Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent
| Thomas Holland or de Holand or Holand | |
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| Earl of Kent | |
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| Spouse(s) | Joan of Kent |
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Issue
Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter Joan, Duchess of Brittany Maud, Countess of Ligny |
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Titles and styles
The Earl of Kent
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| Father | Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand |
| Mother | Maud la Zouche |
| Born | c. 1314 |
| Died | 26 December 1360 (aged around 46) |
Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, 2nd Baron Holand, KG (c. 1314 – 26 December 1360) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War.
He was from a gentry family in Upholland, Lancashire. He was a son of Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand and Maud la Zouche. One of his brothers was Otho Holand, who was also made a Knight of the Garter.
In his early military career, he fought in Flanders. He was engaged, in 1340, in the English expedition into Flanders and sent, two years later, with Sir John D'Artevelle to Bayonne, to defend the Gascon frontier against the French. In 1343, he was again on service in France. In 1346, he attended King Edward III into Normandy in the immediate retinue of the Earl of Warwick; and, at the taking of Caen, the Count of Eu and Guînes, Constable of France, and the Count De Tancarville surrendered themselves to him as prisoners. At the Battle of Crécy, he was one of the principal commanders in the vanguard under the Prince of Wales and he, afterwards, served at the Siege of Calais in 1346-7. In 1348 he was invested as one of the founders and 13th Knight of the new Order of the Garter.
Around the same time as, or before, his first expedition, he secretly married the 12-year-old Joan of Kent, daughter of and Margaret Wake, granddaughter of Edward I and Margaret of France. However, during his absence on foreign service, Joan, under pressure from her family, contracted another marriage with William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury (of whose household Holland had been seneschal). This second marriage was annulled in 1349, when Joan's previous marriage with Holland was proved to the satisfaction of the papal commissioners. Joan was ordered by the Pope to return to her husband and live with him as his lawful wife; this she did, thus producing 4 children by him.
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