Joan of Kent: The First Princess of Wales

by Penny Lawne

  Joan’s decision to withdraw from court into retirement was entirely voluntary. There is no indication that Richard had any wish for his mother to retire, or that he encouraged her to do so, nor is there anything to indicate anyone else suggested it. Joan was now a hugely popular and well-respected figure, and held in considerable affection by those around her. However, she was now fifty-three, and although there is no indication that she suffered ill health she was nevertheless of an age when it would have been natural for her to want to lead a quieter life. The death of her childhood companion, Princess Isabella, on 5 October 1382, and her sister-in-law’s burial in the church of Grey Friars in London, alongside Joan’s grandmother Queen Margaret, was a reminder for Joan of her own mortality. But it is unlikely that this was what motivated Joan to withdraw from court. Joan’s priority, always, was the interests of her own family. Her concern with Richard had primarily been to protect him, and with Richard having shown during the revolt that he was quite capable of looking after himself she now felt that he no longer needed her protection. She had never shown any inclination to dominate Richard or exercise overt control over him, and after the revolt Joan adopted an increasingly deferential attitude towards him, addressing him (she wrote in French) in correspondence as ‘your humble mother’ (‘fils le roi supplies u humble mere’).115 This was partly her individual style, as she had always had a tendency towards reverence (in 1377, for example, she had appealed humbly as ‘your daughter the princess’ to the Bishop of St Davids); nevertheless it also reflected a change in attitude, from being the protective mother to taking a more subservient and humble role, and recognising his regal authority.116 Richard’s marriage was the determining factor. Marriage, and his mother’s withdrawal from his side, marked Richard’s emergence into adulthood and his new independence. In practical terms, Joan may also have felt, recalling her own experiences, that it would be easier for Richard to develop his relationship with Anne, and for Anne to settle in and establish her influence, without her presence.

  The last mother of a reigning king to live in retirement had been Queen Isabella, fifty years earlier, forcibly retired by her son after Edward III had seized power in 1330 and made to live in relative seclusion in Castle Rising in Norfolk to ensure that she was kept away from the court and would be unable to have the influence and power she had once wielded. With Mortimer, Isabella had constrained, overruled and humiliated her son, usurping his authority in promoting the interests of her lover and herself, and the only way Edward III had been able to achieve his independence was by removing them from power. After Mortimer’s execution, Isabella was an embarrassment and clearly could not remain at court. Nevertheless, despite her disgrace, Isabella had lived in luxurious comfort, maintained a cultured literary circle, continued to entertain on a generous scale and had been escorted regularly to attend court as her son’s guest on occasions such as Christmas. Although their circumstances were quite different, the lifestyle Joan chose to adopt was not dissimilar to that enjoyed by Isabella. With her own circle of friends and family around her, Joan seems to have adopted a modest and retired lifestyle, albeit commensurate with her status, rarely attending court.

  Wallingford Castle became her main residence. Although the castle was part of Richard’s inheritance from his father, it formed part of Joan’s dower, and so would remain hers for her lifetime. Built by the Norman Robert d’Oyley of Lisieux in the eleventh century, the castle had harboured Empress Matilda when she fled from Oxford in 1141 and was later owned by Henry III’s younger brother Richard of Cornwall, so forming part of the Cornwall estates owned by Piers Gaveston, who held a magnificent tournament there in 1307, and after his death passed to Queen Isabella who used it as her headquarters when she returned to England in 1327. The castle was granted to the prince in 1335 when he became Duke of Cornwall. The castle estate included a meadow called Kingsmead, a fishery and two watermills. It had the advantage of being within easy reach of London, so that Joan could travel by barge to join Richard and the court should she wish to do so, but it was far enough away to give her some distancing from public life. There are unfortunately no records to indicate the identity of those who remained with her, but she would have had a sizeable household and this probably included her favourite knights and their wives. Among these were almost certainly her closest friend Eleanor Clifford, and Eleanor’s husband Lewis Clifford. It is also possible that her daughters were frequent visitors. Since Maud’s marriage to the Count of St Pol, it would have suited the count’s ambitions to make the most of his royal relations, and Maud may have divided her time between attendance on Richard at court and visiting her mother at Wallingford. Similarly, Joan was very close to her younger daughter, Joan, whose marriage had not proved entirely successful. The absence of Joan’s husband abroad for much of the time, fighting to re-establish himself in his homeland in Brittany, with the vacillations of the English Crown towards his cause and the duke’s own ambivalence towards his ally, had left his duchess dependent on her family in England, and there were no children of the marriage. By 1382 the duke was sufficiently settled in Brittany to require his wife’s presence, and however much Joan may have sympathised with the difficulties her daughter faced, she would have encouraged her daughter to rejoin her husband in Brittany. The young duchess would now have been about twenty-five, and had spent many months with her mother; with no idea when they might see each other again, tears were probably shed when they parted.

