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Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent (d. 1360) was an English nobleman and m i l i t a ry commander during the Hundred Years War. He was from a gentry f a m i l y i n Holland, Lancashire.
In his early military career, he fought in Flanders. He was engaged, in 1 3 4 0 , i n t he English expedition into Flanders and sent, two years later, w i t h S i r J ohn D'Artevelle to Bayonne, to defend the Gascon frontier agai n s t t h e F rench. In 1343, he was again on service in France; and, in the f o l l o w ing year, had the honour of being chosen one of the founders of th e M o s t N o ble Order of the Garter. In 1346, he attended King Edward III i n t o N o r mandy in the immediate retinue of the Earl of Warwick; and, at t h e t a k i ng of Caen, the Count of Euand Guaines, Constable of France, and t h e C o u n t De Tancarville surrendered themselves to him as prisoners. At t h e B a t t le of Crâ ecy, he was one of the principal commanders in the van u n d e r t h e Prince o f Wales and he, afterwards, served at the Siege of Ca l a i s i n 1 346-7.
Around the same time or before his first expedition, he married the 12- y e a r - old princess Joan Plantagenet, Joan of Kent, daughter of Edmund of W o o d s t ock, 1st Earl of Kent and Margaret Wake, granddaughter of Edward I a n d M a r g uerite of France, and sole heir of John, Earl of Kent. However, d u r i n g h is absence on foreign service, Joan, under pressure from her fam i l y , c o n tracted another marriage with William Montacute, 2nd Earl of S a l is b u ry. This second marriage was annulled in 1349, when Joan's previ o u s m a r riage with Holland was proved to the satisfaction of the papal c o m m i s sioners. Between 1353 and 1356 he was summoned to Parliament as Ba r o n d e H o lland. In 1354 Holland was the king's lieutenant in Brittany d u r i n g t he minority of the Duke of Brittany, and in 1359 co-captain-gene r a l f o r a ll the English continental possessions. His brother-in-law Joh n , E a r l o f Kent, died in 1360, and Holland became Earl of Kent in right o f h i s w i f e. He was succeeded as baron by his son Thomas, the earldom st il l b e i n g held by his wife (though the son later became Earl in his own r i g h t ) . Another son, John became Earl of Huntingdon and Duke of Exeter.
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1314 - 1360 (46 years)
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