Whither Goest Thou, Fair Maid?

Dear Folk,

Upon this day August 7, a lady renowned for her beauty - daughter of an Earl, wife to a Prince, mother of a King - passed away. Let us look at Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent.

Joan was born in 1328, the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, the youngest son of Edward I (Longshanks). That made Eddie II, remember the one who kept having French "advisors," her uncle, and Eddie III her cousin.

Daddy Edmund was wrongfully beheaded due to a plot by Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabelle (Eddie II's estranged wife) in 1330. Joan and her mother were imprisoned at Salisbury Castle for nine months. Joan spent her childhood under the care of William Montague first earl of Salisbury and Catherine Montague, along with two of her three future husbands, Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), and William Montague (not Catherine's husband.)

She was beautiful, charming and witty. People who met her all said so. "The Fair Maid of Kent" may have been a tag hung on her well after her death but I think she would have liked it. She was royal, headstrong, beautiful, could have darned near anything she wanted.

When she was 12 she got secretly married to Sir Thomas Holland. Tom, you rogue! Of course, the folks who were help raise her, the Montagues, found out they were very wroth with her. Darling Tom had gone off to fight in the wars in France so Catherine Montague told Joan that 1) the marriage of someone of 12 was not legal, and 2) Tom probably would forget about her over in the land of those Fifis. Meanwhile Catherine Montague caused Joan to marry her childhood buddy, William Montague in 1340. Upon returning, Thomas petitioned Pope Clement VI to annul the marriage, which he did in 1349 by a direct papal bull. Who says the Church is not on the side of young love? Joan had five children with Holland.

Three months after Holland died in 1360, Joan was 32, she married her other childhood sweety the Black Prince, another Edward. He was her second cousin. King Edward III was appalled at the marriage, but did nothing to break it up: the Black Prince was deeply in love with Joan, and she was his greatest confidante. Joan and the Black Prince had two sons, Edward and Richard, but Edward died as an infant of 5, and only Richard survived to inherit his father's legacy and became Richard II (in 1377).

Joan was a protector of John Wyclif who was an early reformer of the Church, especially in England. Wyclif opposed abuses of power and wealth in the Church, questioned the doctrine of transubstantiation (that the communion wafer and wine turned into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus), and caused the first translation of the Bible into English. He obviously was a rascal and it was fortunate for him that Joan liked rascals.

Edward the Black Prince (1330-76) was the eldest son of Edward III of England. He was created duke of Cornwall in 1337. He was the first duke ever to be created in England, and prince of Wales in 1343. Joining his father in the battles against those pesky French, he fought at Crécy and Calais and in 1356 won the battle of Poitiers and captured John II of France. It was apparently the French who first called him the Black Prince, perhaps because he wore black armor. Talk about a proto-neo-Goth dude! Daddy Edward III made his French holdings a principality, and the Black Prince maintained a brilliant court at Bordeaux after 1363. He aided Peter I of Castile and León, but the
taxes he was forced to levy in Aquitaine resulted in war with France. Bad health forced him to resign his principalities in 1372. He opposed his brother John of Gaunt, who had become the virtual ruler of England with the aging of Edward III. The Black Prince died before his father.

Joan died on August 7, 1385. It is said that she died of a broken heart because of strife between children of different marriages. Isn't that always the way with families and moms?

What have we learned? Beautiful, witty, rich and royal don't make the woman but they surely don't hurt? Sometimes the Church can side with love? If you don't make it to being king, maybe your kids can? If you are going to speak out against The Man, you ought to have powerful friends? How about: children always break their mother's heart? I know my mom would agree with me.

As always, if you want to send these out to other princes and popes, make sure to include my name and sig.

I recall some maids at fairs that were more than fair and fairly made. A big hello to all you Renfaire folk and especially you swashers.


Memory is the second thing to go,
J. Ellsworth Weaver

SCA - Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS - Polyphemus Theognis
TRV - Sebastian Yeats