Saturday, August 23, 2014

1.c.1.f.a.1 Our great uncle Thomas de Holland married Joan of Kent and our cousins from their son John

3.  Thomas De Holland.  He married well, by choosing Joan of Kent, she was the granddaughter of King Edward I and his wife Marguerite Princess of France.  She secretly married Thomas!   






l Note*
 Thomas Holland was an English nobleman and military commander in the Hundred Years' War. He was from a gentry family in Holland, Lancashire, England.  Marriage*



He married Joan Plantagenet 4th Countess of Kent, daughter of Edmund Plantagenet of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent and Margaret Wake 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell, in 1340; he secretly married the 12 year old Joan of Kent, without first getting royal consent for couples of their rank. The following winter, 1340 or 1341, while Thomas Holland was in Europe, her family  forced her into a marriage with William Montacute. Several years later, Thomas returned from the Crusades, when his marriage to Joan became general knowledge. Thomas appealed to the Pope for the release of Joan from the home of her second husband. He also confessed the secret marriage to the king. In 1349 Pope Clement VI annulled Joan's marriage to William Montacute, and sent her back to Thomas Holland, with whom she lived for the next eleven years. They had four known children, before Thomas died in 1360. Death*Thomas de Holland 1st Earl of Kent died on 26 December 1360. 


King Richard II


Mind you, Joan also married King Edward the Black Prince son of King Edward III and  also William de Montacute the 2nd Earl of Salisbury!  Montacute became Montagu!

She was the mother of King Richard I from her marriage to  King Edward    





Sir William II Montague, alias de Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury, 4th Baron Montacute, King of Mann, KG (25 June 1328 – 3 June 1397) was an English nobleman and commander in the English army during King Edward III's French campaigns in the Hundred Years War.

Montacute was born in Donyatt in Somerset, the eldest son of William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Catherine Grandison, and succeeded his father as earl in 1344. Montacute was contracted to marry Joan of Kent, and did so without knowing that she had already secretly married Thomas Holland. After several years of living together, her contract with Montacute was annulled by the Pope in 1349.

In 1348 Montacute was one of the knights admitted at the foundation of the Order of the Garter.He was a commander of the English forces in France in many of the following years, serving as commander of the rear guard of Edward the Black Prince's army in 1355, and again at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, and further serving in 1357, 1359 and 1360. Later in 1360 he was one of the commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Brétigny.


During the quieter years that followed the treaty, Montacute served on the king's council. But in 1369 he returned the field, serving in John of Gaunt's expedition to northern France, and then in other raids and expeditions, and on some commissions that attempted to negotiate truces with the French.


 Montacute helped Richard II put down the rebellion of Wat Tyler. In 1385 he accompanied Richard on his Scottish expedition.


In 1392/3, Montacute sold the Lordship of the Isle of Man to William le Scrope of Bolton.



Thomas and Joan had three children




a  John De Holand                 1352  d 1400   he married He married Elizabeth of Lancaster

b  Thomas de Holand             1354  d  1397  he married Alice Fitz Allen Countess of Kent
    


Thomas was known as the Duke of Exeter.

c   Joan de Holand                 1356  d 1384   She married Edmund de Langley                                                       Duke of York


Exeter


In 1068, possibly because Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, mother of King Harold, was living in the city, Exeter rebelled against William the Conqueror who promptly marched west and laid siege. After 18 days William accepted the city's honourable surrender in which he swore an oath not to harm the city or increase its ancient tribute

However, William quickly arranged for the building of Rougemont Castle  to ensure the city's compliance in future. Properties owned by Saxon landlords were transferred into Norman hands, and on the death of Bishop Leofric in 1072, the Norman Osbern FitzOsbern was appointed his successor.

In 1136, early in the Anarchy, Rougemont Castle was held against King Stephen by Baldwin de Redvers. Redvers submitted only after a three-month siege, not when the three wells in the castle ran dry, but only once the large supplies of wine in the garrison that they were using for drinking, baking, cooking and for putting out the fires started by the besiegers, were exhausted. During the siege, King Stephen built an earthen fortification at the site now known (erroneously) as Danes Castle.


The city held a weekly market for the benefit of its citizens from at least 1213, and by 1281 Exeter was the only town in the south west to have three market days per week. There are also records of seven annual fairs, the earliest of which dates from 1130, and all of which continued until at least the early 16th century.