  Joan would have continued to attend court for major occasions and seasonal festivities, including the annual Garter celebrations in April at Windsor. Possibly she was at the tournament held at Windsor in August 1382 and witnessed William Montague’s tragic accident, when he killed his only son in a tilting match.117 This devastating tragedy left William without a male heir, and Joan would have felt deeply saddened for her old friend’s loss. But in the main she stayed in comfortable seclusion at Wallingford, taking a more energetic and personal interest in the running of her own estates than she had formerly. This was evidently something she relished, as she could have left matters in the hands of her council, or indeed have passed some of the responsibility on to her heir. Thomas Holand was now over thirty. Married and with a growing family, he had proved his loyalty to his half-brother and demonstrated his capability. Although he was now Earl of Kent, while his mother was alive he remained considerably under-endowed for a man of his rank, as he would not become entitled to his inheritance until Joan died. Joan was by no means the only wealthy dowager whose heir would have to wait for her death in order to inherit, but she could, had she wished, have passed more of her estates to Thomas during her lifetime. Considering her wealth, the sheer number and disparate geography of her estates, it is curious that she did not. There was even an obvious portion to pass on to Thomas. Joan’s aunt, Blanche Wake, had died in July 1381, and Joan had then inherited Blanche’s dower share of the Wake estates.118 Having been managed separately for so many years, these estates would have been a uniquely distinct part of Thomas’ inheritance for Joan to have handed over. However, despite the good relationship Joan appears to have enjoyed with Thomas, she does not seem to have considered doing so. Possibly Joan was still overly sensitive, and feared that if she did so this would enhance Thomas’ status and might attract criticism, so potentially being damaging to Richard’s interests. However, it is also possible that Joan found in retirement that she had more interest in managing her own affairs, and that she simply enjoyed doing so, showing she had inherited some of her mother’s acumen for estate management, as indicated in her spirited insistence in November 1383 of a commission of inquiry to uphold the rights of her Warborough tenants (part of her Wallingford estate) to have the use of common land belonging to the Bishop of Lincoln, and her complaint that fishermen in Plymouth had been catching her fish for eight years and selling them without paying her dues.119 Also, business affairs kept her in touch with friends, such as Michael de la Pole, who became her son’s chancellor, and to whom she granted a l
icence to assign Maison Dieu in Myton, the Carthusian hospital at Kingston on Hull and tenement and land in Cottingham and Willerby in 1383.120

  Joan would not have spent all her time on estate management. Many of her favourite knights who stayed close by her, including Lewis Clifford, John Clanvowe, Philip la Vache and Richard Stury, were enthusiastic book owners and notably cultured and erudite. Joan probably shared their tastes, and read and listened to their and other literary works at Wallingford.121 Richard’s own later highly developed aesthetic sense, love of literature, fashion, art and refinement is usually attributed to his tutors, but it is just as likely that he inherited some of his mother’s tastes. Brought up to speak and write French fluently as well as English, by 1384 Richard is known to have owned dozens of books of French romances, ballads, songs and compositions.122 All of this suggests that Joan herself shared these literary interests. Probably Joan entertained, having friends to stay, such as John of Gaunt, but unfortunately there is no evidence to confirm this. She may have numbered Geoffrey Chaucer among her house guests, as he was a good friend of several of her knights. Early in 1380 Chaucer was accused of rape, and was assisted in clearing his name by his friends. In May 1380 Cecily Champagne agreed to drop the action and the document recording this was witnessed by John Clanvowe and two other knights close to Joan, William Beauchamp and William Neville.123 Chaucer’s reputation survived this incident. Lewis Clifford may have been godfather to Chaucer’s son Lewis, and later Chaucer addressed a poem to Clifford’s son-in-law, Philip la Vache.124 In view of his friendship with so many of her intimate circle it seems probable that the poet was invited to Wallingford. However, although Joan may have provided Chaucer with inspiration for his works, there is no evidence to indicate that she became his patron.125

  Although Joan maintained a close and affectionate relationship with her brother-in-law, her faith in Gaunt’s judgement had been shaken by his behaviour after his return from Scotland in the summer of 1381. More significantly, it is evident that this also irretrievably damaged his relationship with Richard. While Joan never doubted her brother-in-law’s loyalty it became quickly apparent that Richard never really trusted his uncle again, and his suspicions of Gaunt’s intentions were easily aroused. After the quarrel with Percy had been patched up at the beginning of 1382 there was little sign of open affection between uncle and nephew, and Richard was clearly wary of his uncle. At the Salisbury parliament held from 29 April to 27 May 1384, a Carmelite friar, John Latimer, gained an audience with the king and produced a document in which he detailed plots devised by John of Gaunt to seize the throne. The chroniclers’ accounts of Richard’s reaction vary, alternating between an extreme one of ordering his uncle’s arrest, or even his death, restrained only by the lords who were present insisting on Gaunt’s right to a trial, and Walsingham’s account that Richard conferred with two clerks of his chapel and summoned the duke to discuss the document. Gaunt, strongly supported by Thomas of Woodstock, naturally denied the contents of the document and was vehement in protestations of his innocence. Richard accepted his uncle’s assurances, no doubt mindful of his mother’s frequent injunctions in Gaunt’s support. At the duke’s request, the friar was taken into custody and placed in John Holand’s charge. According to Walsingham, that night Latimer was tortured to death.126 Neither Richard nor Gaunt chose to censure either John Holand or his accomplice, Sir Henry Green. Hearing of this unsavoury incident can only have given Joan pain. Neither her brother-in-law, nor either of her sons, Richard and John, emerge from this incident with any credit. To add to her woes, in November 1384 her younger daughter, Joan, Duchess of Brittany, died. The cause of death is not known but it appears to have been sudden and unexpected. Joan had not seen her daughter since she had returned to Brittany two years earlier to join her husband, but they had an unusually close relationship as the duchess had been a part of her household for so many years. The young Joan’s death was a tragedy, and a loss Joan must have felt keenly. Joan could at least be cheered by the progress her oldest son was making with his career, as on 20 November 1384 Thomas Holand was granted the custody of the castle and town of Cherbourg, just as his father had been many years earlier.127

