Eleanor Holland, Countess of Salisbury (1386 – after 1413), was an English noblewoman, the daughter of
Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent (135025 April 1397) was an English nobleman and a councillor of his half-brother, King Richard II of England.
Family and early life
Thomas Holland was born in Upholland, Lancashire, in 1350. He was the eldest s ...
, a half-brother of King
Richard II of England
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father die ...
. She was the first wife of
Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury
Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury, KG (13 June 13883 November 1428) of Bisham in Berkshire, was an English nobleman and one of the most important English commanders during the Hundred Years' War.
Origins
He was the eldest son of John Monta ...
. One of her brothers was
Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent
Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, 5th Baron Holand, KG (6 January 1383 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, the second ...
, to whom she was co-heiress. She is not to be confused with her eldest sister
Alianore Holland
Alianore Holland, Countess of March (also spelt Eleanor; 13 October 1370 – October 1405) was the eldest daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, and the wife of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir presumptive to her uncle, King Richa ...
,
Countess of March who bore the same name.
Family
Lady Eleanor Holland was born in 1386 in
Upholland
Up Holland (or Upholland) is a village close to Skelmersdale and civil parish in the West Lancashire district, in the county of Lancashire, England, 4 miles west of Wigan. The population at the 2011 census was 7,376.
Geography
The village is ...
, Lancashire, England, one of the ten children of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and Lady
Alice FitzAlan, sister of
Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel. Eleanor's eldest sister, Lady
Alianore Holland, Countess of March
Alianore Holland, Countess of March (also spelt Eleanor; 13 October 1370 – October 1405) was the eldest daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, and the wife of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, heir presumptive to her uncle, King Rich ...
who married
Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March
Roger de Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, 6th Earl of Ulster (11 April 137420 July 1398) was an English nobleman. He was considered the heir presumptive to King Richard II, his mother's first cousin.
Roger Mortimer's father, the 3rd Earl of Marc ...
shared the same name. They were named after their maternal grandmother. Eleanor's father was the half-brother of King
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...
. Her eldest brother
Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey
Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, 3rd Earl of Kent, KG, Earl Marshal (8 September 1372 – 7 January 1400) was an English nobleman and courtier.
Early life and family
Born on 8 September 1372, Thomas Holland was the eldest son and heir of ...
was beheaded in 1400 by a mob of angry citizens at
Cirencester
Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
for his role in the
Epiphany Rising
The Epiphany Rising was a failed rebellion against King Henry IV of England in early January 1400.
Background
Richard II rewarded those who had supported him against Gloucester and the Lords Appellant with a plethora of new titles. Upon the usur ...
, which was aimed against the life of King
Henry IV of England
Henry IV ( April 1367 – 20 March 1413), also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was King of England from 1399 to 1413. He asserted the claim of his grandfather King Edward III, a maternal grandson of Philip IV of France, to the Kingdom of F ...
, who had usurped the throne of King Richard. Thomas's heir to the earldom of Kent was her second eldest brother
Edmund Holland, to whom Eleanor became co-heiress.
Her paternal grandparents were
Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent
Thomas Holland, 2nd Baron Holand, and ''jure uxoris'' 1st Earl of Kent, KG (c. 131426 December 1360) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. By the time of the Crécy campaign, he had apparently lost one of ...
and
Joan of Kent
Joan, Countess of Kent (29 September 1326/1327 – 7 August 1385), known as The Fair Maid of Kent, was the mother of King Richard II of England, her son by her third husband, Edward the Black Prince, son and heir apparent of King Edward III. ...
, who was the mother of King Richard by her second marriage to
Edward, the Black Prince
Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, su ...
; and her maternal grandparents were
Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel and
Eleanor of Lancaster
Eleanor of Lancaster, Countess of Arundel (sometimes called Eleanor Plantagenet; 11 September 1318 – 11 January 1372) was the fifth daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster and Maud Chaworth.