During the high medieval period, both the cathedral clergy and the citizens enjoyed access to sophisticated aqueduct systems which brought pure drinking water into the city from springs in the neighbouring parish of St Sidwell’s. For part of their length, these aqueducts were conveyed through a remarkable network of subterranean tunnels, or ‘underground passages’, which survive largely intact and which may still be visited today.


Exeter map from the 1500's


They are our 1st cousins 18 times removed!  (ie 18 generations ago)

a    John de Holland 1st Duke of Exeter who married Elizabeth of Lancaster.


She was the daughter of
John  Beauford of Gaunt Duke of Aquaitane and 1st Duke of Lancaster and the son of King Edward III and his wife Phillipa De Avensnes of Hainault.






Her mother was Blanche of Lancaster who was the g.g.granddaughter of King Henry III.
She was the sister of King Henry IV.


  Elizabeth also married John Hastings 3rd Earl of Pembrokeand John  of Cornwall   1st Baron of Fanhope                    

John was known as the Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon



Portrait of John Holland, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon from British Library MS Harley 1319, f. 25.

John Holland, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon (1352?-1400)

JOHN HOLLAND, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon (1352?-1400), born about 1352, was third son of Thomas Holland (d. 1360), first Earl of Kent, by Joan, daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent. His mother afterwards became the wife of Edward the Black Prince; Holland was consequently half-brother to Richard II.

Dugdale wrongly places his first military service in 1354-5, and supports his statement by a reference to a contemporary document which, however, contains no mention of him. In 1381 he was made a Knight of the Garter; on 6 May in the same year justice of Chester. On the rising of the commons in 1381 he was with the king [Richard II] in the Tower, but like his brother, Thomas Holland, he did not go out to Mile End. In the following December he was appointed one of those sent by the king to receive his bride (Anne of Luxemburg) at Calais, and escort her to England. In 1384 he is charged—on the authority of Walsingham, unsupported by any contemporary record—with a cold-blooded murder. A Carmelite friar had informed the king of an alleged plot on the part of the Duke of Lancaster to dethrone him. The duke soon convinced the king of his innocence, and advised the friar's detention in Holland's custody. The night before the date fixed for the inquiry into the matter, Holland and Sir Henry Green caused the friar to be butchered in prison.1


During 1385 Holland was undoubtedly guilty of a crime which illustrates the violence of his temper. In that year he accompanied Richard on his way to Scotland. While the army was near York an archer of Ralph, eldest son of Hugh, Earl Stafford, quarrelled with and slew one of Holland's esquires. According to Froissart on the evening after the occurrence, Ralph rode to visit Holland in order to appease him for the outrage; at the same time Holland was riding out to demand an explanation of Stafford. They passed each other in the dark, and Holland asked who went by; on receiving the answer 'Stafford,' he gave his own name, plunged his sword into Ralph's body, and rode off. Earl Stafford demanded vengeance, and on 14 Sept. 1385 the king ordered Holland's lands to be seized; he had taken sanctuary in the church of St. John of Beverley. Most of the chroniclers of the time state that his mother implored the king's pardon, and died from grief at its refusal. The exact date of the murder is unknown, but Joan died in August 1385, a month before the king issued the extant writ to seize Hollands lands. It is possible that the extant writ is not the earliest issued. In February 1386, it was arranged that Holland should find three chaplains to celebrate divine service for ever for the repose of Ralph Stafford's soul; two of these chaplains were to be stationed at the place where the youth had been slain, and the third at the place of his interment. The king afterwards directed that the three chaplains should be established at Langley, the place of Ralph's burial.


Holland soon obtained the restitution of his property, and married Elizabeth, second daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, sister of the future Henry IV, receiving at the time a considerable grant of lands from the king. In 1386 he went—accompanied by his wife—into Spain as constable to his father-in-law; before starting he gave evidence at Plymouth in the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy. Throughout the campaign in Spain—where he held the post of Constable of the English army—he performed numerous acts of valour in battle and deeds of skill in tilting, which won the highest praise from Froissart.


On his return from Spain he was, on 2 June 1387, created Earl of Huntingdon by the request of the commons of the 'Admirable Parliament;' an immense grant of lands was also made to him. In 1389 he was made Chamberlain of England for life; and soon after Admiral of the Fleet in the Western Seas, and Constable of Tintagel Castle and Brest. On 13 Sept. in the same year he is spoken of as a privy councillor. In 1390 he crossed to Calais in order to engage in further tournaments, and on returning distinguished himself in one at Smithfield.


