by Penny Lawne
Although the administration of Aquitaine was largely delegated to the prince’s appointees, the prince was closely involved and spent much of his time attending to the business of government. In England the king and his son had anticipated that setting up the new system of government would be achieved by extending the model used in Gascony, where royally appointed officials worked in conjunction with a council made up of the leading Gascon families. There are few surviving sources which provide any detail of the prince’s administration in Aquitaine, but it seems clear that their original plan was implemented, and the court, council and Treasury continued to function from Bordeaux. The three principal royal Gascon offices of state were the seneschal, with overall responsibility, the constable of Bordeaux and the chancellor, and these offices were continued for Aquitaine, with Thomas Felton, John Chandos and John Harewell being appointed to these positions shortly after the treaty was signed.51 The Gascon administrative structure was similarly retained and formed the basis for the new government, with a body of permanent officers appointed with responsibility to report directly to the prince. In the first few years it is evident that the government was a success, probably because the prince’s centralised, vigorous and efficient council, balanced the interests of the local magnates against the prince’s authority, and the resulting peace and order benefited the local population and stimulated trade, encouraged by the prince. Prosperity slowly began to return to the region.
As the intention was for Aquitaine to be self-financing, the natural recourse to raise money was through internal taxation. This proved considerably more difficult than the prince and his advisers had envisaged. Taxation was never likely to be popular, but whereas in England it had become an accepted and well-established practice and operated on a national scale, in France taxation was traditionally managed at a local level and with varying degrees of acceptance and success. Yet the prince’s personal income, even supplemented by Joan’s, could hardly support the costs of his administration in Aquitaine, and other than an initial grant to get him started his father had determined that there were to be no subsidies from England.52 In Aquitaine the principal tax was the hearth tax, and the prince increased its rate shortly after his arrival. Inevitably this was not popular but initially the announcement was greeted with acceptance. However, when it became increasingly obvious that the tax would also be collected (due to the efficiency of the prince’s administration) there were grumblings of discontent with a reluctance to pay that in some areas became outright refusal. Two leading members of the Gascon nobility, the Lord of Armagnac and the Count of Foix, simply refused to pay, and never agreed to do so throughout the prince’s time in Aquitaine. Nevertheless, there was a sufficiently adequate response through direct taxation to ensure that more than a third of the prince’s costs were met from these means.53 Another obvious method for raising revenue was to control the issue of currency, or debase the value of the coinage. In 1364 the prince issued his own gold coinage, both sides of the coin having an image of the prince, with his arms, similar in design to coins which had earlier been produced by his father in Gascony. In 1365 a larger coin was produced, copying the style of the French coinage, and a few years later a smaller gold coin called a hardi. However, as each individual coin had a high intrinsic value, it appears that the new coinage was intended to advertise the prince’s power and wealth and so an exercise in propaganda rather than a means of making money. The prince and his advisers do not seem to have resorted to debasing the value of the coins in order to raise revenue.54
Unifying Aquitaine in terms of government and finance required the active cooperation of the disparate groups of local nobility who had no previous history of working together and whose interests did not necessarily coincide. It would hardly be surprising if there had been opposition to the imposition of an English regime, and deep resentment of the victors. The natural ingredient to weld the collected nobility of the principality together was the prince himself, with Joan at his side. Prince Edward was widely admired throughout Europe for his military feats and his chivalry, and the universal esteem in which he was held provided a considerable basis for unity. Similarly his closest companions in arms, like Sir John Chandos, were regarded with respect, and many of the local nobility had fought with or against them. Their shared military experiences formed a natural bond between them. Once the homage taking had been finalised, the prince based his court mainly at Bordeaux or Angoulême. In establishing his court, the prince deliberately set out to ensure this was a major source of patronage and thus a major instrument in his government. As the court was entirely based on the reputation and personality of the prince himself it was inevitably dominated by his own entourage, although the English influence was not necessarily resented. Joan, as his wife, was expected to preside over the court and complement her husband. She would set an example to the other ladies at their court, including those of the local nobility, and she would be an alternative source of patronage and a means of access to her husband.
