The Joan of Kent Scandal

Imagine opening social media today. Everywhere you look, people are obsessed with stories about brave knights falling in love with princesses. It feels like the perfect medieval romance.

But if you had lived in fourteenth-century England, that kind of love story would have been anything but romantic.

Royal marriages were never just about love. Every wedding was a political alliance, carefully planned to strengthen powerful families and secure the future of the kingdom. A princess was expected to marry someone of equal rank, not simply the man she loved.

That is exactly why Joan of Kent's secret marriage became one of the biggest royal scandals of her time.

Known as the Fair Maid of Kent, Joan was born in 1328 into the English royal family. She would later become one of the most famous women of the Middle Ages, admired for both her beauty and her remarkable life. Yet long before she married the famous Black Prince, she found herself at the center of a scandal that almost destroyed her future.

Around 1340, when Joan was only about twelve years old, she secretly married Sir Thomas Holland. The marriage was kept hidden because it had taken place without the king's permission, something that was required for someone of Joan's royal status. If the secret had been discovered at the wrong time, Holland could have faced severe punishment for marrying a royal princess without approval.

Soon after the wedding, Thomas left England to fight overseas during the early years of the Hundred Years' War. He expected to return to his young wife.

Instead, everything changed.

While Holland was away, Joan's family believed she was free to make a better political match. They arranged another marriage for her, this time to William Montagu, the future Earl of Salisbury, one of England's most powerful young noblemen. Whether Joan stayed silent because she feared for Thomas's life or because she believed their secret marriage would never be accepted is still debated by historians. Whatever the reason, she married William without revealing the truth.

For years, Joan lived as William's wife while Thomas fought abroad...

Then, around 1348, the knight finally came home.

Instead of quietly accepting what had happened, Thomas publicly declared that Joan was already his lawful wife. He appealed to both King Edward III and Pope Clement VI, insisting that their secret marriage had always been valid. William Montagu refused to give Joan up, turning what had begun as a private secret into a legal battle watched by some of the most powerful people in Europe.

The case lasted many months!

And finally, in 1349, the Church reached its decision.

Pope Clement VI ruled that Joan's first marriage to Thomas Holland was the lawful one. Her marriage to William Montagu was annulled, and Joan was officially restored to Holland as his wife. The couple later had several children together and remained married until Thomas's death in 1360.

Looking back today, Joan of Kent's story feels surprisingly modern. At a time when royal marriages were expected to serve politics above all else, her life became tangled between duty, family pressure, and a secret marriage that refused to stay buried.

It wasn't a fairy tale between a princess and a knight.

It was a royal scandal that challenged the rules of medieval England, and, against all expectations, ended with the Church recognizing the marriage she had chosen first.

by The Museum of Time

6 July 2026