In 1392 he accompanied an expedition into the northern parts of the kingdom, and later on in the same year went with the Duke of Lancaster to negotiate a truce with France. In 1394 he was made Constable of Conway Castle, and in the same year undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; in passing through Paris he learned that war had been proclaimed between Hungary and Turkey; he therefore, according to Froissart, determined to return from his pilgrimage by a road which would bring him to the scene of action. He probably abandoned this intention, as we find him with Richard II at Eltham in 1395, during the visit of Peter the Hermit. The same year he was made Governor of the castle and town of Carlisle, of the West Marches towards Scotland, and Commissary-General of the same marches 16 Feb. 1396.


In 1397 he took an active part with the king against Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, and Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel. Richard seems to have heaped honours upon him in quick succession. On 29 Sept. in that year he was created Duke of Exeter. He obtained a grant of the furniture of the castle of Arundel, which the Earl of Arundel had forfeited; and the office of Chamberlain of England, of which he had previously received a grant for life, was in 1398 given to him and his heirs in tail. At this time, his London residence was at Pultney House, where he gave sumptuous entertainments.


Dukes of Exeter and Salisbury meeting with Bolingbroke, BL MS Harley 1319, f. 30v.


In 1399 he accompanied Richard on his unfortunate expedition into Ireland, and on his return to Pembroke counselled the king to go to Conway. He was one of those sent by Richard to Henry IV with orders to seek a modus invendi; at the meeting Holland seems to have been the chief spokesman. Henry after hearing his messages detained him about his person.

After Richard's deposition in October 1399, Holland was called on in parliament to justify his action against the Duke of Gloucester. He and the other appellants of 1397 answered that they acted under compulsion of the late king, but that they were not cognisant of, nor did they aid in, Gloucester's death. They were condemned to forfeit their dignities and lands granted to them subsequently to Gloucester's arrest, so that Holland again became Earl of Huntingdon. Soon after this, in January 1400, Holland entered, with Thomas le Despenser, his nephew, Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent (1374-1400), and others, into a conspiracy against Henry IV for the restoration of Richard II. According to one account he was present in the fight at Cirencester, and was captured there. Walsingham, more probably, states that he remained near London to watch the progress of events.


When he saw his cause was lost, he fled through Essex, but was captured at Pleshey by the Countess of Hereford, who had him beheaded in the presence of Thomas Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel and Surrey, son of the Earl of Arundel whose death he had helped to bring about. The execution took place on 16 Jan. 1400.3 His head was afterwards exposed, probably at Pleshey, till the king, at the supplication of Holland's widow, directed its delivery to the 'master or keeper of the college of the church of Plessy,' in order that it might be buried there with his body. His estates were declared by parliament to be forfeited on 2 March following. By his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John of Gaunt, he left issue three sons; his second son, John (1395-1447), was afterwards restored in blood, and to the family honours


 




John de Holand and Elizabeth of Lancaster had three sons and three daughters

Lady Constance  de Holand                 born 1387  married Sir Thomas de Mowbray and Sir John Grey
Lady Elizabeth de Holland                   born 1387  married Sir Roger Fiennes
Alice de Holland                                   b 1392                 d 1406
Richard de Holand                               born 1389             d 1400
Sir John de Holand                               born 1395  d 1447. His title was Duke of Exeter and Earl of                                                                                         Huntingdon
Sir Edward Holland                              born  1399 and died 1413.

And then his son and heir another John Holland!


Portrait of John Holland, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon from his effigy. Doyle's Baronage.

John Holland, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon (1395-1447)

JOHN HOLLAND, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon (1395-1447), was second son of John Holland, Duke of Exeter (1352?-1400). His elder brother Richard died 3 Sept. 1400, prior to the reversal of his father's attainder. He was born at his father's residence at Partington in Devonshire on 18 March 1395, and baptised the same day in the parish church there. He was made Knight of the Bath in 1413.

In 1415 he took part in the trial of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, and accompanied Henry V on his expedition into France. He was one of the leaders in the reconnoitre before Harfleur, and distinguished himself by his valour at Agincourt.1 In 1416, probably in recognition of his services, he was restored in blood, and to the earldom of Huntingdon. On 4 May 1416 he was made a Knight of the Garter, and next day was appointed Lieutenant of the Fleet, and in that capacity accompanied Bedford on his expedition for the relief of Harfleur in the following July. Exactly a year later he was in command of the fleet which completely defeated the Genoese off Harfleur, and so cleared the way for Henry V's second expedition.

