Princess of Wales

The Prince and Princess of Wales are extremely important members of the British Royal family because they are expected to rise to the throne.  The current Prince of Wales is, of course, Queen Elizabeth II's eldest son, Charles.  His wife Camilla is technically the Princess of Wales, having taken her husband's titles when they married, but the title is so firmly tied to the late Diana Spencer that she doesn't use it and is instead known as the Duchess of Cornwall.  Here's a quick history of the title:  It wasn't used by England's heirs until after the land was defeated and annexed into England in 1282--the first Prince of Wales, the future Edward II, had the title conferrred upon him in 1301.  The title is NOT hereditary--when the Prince of Wales dies or ascends to the throne, the title reverts to the crown and must then be conferred, at the monarch's will, to the next heir apparent.  This does not always happen.  For instance, Queen Elizabeth's uncle, Edward VIII, later Duke of Windsor became the heir apparent on May 6th, 1910, was created the Prince of Wales on June 23, 1911, and became king on January 20th, 1936.  Neither his brother, later George VI, nor his niece, Elizabeth II were every created the Prince or Princess of Wales.  There's an odd bit of history here that I won't get into.  It comes down to males being preferred to females in the line of succession.  No woman has held the title Princess of Wales in her own right.  As it currently stands, the only way I see of having a woman hold the title in her own right would be if William and Kate's son George were to have a daughter as a firstborn child and confer the title upon her.  The title was not filled until Prince Charles was granted the title in 1958, when he was ten years old.  Also interesting is that not every Prince of Wales has had a wife while he held the title.  Going back to Edward II, the first Prince of Wales--He held the title from 1301 to 1307, but did not marry until 1308.  His Queen, Isabella of France, was, therefore, never the Princess of Wales.  Their eldest son, Edward III, was never created the Prince of Wales

The first Princess of Wales in post-Welsh-conquest England was, then, the wife of the son of Edward III and Phillipa of Hainault, Edward of Woodstock.  Edward became known after his death as the Black Prince, likely because his armor was painted black.  He was a warrior prince, created the Prince of Wales on May 12, 1343, age 13, but unfortunately died on June 8th, 1375, barely a year before his father's death.  His wife was a cousin, once removed, Joan of Kent.  Penny Lawne's book Joan of Kent: The First Princess of Wales is, as she reports and my research shows, the first full biography of Joan, who is an incredibly intersting woman.  I always find biographies of people, espcially women, to be especially interesting.  In Joan's case, Penny Lawne has piecd together her life from what we do know--For instance, Wikipedia will tell you that Joan was born on September 29, 1328.  Lawne makes no assertion of her birthdate, but does say that she could be no more than eighteen months older than her brother, John, whose birth is recorded as April 7, 1330, just weeks after their father was executed for treason.  Seven witnesses support that date.  That does not mean that the date of September 29th is wrong, as the math works out to about eighteen months, but it shows one of the gaps in what historical records exist.

Much of Joan's early life is guessed at from what is known.  She lived in Queen Philippa of Hainault's household as a companion to her daughters, although the eldest, Isabella, wasn't born until June 1332.  That Joan would live in the Queen's household is not strange because she was a cousin of Edward III-once removed.  Indeed, Joan's mother was busy securing her children's inheiritance during most of Joan's childhood, so the stability of Court, migrant as it was, was probably good for the girl.  Her story gets very interesting in March, 1840, when Joan is around twelve.  She shows herself to be a headstrong girl and marries Thomas Holand without anyone's knowledge or approval.  The marriage becomes bigamous in 1341 when she is forced to marry William Montague, soon to be the second Earl of Salisbury.  Joan probably told her mother, who told Salisbury, and someone surely informed the monarchs, but they decided to let the bigamous marriage happen and deal with the problem later.  Holand was, after all, fighting overseas.  Due to their age--Joan at 12 and William at 13, they did not live together although they had a hosue in their name.  Montague lived with Prince Edward at the tower and was training to be a knight.  Joan stayed with the princesses.  That matter was not settled until 1349, when the pope decided in favor of Holand.  Joan, at this time, had been living with Montague for a few years.

Joan spent eleven years as Holand's wife, and bore him five children, only one of whom died young.  Holand died in 1360.  At this time, Prince Edward, who had seemily been in love with Joan for years, fought and had his father capitulate to allow him to marry Joan.  They had two children, boys, and ruled Aquitaine as Prince and Princess.  Their marriage was short, however.  The elder of their two sons died in 1370, and they moved from France to England.  In 1372, Edward tried to regain  his father's foothold in France (We are in the middle of the beginnig of the Hundred Years' War), but it shattered his weak health.  He died in 1376.

A year later, Joan becomes even more fascinating.  She's kept the strength and feistiness she showed as a child, but now, Edward III has died, and her son, Richard, is now a child king, Richard II.  Joan was Regent.  She had a great deal of authority that she wielded from the shadows.  Eventually, August 7, 1385, she died.

The most fascinating thing, to me, is how little we know, and yet how much we can piece together of Joan's life.  This is mostly done through notations about her in the lives of men.  And yet, we can piece together the story of an amazing, politically astute, firey woman who definitely forged her own path.