Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent

Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, 5th Baron Holand, KG (6 January 1383[1]  – 15 September 1408) was the Earl of Kent from 1400 to 1408. He was the 106th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1403.

Edmund was born in Brockenhurst, Hampshire,[2] the second son of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and Alice Fitzalan. He was a younger brother of Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey; Edmund succeeded his childless brother as Earl of Kent on 7 January 1400. He was "appointed admiral of the west and north in 1407".[1]

He married at St. Mary Overy, Southwark, on 24 January 1407, Lucia Visconti (c. 1380 – 4 April 1424), daughter of Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan, and wife Beatrice Regina della Scala, without issue. Shortly before the marriage, he had an affair with Constance of York and fathered illegitimately Eleanor de Holland born in c. 1407; Eleanor was later married to James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley.[3]

Edmund was killed at the battle of Île-de-Bréhat on 15 September 1408.[4] As he had no legitimate issue, the earldom then became extinct.[5] He is buried at Bourne Abbey in Lincolnshire.[3]

  1. ^ a b Stansfield 2004.
  2. ^ Stansfield 1987, pp. 62–63 n. 1.
  3. ^ a b Bradley, Helen (1 January 1994). "Lucia Visconti, Countess of Kent (d. 1424)". In Barron, Caroline; Sutton, Anne F. (eds.). Medieval London Widows, 1300-1500. A&C Black. pp. 77–84. ISBN 9781852850852.
  4. ^ Connolly, S. B. (15 September 2017). Heroines of the Medieval World. Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. Chapter 4. ISBN 978-1-4456-6265-7.
  5. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kent, Earls and Dukes of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 734.