He again took part in the siege of Caen, and in the spring of 1418 was given a separate command, and captured the towns of Coutances and Avranches. At the siege of Rouen in the autumn he held the chief command on the left bank of the Seine. He displayed conspicuous bravery at the surprise of Pontoise on 30 July 1419, and was afterwards made captain of Gournay and Gisors. On 1 Dec. in that year he was commissioned to carry out the destruction of hostile castles and other dangerous strongholds in Normandy, and obtained a grant of forfeited lands in Normandy. In 1420 he defeated the French at Fresney, and, in company with Sir John Cornwall, laid siege to Fontaines-la-Vagant, and also to the castle of Clermont; in the latter place his efforts at subjection were unsuccessful.

During the autumn he served at the siege of Melun, and on its capture he was made governor; in further reward for his services on this occasion he was appointed Constable of the Tower of London for life on 20 Aug. 1420. After this he accompanied Henry V on his triumphal entry into Paris. Here Henry appointed him a resident custodian of King Charles of France, with a retinue of five hundred men. In 1421 he fell into the hands of the Dauphinists, when Clarence was defeated at Beaujé on 22 March. He remained in captivity until 1425, when he was exchanged for the Count of Vendôme,3 but he was forced to pay a very heavy ransom for his release, in consideration of which Henry VI granted him an annuity of 123l. 6s. 8d. in 1428.

On 24 Oct. 1429 he obtained license to marry Anne, widow of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. In the following April he again visited France with the English army, and proceeded to the Duke of Burgundy's aid at Compiegne. He remained some time in the duke's company, being with him at the surrender of Gournay. Subsequently the duke left him before Compiegne, and from that place he retreated with John of Luxemburg to Noyon. He was present at Henry VI's coronation at Paris in 1431. His first wife must have died soon after the birth of his son and heir Henry, as in 1482 he obtained license to marry Beatrice, a natural daughter of John, King of Portugal, widow of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who had taken an active part in obtaining his father's execution at Pleshey. She died 14 Nov. 1439, and Huntingdon subsequently married Anne, eldest daughter of John de Montagu, third Earl of Salisbury.

In 1432, after receiving a grant of the office of Marshal of England, to hold during the minority of the Duke of Norfolk, he returned to France, and next year was in command in Normandy. In July 1435 he was one of the English representatives at the conference of Arras to treat for peace with the French; after this he seems to have returned to England, and was a commissioner for guarding the East and West Marches towards Scotland. Later on in the same year he was appointed Admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitaine for life. In 1436 he was engaged on the defence of Calais against Burgundy,6 and in March 1438 was in command of the expedition despatched to the relief of Guisnes. The possession of his various offices, more honourable than remunerative, led him to sue the king for a grant of an annual allowance; five hundred marks a year was accordingly given him until he should receive a grant of lands to that value.

On 26 March 1439 he was the king's lieutenant in Aquitaine, £1,000 being paid to him before taking up the office.8 He seems to have returned to England soon after, but was again sent on a military expedition into France, during which he besieged and captured Tartras; he was also appointed Governor of Aquitaine, and was still there in June 1442.9 On 6 Jan. 1443 he was advanced to the dukedom of Exeter, the title lost by his father on his attainder, and shortly afterwards he received the license that he and his heirs male should take their places in all parliaments and councils next to the Duke of York. In 1445 the lordship of Sparre in the duchy of Aquitaine was conferred upon him, and probably about the same time he received a grant of the earldom of Ivry.

In 1445 and 1446 his son Henry was joined with him in the enjoyment of the office of Admiral and Constable of the Tower; this was probably on account of a decay in his own health, as in the latter year he made his will. One of his last public acts seems to have been the reception, on his approach to London, of the king of France in July 1445.

He died 5 Aug. 1447, and was buried in a chapel within the church of St. Catherine, beside the Tower; his son and heir Henry was then aged seventeen years. An inventory of his jewels and debts is preserved among the muniments of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

St Katharine's by the Tower—full name Royal Hospital and Collegiate Church of St. Katharine by the Tower—was a medieval church and hospital next to the Tower of London. The establishment was founded in 1147 and the buildings demolished in 1825 to build St Katharine Docks, which takes its name from it. However it was re-established elsewhere in London and 123 years later returned once more to the East End. The church was a Royal Peculiar and the precinct around it was an extra-parochial area, eventually becoming a civil parish that was dissolved in 1895.