  In February 1385, matters between Richard and his uncle Gaunt came to a head once more, and this time Joan resolved to intervene. Despite Joan’s own fondness for her brother-in-law she was aware that her son could not bring himself to fully trust his powerful uncle, while Gaunt appeared to be incapable of showing the affection and concern towards his nephew which might have helped to restore that trust. It was perhaps fortunate that following the Latimer accusation an opportunity arose which required Gaunt’s absence from court while putting his diplomatic skills to good use. At the end of May 1384 John of Gaunt and Thomas of Woodstock were appointed to conduct peace negotiations with the French Crown, and after three months of talks a truce was concluded in September, with Gaunt returning to London the following month, in October, in time to attend the parliament that was called in November and concluded in December. It is not clear what happened between Richard and Gaunt throughout this period but there appears to have been a major disagreement of some kind. In February 1385 rumours of a plot to kill Gaunt, with Richard’s backing, alarmed the duke to such an extent that he retreated to Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire to gather support, and he then returned to London with a large armed following to confront Richard at Sheen. The chroniclers’ record that, crossing the river, Gaunt spoke harshly and bitterly to Richard, and that the young king promised his uncle he would reform his ways. Gaunt then re-crossed the river and withdrew to his castle at Hertford.128 This was extraordinary behaviour, and however justified Gaunt’s outrage may have been, his show of power and aggression, forcing his nephew to apologise, and then failing to heal the breach by staying with him, can only have fuelled Richard’s suspicions of his uncle. This angry, proud and powerful John of Gaunt showed none of the tact or conciliatory attitude which Joan had urged her brother-in-law to adopt in previous years.

  Hearing about the row, Joan was shocked by the rift and reacted immediately. Leaving Wallingford she hastened first to Richard, reminding him of the need to keep on good terms with his uncles, especially Gaunt. The chroniclers’ accounts vary slightly, one suggesting that she also criticised Richard for listening to flatterers, another that she pleaded with her son on her knees, and urged him to avoid quarrelling with his uncles and his nobles.129 Then she travelled on to confront Gaunt (presumably still at Hertford) and persuaded him to come to London to meet Richard at Westminster, where, according to Walsingham, she pleaded with them humbly until she achieved her desire to restore peace and concord between them.130 According to one source, Gaunt’s anger was directed at several other nobles, including the Earl of Salisbury, the Earl of Oxford and the Earl of Nottingham, although no reason is given for this.131 Joan’s intervention achieved the desired effect and peace was restored between the king and his uncle. But despite her success Joan must have wondered how long the restored harmony would last, reflecting sadly that her brother-in-law and her son appeared to be unable to maintain a friendly relationship.

  Walsingham, in recording Joan’s conciliatory success, noted that she was ‘not strong and used to luxury, and hardly able to move because she was so fat’.132 He is the only chronicler to note that her health had deteriorated, and the description given suggests that she may have developed dropsy, which would cause swelling and weight gain. She was now fifty-eight, and may well have felt drained by her intercessory effort. However, Joan had recognised the urgency and significance of the situation, and had shown no hesitation in becoming involved. Perhaps only she could have intervened so successfully between her son and his uncle; certainly she had lost none of her old mediation skills. Returning to Wallingford it was perhaps a relief for Joan to throw herself back into her own affairs, and she showed both the energy and the desire to do so. In May 1385 she formally requested of Richard ‘that it may please her son, of his especial grace, to grant to
his mother that she may make Justices by her own commission to hold their Sessions from time to time at their leisure, and for the greater profit of the Princess; and that she may do all manner of things that belong to the office of justice in those parts within the precinct of all her dower, … and issue all manner writs and commissions by her deputies under the seal of the princess in the same parts as entirely and fully as her son does’.133 This was unusually forceful and vigorous for Joan and indicates a strong determination to be proactively involved in managing her own affairs. Possibly she realised that this would be her last opportunity to do so.