process which dragged on for some months. One of the conditions was that he would promise not to bear arms against the French king, a not unusual requirement but one for which the earl needed the king’s permission and this was granted in May 1342.21 Salisbury’s absence, albeit unavoidable, was regrettable. Had the earl been present when Thomas made his declaration it is likely that an agreement could have been reached to satisfy all concerned (except perhaps Joan, but her views had not been considered important by anyone anyway), probably resulting in Thomas’ withdrawal in exchange for a cash payment and promise of advancement.
In the earl’s absence, Margaret, Thomas Wake and William Montague stalled for time, refusing to admit that Thomas had any right to Joan. It is clear that Joan continued to refuse to repudiate her marriage to Thomas. Had she been persuaded to do so, then Margaret and Thomas Wake would have been able to initiate the requisite proceedings for Joan to secure an annulment, and clear the way to validate the Montague marriage. But this was not an option while Joan remained steadfast in her support of Thomas. William was far too young to be able to make any decisions without his father’s guidance. Having agreed on a course of action with the earl, Margaret and Thomas Wake no doubt hoped that the matter could be shelved until the earl returned, and that he would then be able to persuade Thomas to drop his claim. Faced with their opposition, there was little that Thomas could do without irrefutable proof of his marriage, and this he did not have. He could have appealed directly to Edward III, and requested his involvement, but as it was apparent that the Montague match had been arranged with the king’s blessing the chances of finding the king sympathetic to his situation were slim. Thomas probably preferred the prospect of dealing with the earl, realising that this would be to his advantage. What none of them were prepared to do was to relinquish their respective claims to Joan, and so they were effectively in stalemate, waiting for the earl. But Thomas could not afford to wait indefinitely as he was under the command of the king. His military duties took priority and by May 1342 he had left England again. It is doubtful if Margaret would have given him the opportunity to see her daughter, depriving Joan of any comfort she may have derived from seeing Thomas again.
Joan’s continuing loyalty to Thomas is notable. William Montague was not a stranger to her; they had shared childhood experiences and probably many happy memories. Their marriage could have been a most successful and contented one, had Thomas Holand never noticed Joan. But he had, and Joan had fallen in love and married him, and now she was prepared to oppose her family’s wishes, and wait for him. In the meantime, as her family and the Montagues hoped to resolve her marital status with Thomas Holand, it was in no one’s interest for the problem to be made generally known. Very few people would have been aware of Thomas Holand’s claim. Joan’s marriage to William Montague was a very public affair, and to all intents and purposes Joan would have been treated afterwards as if she was William Montague’s wife. Although the grant to William and Joan of Mold manor in North Wales in February 1341 might suggest an intention for them to live together, this is unlikely. William was thirteen in 1341 and training fo
r knighthood in Prince Edward’s household. There was no reason for his marriage to change this, especially as their families did not anticipate the marriage being consummated until they were older, after the complication of the Holand marriage had been resolved. William’s and Joan’s ages made it perfectly natural and normal that they did not live together. Margaret could hardly have been happy with the situation, and relations between mother and daughter were probably strained. It seems likely that Joan remained with the royal household. There she would have the company of the princesses, now under the supervision of Isabella de la Mote. This would have the advantage for all concerned that it was suitable for Joan to remain under royal protection where she would continue to be educated.
The campaign on which Thomas had embarked this time was in Brittany. The Duke of Brittany, John Montfort, had succeeded his half-brother in April 1341 with Edward III’s support, but had been defeated and imprisoned by Philip VI in September 1341, in favour of his nephew, Charles of Blois. Brittany, with its maritime outlets, was strategically far too important for either king to want to see it in the hands of a duke favourable to the other. Two separate expeditions, the first commanded by Sir Walter Mauny, and the second and larger by the Earl of Northampton and Robert of Artois, were being sent in response to the plea made by John Montfort’s wife for aid. At the beginning of May 1342 Thomas and his brothers Otto and Alan were placed under the command of the Earl of Northampton, who assembled his troops at Southampton and Portsmouth. The late arrival of the ships and adverse winds delayed departure, and the army did not set sail for Brittany until August 1342.22 Northampton landed at Brest, which was being besieged by the French, and then advanced with the objective of securing a harbour further north. By September they were besieging the French-held harbour of Morlaix, and in early October Edward III reached Brittany. The main objective of the campaign became the recapture of Vannes. In November the main Anglo-Breton army settled down to besiege Vannes, while Northampton attacked Nantes in December. By this time Thomas had been promoted and had become one of the commanders.23 The Earl of Salisbury was also on the Brittany expedition (paid for service between 8 September 1342 and 7 February 1343), and in December commanded a raiding party in the north-east corner of Brittany.24 It is possible that Thomas encountered Salisbury while in Brittany, but neither would have wished to discuss domestic affairs in such an environment.