John married Lady Ann Stafford, daughter of Sir Edmund Stafford 5th Earl of Stafford and Anne of Gloucester, another with royal bloodlines.


Lady Ann Stafford
                                                           He married Lady Ann Stafford   and Joan de Beaumont*
                                                                                                                 
John and Ann had two children

Henry 3rd Duke of Exeter de Holland                   b   1430
Lady Ann Holland                                                b    1432

This Sir John is our second cousin 17 times removed.  A little more about his life:

John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter KG (18 March 1395¨C 5 August 1447) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War.


The second son of John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter and Elizabeth of Lancaster, his maternal grandparents were John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Blanche of Lancaster. He was thus a half-nephew of Richard II of England, a nephew of Henry IV of England and a first cousin of Henry V of England.

Holland was just a boy when his father conspired against Henry IV and was attainted and executed. Nevertheless, he was given a chance to serve Henry V in the 1415 campaign in France, where he distinguished himself at Agincourt.

The next year Holland was restored in blood and to his father's earldom of Huntingdon, and was made a Knight of the Garter. (His older brother Richard had died in 1400.)

Over the next five years he held various important commands with the English forces in France, until he was captured by the French in 1421 at the Battle of Baug¨¦. He spent four years in captivity, not being released until 1425.

On 6 March 1427, he married Lady Anne Stafford (d. 20 September 1432), widow of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, and daughter of Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford and his wife Anne of Gloucester

Anne of Gloucester married three times. Her first marriage was to Thomas Stafford, 3rd Earl of Stafford (1368 - 4 July 1392), and took place around 1390. The couple had no children, and after his death Anne married his younger brother Edmund. She then married William Bouchier the Count of Eu.

By her marriage to Edmund she had two children, a son and daughter:
  • Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who married Anne, daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland. Joan was a daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and his mistress, later third wife, Katherine Swynford
  • Anne Stafford, Countess of March, who married Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. Edmund was a great-grandson of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence. Edmund and Anne had no children. She married, secondly, John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter (d. 1447), and had one son: Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (d. 1475), and a daughter Anne, who married John Neville, 1st Baron Neville de Raby
  • Philippa Stafford, died young
There is a family name starting to appear within our Family Tree that of the Neville Family


 Lady Anne Holand was born before 1432. She was the daughter of John de Holand, 1st Duke of Exeter and Anne Stafford. She married, firstly, Sir John Neville, son of Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland and Elizabeth Percy, before 18 February 1440/41, This marriage was apparently not consummated.

So for her second marriage she married another of the Neville Family!  At this point she has really confused my Ancestry Tree!!!!!!

She married, secondly, Sir John Neville b 1410, 1st Lord Neville, son of John de Neville, Lord Neville and Lady Elizabeth de Holand, between March 1451 and 27 July 1454.  

 Elizabeth de Holand was the daughter of none other than Sir John Holland, meaning that Lady Ann Holand married her aunt's husband.

She married, thirdly, James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas, son of James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas and Beatrice Sinclair, after 1461 at England.1 She died on 26 December 1486.1
From 18 February 1440/41, her married name became Neville.

As a result of her marriage, Lady Anne Holand was styled as Lady Neville on 20 November 1459. From after 1461, her married name became Douglas.

Anne like her brother Henry are direct cousins but through all the different marriages she is an ancestor several times over.  

Child of Lady Anne Holand and Sir John Neville, 1st Lord Neville

  • Ralph Neville, 3rd Earl of Westmorland+4 b. 1456, d. 6 Feb 1498/99

Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (1430¨C1475).


Husband No 1

Sir John Neville was the son of Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmorland and Elizabeth Percy. He married Lady Anne Holand, daughter of John de Holand, 1st Duke of Exeter and Anne Stafford, before 18 February 1440/41, 

This marriage was apparently not consummated

 He died before 16 March 1450/51, without issue
 His will (dated 1 December 1449) was probated on 5 April 1451, directing his burial to be at Haltemprice, Yorkshire.

 He was invested as a Knight before 1 December 1449.

Husband No 2

She married secondly, John Neville, Baron Neville, slain at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461.

Husband No 3

James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas.