First marriage and issue
Eleanor married first on 6 ...
.
Marriage and issue
Lady Eleanor married
Sir Thomas Montagu, son of
John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury
John Montagu, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and 5th and 2nd Baron Montagu, KG (c. 1350 – 7 January 1400) was an English nobleman, one of the few who remained loyal to Richard II after Henry IV became king.
Early life
He was the son of Sir John de M ...
and Maud Francis, on 23 May 1399, as his first wife. She was about thirteen years old at the time of her marriage. Thomas would later become one of the most important commanders in the
Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...
. Eleanor did not assume the title of Countess of Salisbury until 14 June 1409, when the title, Earl of Salisbury, was nominally restored to Thomas. An attainder had been placed on his father's title and estates following his execution for his participation in the Epiphany Rising in 1400 alongside Eleanor's brother, Thomas. Eleanor's uncle
John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter
John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, 1st Earl of Huntingdon ( 1352 – 16 January 1400), KG, of Dartington Hall in Devon, was a half-brother of King Richard II (1377–1399), to whom he remained strongly loyal. He is primarily remembered for being ...
had also been part of the conspiracy but he had escaped the mob only to be captured in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
and decapitated on the orders of her maternal aunt
Joan Fitzalan
Joan FitzAlan, Countess of Hereford, Countess of Essex and Countess of Northampton (1347 – 7 April 1419) was the wife of the 7th Earl of Hereford, 6th Earl of Essex and 2nd Earl of Northampton. She was the mother of Mary de Bohun, the first w ...
, mother-in-law of King Henry IV.
Thomas and Eleanor made their home at
Bisham Manor in Berkshire. Together they had one daughter:
*
Alice Montagu, 5th Countess of Salisbury (1407-3 April/9 December 1462), married in 1420,
Richard Neville, by whom she had ten surviving children.
[David Baldwin. ''The Kingmaker's Sisters: Six Powerful Women in the Wars of the Roses,'' History Press, 1 August 2009.]
Eleanor died on an unknown date sometime after 1413. She was buried in
Bisham Priory
Bisham Abbey is a Grade I listed manor house at Bisham in the English county of Berkshire. The name is taken from the now lost monastery which once stood alongside. This original Bisham Abbey was previously named Bisham Priory, and was the tradi ...
.
Thomas married secondly before 1424,
Alice Chaucer, granddaughter of the noted author
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
, but their marriage was childless. He was mortally wounded on 27 October 1428 at the
Siege of Orléans
The siege of Orléans (12 October 1428 – 8 May 1429) was the watershed of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. The siege took place at the pinnacle of English power during the later stages of the war. The city held strategic and ...
and died several days later on 3 November.
Alice, the daughter of Thomas and Eleanor, succeeded her father as ''
suo jure
''Suo jure'' is a Latin phrase, used in English to mean 'in his own right' or 'in her own right'. In most nobility-related contexts, it means 'in her own right', since in those situations the phrase is normally used of women; in practice, especi ...
'' 5th Countess of Salisbury. Through Alice, Eleanor was the grandmother of
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...
and great-grandmother of
Cecily Bonville, who became one of the wealthiest English heiresses in the 15th century.
Eleanor was also the great-great-great-grandmother of queen consort
Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr (sometimes alternatively spelled Katherine, Katheryn, Kateryn, or Katharine; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen of England and Ireland as the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 12 July 1543 until ...
, the sixth and final wife of King
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
.
[Douglas Richardson, ''Plantagenet Ancestry'' (Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004), page 566.]
Ancestry
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salisbury, Eleanor Holland, Countess of
1386 births
15th-century deaths
English countesses
Daughters of British earls
People from Up Holland
Eleanor
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
The name was introd ...
Eleanor
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
The name was introd ...
Burials at Bisham Abbey
14th-century English women
14th-century English people
15th-century English women
15th-century English people
Date of death unknown
Year of death unknown