By January 1343, with no significant engagement between the English and French armies, a truce was concluded at Malestroit, and the army was disbanded. Thomas’ pay ended on 15 February, and he probably returned to England with the king in February or March 1343. Joan would have heard the news that the army was returning, and must have hoped that surely now her future would be resolved. Thomas and the Earl of Salisbury should have had the opportunity once back in England to sit down together and reach agreement over Joan. But curiously they did not. Instead, they both departed almost immediately on crusade – the second time for Thomas. In March 1343 a military expedition, headed by the Earl of Derby accompanied by the Earl of Salisbury, left for Granada on a crusade against the Moors.25 Thomas appointed attorneys in March and in May appointed John Holand and Henry Fitz Roger to act until the following Easter.26 It is not known if he saw Joan, or made any attempt to contact her. He left England shortly after Easter with Sir John Hardeshull’s small force of 200 men-at-arms and 300 archers.27 For Thomas, participation in the crusade in Granada undoubtedly furthered his career, enhancing his military reputation. Although it is possible that the earl and Thomas were not in England at the same time before leaving for Spain and so did not encounter one another, it is nevertheless extraordinary that both should have been willing to allow the crusade to take priority over sorting out the issue of Joan’s marital status.
Joan was forced to wait another six months until the autumn of 1343 when the campaign in Spain ended and the crusading knights returned to England. The earl did not immediately return to England as he was sent by the king to treat with Alfonso of Castile with Henry, Earl of Derby.28 However, once this had been accomplished and the ambassadors returned to England, Thomas and the earl would at last have both been in England and in a position to meet with one another and discuss Joan. It was now more than two years since Thomas had returned to find Joan married to William Montague and almost certainly the first time that all the interested parties had been together with no immediate military expeditions planned. Despite the delays and Thomas’ absence, it is evident that Joan had still not been persuaded by her family to withdraw her support for Thomas. This again ruled out the obvious route of getting a decision from the ecclesiastical courts. So, as Thomas had not withdrawn his claim, some accommodation would have to be reached, though the fact that he had not pressed it either indicates he was amenable to a settlement. With the king available to arbitrate if necessary, everyone involved had every incentive to resolve the matter once and for all. The earl’s seniority and wealth, coupled with his familiarity with Thomas and their shared experiences, probably ensured that their meeting was fairly amicable. Providing Thomas would accept a price which the earl and Joan’s family were prepared to pay a mutually satisfactory solution could confidently be expected. Margaret and Thomas Wake had been happy to leave matters in the earl’s hands, expecting the earl to inform them of the outcome. Joan’s views were not considered of importance and she would not have been consulted. As Joan’s position remained unaltered it seems probable that the earl offered sufficiently attractive terms for Thomas to agree to release his claim. Unfortunately for all concerned, at the beginning of 1344 the earl unexpectedly died after being wounded in a tournament held at Windsor, ending any chance of completing the agreement he had reached with Thomas.
The week-long tournament held at Windsor in January 1344 had been planned by Edward III for some months and was deliberately intended to be a colourful, lavish and entertaining spectacle. In January the king sent heralds to France, Brabant, Flanders, Burgundy, Hainault and Scotland offering safe conduct to the elite of Europe’s knights to attend. From 1330 Edward III had used tournaments to foster the idea of chivalry and to encourage a sense of camaraderie among the nobility which would draw them together in supporting him. His undoubted success in doing so was reflected in their increasingly favourable response to his call on them to support him in the successive campaigns in Scotland and France. The Windsor tournament was to be the culmination in a series of tournaments with the object of recruiting as many knights as possible to assist him, and the occasion at which, pursuing his Arthurian theme, Edward III announced his plan to found his own round table with a select group of knights. To this end the king embarked in February on a massive building project at Windsor with the construction of a circular building of around 200 feet in diameter, larger than the Pantheon in Rome.29 The intention was for this building to house a round table which would seat 300 knights and act as the headquarters and a meeting place.
Everyone assembled at Windsor for the tournament and it must have been a truly impressive and dazzling display of knights and their entourage, engaged in a succession of exciting and impressive challenges. Everyone who could be there was there. Among the onlookers were the queen and her mother-in-law Queen Isabella, the princesses, nine countesses, including Margaret, Countess of Kent, as well as Prince Edward and among his escorts Joan’s brother John and William Montague. Joan was well chaperoned with both her mother and William’s mother, Catherine, Countess of Salisbury, present. Thomas Holand was doubtless one of the many young knights entering the lists, and the Earl of Salisbury was also among those participating. The earl, as Marshal of England, and Henry, Earl of Derby, as Seneschal of England, played a prominent role in the proceedings. Unfortunately the Earl of Salisbury was wounded in one of the engagements and had to withdraw from the field. His wounds were severe, and he died shortly afterwards.30 This was a personal misfortune for the king as well as the earl’s family, as the earl had been Edward III’s closest friend and mentor since the coup of 13
30. Poignantly, the earl remembered his friend in his will, providing that all debts unpaid by the Crown at his death should be cancelled – as these amounted at the time to over £6,000, this was effectively a substantial gift.31 Although the earl’s death was not marked by a lavish funeral, it is tempting to wonder whether Edward III’s grief manifested itself in a different way. No one knows why the king never completed his round building, but it would not be surprising if the tragedy of his friend’s untimely death was a contributory factor.32 It was also another four years before the king set up his knightly order.