Notes on Husband Number 2

A member of the Westmorland branch of the NEVILLE FAMILY and a partisan of the house of LANCASTER, John Neville, Lord Neville, played a prominent part in the Battles of WAKEFIELD and FERRYBRIDGE. Neville was a son of John Neville, the eldest son of Ralph Neville (1354–1425), first earl of Westmorland, by the earl’s first marriage.

This JN was Baron John Neville b 1410 d 1461was thus a nephew of Richard NEVILLE, earl of Salisbury,Westmorland’s eldest son by his second marriage. In the 1440s, when the sons and grandsons of Westmorland’s two families fell to squabbling over the old earl’s extensive northern estates, John Neville played a prominent part in the struggle. 

When his uncle Salisbury and his cousin Richard NEVILLE, earl of Warwick, allied themselves with Richard PLANTAGENET, duke of York, in the 1450s, Neville supported HENRY VI, thus merging the family feud into the WARS OF THE ROSES.

In 1459, John Neville was raised to the PEERAGE as Lord Neville and attended the COVENTRY PARLIAMENT, which passed bills of ATTAINDER dispossessing his Yorkist cousins. Neville apparently cooperated with the Yorkist regime established by Warwick in July 1460 when the earl captured the king at the Battle of NORTHAMPTON.

On his return from IRELAND in the autumn,York issued a COMMISSION OF ARRAY to Neville, authorizing him to raise troops for the government. When York and Salisbury marched north in December to suppress Lancastrian insurgents, they expected to be reinforced by Neville and his men. However, unbeknownst to the duke, Neville brought the troops he raised under Yorkist authority into the Lancastrian camp.

One theory as to why York left the safety of Sandal Castle on 30 December to engage the Lancastrians in open battle is that he mistook a force that appeared behind a body of enemy skirmishers as Neville’s promised reinforcements. Mistakenly thinking he had a body of Lancastrians trapped between two Yorkist armies,York sallied forth to his death at the Battle of WAKEFIELD. Salisbury was captured and executed shortly thereafter, apparently without any protest from his Lancastrian nephew.


Although Neville’s exact role at Wakefield is unclear and known mostly from Yorkist NEVILLE, JOHN, LORD NEVILLE 179 sources, it was sufficiently pro-Lancastrian for Henry VI to reward him with custody of Salisbury’s Yorkshire castles. 

Neville likely fought with MARGARET OF ANJOU’s army at the Battle of ST. ALBANS in February 1461, and he was definitely with the Lancastrian army in the following month, when he was killed at the Battle of FERRYBRIDGE by a body of mounted ARCHERS led by his uncle (and Salisbury’s brother), William NEVILLE, Lord Fauconberg.

He married secondly Beatrice of Portugal on 20 January 1433; then finally, he married Anne Montagu (d. 28 November 1457), daughter of John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury.John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and 5th and 2nd Baron Montacute, KG (c. 1350 – 5 January 1400) was an English nobleman, one of the few who remained loyal to Richard II after Henry IV became king.[2]

And to confuse the issue now John Montacute is involved with his family marrying several of our cousins

John Montacute married a few times with  Maud Francis, John had three sons and three daughters:

  • Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury (c. 1388–1428), married firstly Lady Eleanor Holland, daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and Lady Alice FitzAlan by whom he had issue.  

 Their descendants include Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick and Queen consort Catherine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII

  • Thomas married secondly, Alice Chaucer by whom he had no issue.
Robert Montecute, married Mary deDevon


  • Richard Montacute (d. after 1400), never married; died d.s.p (decessit sine prole).
  • Anne Montacute (d.1457), who married firstly (as his 2nd wife) Sir Richard II Hankford (c.1397-1431) of Annery, Monkleigh in Devon, feudal baron of Bampton in Devon. Their descendants include Queen consort Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII. 
 After the death of Sir Richard, Anne married secondly Sir John FitzLewis by whom she had further issue, and thirdly, she married John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter by whom she had no issue.

  • Margaret Montacute (d. before 1416), married William Ferrers, 5th Baron Ferrers of Groby; no issue.
  • Elizabeth Montacute (d. about 1448), married Robert Willoughby, 6th Baron Willoughby de Eresby;they had one daughter, Joan, who became suo jure 7th Baroness.