The prince emulated his father in his style, and there are several contemporary references to the magnificence of the Aquitanian court. Froissart noted the splendidness of the court and its ostentation, while, according to the prince’s biographer,
ever he had at his table more than fourscore knights and full four times as many squires. There were held jousts and feasts in Angoulême and Bordeaux; there abode all nobleness, all joy and jollity, largesse, gentleness and honour, and all his subjects and all his men loved him right dearly, for he dealt liberally with them. Those who dwelt about him esteemed and loved him greatly, for largesse sustained him and nobleness governed him, and discretion, temperance and uprightness, reason, justice and moderation: one might rightly say that such a prince would not be found, were the whole world to be searched throughout its whole extent.55
Notwithstanding the hyperbole, this account gives an indication of the prince’s popularity. It was a demonstrably royal style, with the prince emphasising his status and position; according to the Anonimalle Chronicle the prince required nobles to be on their knees when addressing him.56 The combination of chivalry, display, luxury and entertainment made the court vibrant and attractive. The contemporary accounts indicate that the court successfully fulfilled its purpose, drawing in the local nobility, who were flattered by being recognised, while enhancing the dignity of the prince. However, it also gave the court a reputation for extravagance, and such a deliberately ostentatious display of wealth and power, with all its trappings, was inevitably expensive to maintain; it has been suggested that including the wages of his personal military retinue the cost was in the region of £10,000 a year.57
It is notable that the contemporary chroniclers, including Froissart, who spent some months at the Aquitanian court in 1366, barely mention Joan in their reflections on the prince’s time in the principality. As Princess of Aquitaine, Joan was the presiding female at the Aquitanian court, and as such might have been expected to make some individual impression, yet she is rarely cited. The chroniclers credit the prince’s flamboyance and style with setting the tone of the court, and not his wife. Had Joan established herself independently as an arbiter of fashion, or attracted a large literary entourage, or been extravagant in her patronage, there would surely have been reports. There is little doubt that Joan was faithful in following her husband’s lead yet circumspect in everything she did. While the prince’s energies were directed into the matter of government and creating a magnificent court, Joan was at his side but careful to complement and support him while never drawing attention to herself. In this, she emulated her mother-in-law, Queen Philippa. While Joan was discreet in exercising her influence, she nevertheless displayed competence as an intercessor, an expected and important part of her role. In one incident Joan responded to an appeal for help from the Count of Armagnac, after the prince had refused to use his influence. Armagnac owed a ransom sum to the Count of Foix which he could not afford to pay. When the prince declined, Armagnac turned to J
oan, who is said to have approached Foix, and persuaded him to reduce the ransom by 60,000 francs. The prince later lent Armagnac money and persuaded others to make up the rest of the debt to free Armagnac.58 Another recorded incident was in February 1366, when the Pope requested that Joan urge her husband to mediate between the kings of Castile and Aragon, and assist the Bishop of Chichester to foster peace between them.59
Settling to their new life after the homage taking progress ceased had an immediate effect on Joan, and in the summer of 1364 she conceived their first child. The prince must have been delighted, and he would have done everything he could to ensure his wife’s health and happiness during her pregnancy. Although Joan had already given birth to four healthy children she too would have taken extra care, and it is probable that while the prince continued to travel throughout his new domain (he is known to have been in Périgueux in July and La Réole in November) Joan remained in the castle at Angoulême, attended by her women and a suitably sized retinue. Early in March 1365 Joan gave birth to a son, whom they named Edward in honour of the prince’s father.60 There can be no doubt about the prince’s joy, as the occasion was marked with jubilant celebration, including a splendid tournament with forty knights attended by forty squires jousting in Joan’s honour, marking the occasion of her churching on 27 April.61 According to one contemporary account, 154 lords and 706 knights attended the festivities, which lasted for ten days, and the prince bore the cost of stabling 18,000 horses, and Joan is recorded as having a personal entourage of twenty-four knights and twenty-four ladies.62 Edward III’s influence on his son is notable, as the account bears a striking similarity to earlier churchings of Queen Philippa, and the king’s own fondness for lavish displays. The good news was taken to Edward III by one of the prince’s yeomen, Sir John Delves, who received a handsome annuity of £40 from the delighted king, while the mayor and aldermen of London received a letter from Joan herself at the end of March, advising them of the news.63 The baby prince’s baptism in the cathedral of St Peter in Angoulême by the Bishop of Limoges was a grand affair, attended by numerous lords, including Peter, King of Cyprus, who stayed for a month (and during his visit endeavoured to persuade the assembled knights to join him on crusade; he was only partially successful, as the only one to take up his offer was the Earl of Warwick).64
Aside from the birth of Prince Edward, 1365 was also notable for the marriage of the prince’s sister, Isabella, and that of Joan’s youngest daughter. Princess Isabella was close to both the prince and Joan, being the nearest in age to the prince of his siblings, while Joan had spent several years with the princess when she had lived at court as a child. Isabella was now thirty-three, and still unmarried, a favourite with her parents and a major presence at court. Her choice of husband was somewhat unexpected. She had not only fallen for a relatively humble knight some years her junior in age, but for a Frenchman whose presence in England was due to his being one of the hostages for the fulfilment of the Treaty of Brétigny. On 27 July Isabella married Enguerrand de Coucy at Windsor, with her parents in attendance.65 There is no indication that the king and queen disapproved of Isabella’s unconventional choice, and in fact they celebrated the event in style, with Edward III paying £100 for minstrels to play at the wedding, and Philippa spending £1,273 6s 8d on jewels for the occasion.66 Although the prince and Joan could not attend the wedding, their thoughts must have been with Isabella on such a momentous occasion. In November de Coucy returned to France, taking Isabella with him.67 In April 1366 she gave birth to a daughter, Mary, and the following month, on 11 May, Edward III created de Coucy Earl of Bedford, and he was also shown specific favour by being made a knight of the Garter.68 Isabella returned to England in 1367 and gave birth to her second daughter at Eltham, while in 1368 her husband resumed his military career in Italy.
Later in 1365 Joan’s youngest daughter, Joan, married John Montfort, Duke of Brittany. This was a rather different match, re-establishing the close family tie between the dukedom and the English Crown, with Joan Holand stepping into Princess Mary’s shoes as the new duchess. John Montfort had been living in the royal household and had travelled to Aquitaine with the prince in February 1363, as his claim to succeed his father as Duke of Brittany was still a matter of dispute with his rival claimant, Charles of Blois. After a truce between them signed at Poitiers in November 1363, in February 1364 Charles and John made submissions to the prince, in his capacity as Prince of Aquitaine, to resolve their dispute.69 It was an awkward political scenario for the prince, as his father had supported Montfort all along while John remained a guest in the prince’s household at the time. Perhaps wisely, the prince made no decision, but when John returned to Brittany to fight for his inheritance he was accompanied by Sir John Chandos. In September 1364 the matter was unequivocally resolved by the decisive military victory won at Auray by Montfort and Chandos, in which Charles of Blois was killed. John Montfort’s marriage to the prince’s stepdaughter a few months later cemented the already strong relationship between them. Although Montfort was now twenty-four, Joan Holand was no more than eight or nine years old and the couple would not be expected to live together as man and wife at this stage.70 The new Duchess of Brittany remained under her mother’s guidance for the time being. Joan had the satisfaction of her daughter making a prestigious marriage to a young man she knew well, while keeping her at her side. Maud and her husband Hugh were also part of her household by 1366, when the Pope granted her request for portable altars for Joan, Duchess of Brittany, and Sir Hugh and Lady Maud Courtenay.71
In the late spring of 1366 Joan conceived her second child by the prince. This was a naturally welcome and happy event and by now, after nearly three years in Aquitaine, everything seemed to be going well for them. The prince’s administration in Aquitaine appeared to be well established, with his vibrant and thriving court at its hub. Joan’s life in Aquitaine revolved around the prince and his concerns, and there must have been constant demands on her as his wife: entertaining the local nobility, managing their own entourage, as well as the more mundane administration of their household. Although Joan was a caring and fond mother, there is no evidence to suggest that she used her position to promote her children’s interests. The marriages of Thomas, Maud and Joan were all at the prince’s initiative, but none of them were granted land or income beyond that achieved by their marriages. The prince kept a watchful eye on his godson in England, and in October 1364 he appointed the fourteen-year-old Thomas escheator for the lordship of Denbigh, replacing one of his own men.72 Although the prince took his responsibilities towards his stepchildren seriously this is the only evidence of special favour being shown to Thomas.
Joan now had little time for her Holand children, and it is likely it was around this time that Maud and Joan returned to England, with the appointment of John Delves and his wife Isabel as guardians to the young Duchess of Brittany in November 1367.73 John Holand, now nearly fourteen, was close by, in his stepfather’s retinue. Although there is very little evidence of Joan’s activities at this time, she would have shared in some of the prince’s leisure pursuits, such as music (the prince’s fondness for music is evident from the expenditure on instruments and musicians noted in his household accounts74), but with her successive pregnancies it seems unlikely that she spent much time in more strenuous pastimes such as hunting.
Joan maintained a close personal interest in her English estates, even though these were being supervised by the prince’s council on her behalf. Her close emotional attachment to Castle Donington is apparent in the order issued December 1363, just months after her arrival in Aquitaine, for her steward John Fouchier to investigate a report that the warden of the hospital was failing in his obligation to provide dwellings for a chaplain and six poor people at his own cost, and to communicate his findings to the council in London as soon as possible.75 Similarly she intervened to assist Randolf Saleby, her former steward and attorney, who had worked faithfully for her for several years and whom she and Tho
mas Holand had rewarded with a lifetime interest in a shop and land at the nominal rent of a single rose, given every year. He retired from his position in March 1362, just a few months after Joan’s marriage to the prince. By 1365 an annual rental of 20s was being demanded from him and he was described as being 60s (i.e. three years) in arrears. Joan became aware of his plight, and in November 1365 the bailiff at Greetham manor in Lincolnshire was ordered by the prince’s council to suspend demands for the arrears until further order.76 John and Christina Morel were evidently regarded highly by Joan as she used her personal seal to arrange for them to receive an annuity of 10 marks in May 1364 and was at pains to ensure they received the money, with subsequent orders issued in July and November. Similarly she remembered with affection the services of William, son of Reynold of Wallingford with a 5 mark annuity.77 Nor did she forget her first husband, as in October 1364 she ensured that her reeve at Castle Donington was reimbursed for the 5 marks he paid the chaplain singing for Thomas’ soul in the castle chapel.78 Joan evidently ensured she was kept fully informed of estate affairs in England, and even the difficulties that her aunt, Lady Blanche Wake, was having in getting the drawbridge at Deeping manor repaired came to Joan’s attention, with her steward at Torpel manor being ordered by the prince’s council to supply Blanche with three suitable oaks for the purpose.79 A more unusual intervention was a pardon granted at Joan’s request in November 1366 for John Chamberlyn, presumably one of her retainers, who was accused of killing Richard Alcombury.80