He was the son of Sir John de Montacute, 1st Baron Montacute (died in 1390), and Margaret de Monthermer.His father was the younger brother of William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury. His mother was the daughter of Thomas de Monthermer, 2nd Baron de Monthermer (1301 – Battle of Sluys, 1340), and Margaret Teyes (died in 1349), and granddaughter and heiress of Ralph de Monthermer, 1st Baron Monthermer, and Joan of Acre.

As a young man Montagu or Montacute distinguished himself in the war with France, and then went to fight against the pagans in Prussia, probably on the expedition led by Henry Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV of England). Bolingbroke was to entrust his young son and heir, later Henry V, to the care of Sir John and his wife Maud following the death of his wife Mary de Bohun. Lady Margaret cared for the young boy at a Montacute house in Welsh Bicknor near Monmouth until her death in 1395.


He was summoned to parliament in 1391 as Baron Montagu. Montagu was a favorite of the King during the early years of the reign of Richard II. He accompanied the King during his expeditions to Ireland in 1394 and 1395, and as a privy councillor was one of the principal advocates of the King's marriage to Isabella of Valois. During the trips to France associated with the marriage, he met and encouraged Christine de Pisan, whose son was educated in the Montacute household. Montacute was a prominent Lollard, and was remonstrated by the King for this.


With the death of his mother around this time, John inherited the barony of Monthermer and its estates. In 1397, he became Earl of Salisbury on the death of his uncle and inherited Bisham Manor and other estates. He continued as one of the major aristocratic allies of King Richard II, helping to secure the fall of the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Warwick. He persuaded the king to spare the life of Warwick. He received a portion of the forfeited Warwick estates, and in 1399 was made a Knight of the Garter.


Early in 1399, he went to on a successful mission to France to prevent the proposed marriage of Henry Bolingbroke and a daughter of the Duke of Berry. In May, he again accompanied Richard II on an expedition to Ireland. When news reached them of that Bolingbroke had returned to England, Montacute was sent to Wales to raise opposing forces. When these deserted, Montacute advised King Richard to flee to Bordeaux. Instead Richard was imprisoned, Henry took the throne and, in the October, Montacute was arrested along with many of Richard's former councillors, and held in the Tower of London.


By an unnamed mistress or mistresses he also had several illegitimate children, two of whom he named in his will. William, Thomas and Robert, the so-called 'Bastards of Exeter', were active in the Lancastrian struggles, and Stow reported that two of them were among the notable dead at Towton.

In 1435 he was appointed admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitaine, and in 1439 he was made the king's lieutenant in Aquitaine, and later governor of Aquitaine.


Holland recovered his father's dukedom of Exeter in 1439, and was given precedence just below the Duke of York. He was succeeded as duke by his son Henry.


Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (27 June 1430 – September 1475) was a Lancastrian leader during the English Wars of the Roses. He was the only son of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, and his first wife Lady Anne Stafford. His maternal grandparents were Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford, and Anne of Gloucester.

He inherited the dukedom of Exeter when his father died in 1447. A great-grandson of John of Gaunt, he might have had a plausible claim on the throne after the death of Henry VI. However, he was cruel, savagely temperamental and unpredictable, and so had little support.
Exeter was for a time Constable of the Tower of London, and afterwards the rack there came to be called "the Duke of Exeter's daughter".

In the Wars of the Roses, however, he remained an enemy of the House of York. He was a commander at the great Lancastrian victories at Wakefield and St Albans. He was imprisoned at Wallingford Castle in 1455.

He was also a commander at the Lancastrian defeat at the Battle of Towton. He fled to Scotland after the battle, and then joined Queen Margaret in her exile in France. He was attained in 1461, and his estates were given to his wife, who separated from him in 1464. During the brief period of Henry VI's restoration he was able to regain many of his estates and posts.

At the Battle of Barnet, Exeter commanded the Lancastrian left flank. He was badly wounded and left for dead, but survived. Afterwards he was imprisoned, and Anne divorced him in 1472. He "volunteered" to serve on Edward's 1475 expedition to France. On the return voyage he fell overboard and drowned. Some say he was in fact thrown overboard at the king's command.

Family

Before 30 July 1447, he married Anne of York, the second child and eldest surviving daughter of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Lady Cecily Neville. She was an older sister of Edward IV and Richard III.


He had one legitimate child:
  • Lady Anne Holland (c. 1455 – between 26 August 1467 and 6 June 1474), who married Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset.
Since Henry had no legitimate male issue the disposition of his estates became a complex matter for his widow, the dowager Duchess of Exeter.

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