Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, 3rd Earl of Huntington (27 June 1430 – September 1475) was a Lancastrian leader during the English

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

. He was the only son of

John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon, (29 March 1395 – 5 August 1447) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. His father, the 1st Duke of Exeter, was a maternal half-brother to Ri ...

, and his first wife, Anne Stafford. His maternal grandparents were

Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford and 1st Baron Audley, KG, KB (2 March 1377 – 21 July 1403) was the son of Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford, and his wife Philippa de Beauchamp. He inherited the earldom at the age of 18, the third ...

, and

Anne of Gloucester Anne of Gloucester, Countess of Stafford (30 April 1383 – 16 October 1438) was the eldest daughter and eventually sole heiress of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester (the fifth surviving son and youngest child of King Edward III), by h ...

Career

He inherited the Dukedom of Exeter and

Earl of Huntington Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title (1065 creation) was associated with the ruling house of Scotland ( David of Scotland). The seventh and most recent creation dates ...

when his father died in 1447. However, he was cruel, savagely temperamental and unpredictable, and so had little support. P.M. Kendall describes him as "dangerous", and was seen as "cruel and fierce" by contemporary Italian observers.

Constable of the Tower

Exeter was for a time

Constable of the Tower of London The Constable of the Tower is the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. In the Middle Ages a constable was the person in charge of a castle when the owner—the king or a nobleman—was not in residence. The Constable of the Tower had a ...

, and afterwards the

rack Rack or racks may refer to: Storage and installation * Amp rack, short for amplifier rack, a piece of furniture in which amplifiers are mounted * Bicycle rack, a frame for storing bicycles when not in use * Bustle rack, a type of storage bin ...

there came to be called "the Duke of Exeter's daughter".

Wars of the Roses

In 1447 he married

Anne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

, the eight-year-old daughter of

Richard of York Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Planta ...

. However, in the

, he remained loyal to Henry VI against the

Yorkists The House of York was a cadet branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet. Three of its members became kings of England in the late 15th century. The House of York descended in the male line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, t ...

. He was imprisoned at

Wallingford Castle Wallingford Castle was a major medieval castle situated in Wallingford in the English county of Oxfordshire (historically Berkshire), adjacent to the River Thames. Established in the 11th century as a motte-and-bailey design within an Anglo-Sa ...

when York briefly seized power after the

First Battle of St Albans The First Battle of St Albans, fought on 22 May 1455 at St Albans, 22 miles (35 km) north of London, traditionally marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses in England. Richard, Duke of York, and his allies, the Neville earls of Salisb ...

in 1455. In 1458 he participated in

The Love Day The Loveday of 1458 (also known as the Annunciation Loveday) was a ritualistic reconciliation between warring factions of the English nobility that took place at St Paul's Cathedral on 25 March 1458. Following the outbreak of the Wars of the Ros ...

, an attempt at reconciliation between the rival factions. He was a commander at the Lancastrian victories at the

Battle of Wakefield The Battle of Wakefield took place in Sandal Magna near Wakefield in northern England, on 30 December 1460. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing forces were an army led by nobles loyal to the captive King Henry VI of ...

in 1460 and the

Second Battle of St Albans The Second Battle of St Albans was fought on 17 February 1461 during the Wars of the Roses in England. It took place at St Albans in Hertfordshire, the first battle having been fought in 1455. The army of the Yorkist faction under the Earl of W ...

in 1461, and in the decisive defeat at

Towton Towton is a small village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England. It was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974. History In 2010 and 2011 a pair of gold torcs dating ...

in 1461. He fled to Scotland after the battle, and then joined Queen Margaret in her exile in France. He was

attainted In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditary ...

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 The Battle of Barnet was a decisive engagement in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict of 15th-century England. The military action, along with the subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward IV. On Sunday 14 April ...

, 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 IV's 1475 expedition to France. On the return voyage he fell overboard and

drowned Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...

, his body being found in the sea between Dover and Calais, Fabyan saying "but how he drowned, the certainty is not known".Robert Fabyan. ''The new chronicles of England and France, in two parts, '' p. 663

/ref> However, Giovanni Panicharolla, the Milanese envoy to the Burgundian court, was told by Charles the Bold, Duke Charles that the

King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ...

had given specific orders for the sailors to throw his former brother-in-law overboard.Desmond Seward. ''The Wars of the Roses and the Lives of Five Men and Women in the Fifteenth Century,'' Constable & Robinson, 2002. p. 240.

Family

Before 30 July 1447, he married Anne of York, the eldest child of Richard, Duke of York, and

Cecily Neville Cecily Neville (3 May 1415 – 31 May 1495) was an English noblewoman, the wife of Richard, Duke of York (1411–1460), and the mother of two kings of England—Edward IV and Richard III. Cecily Neville was known as "the Rose of Raby", because ...

.Douglas Richardson. ''Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial And Medieval Families,'' Genealogical Publishing, 2005. pp. 299–301
''Google eBook''
/ref> She was an older sister of

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

and

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

. He had one legitimate child: *Anne Holland (1461Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 57, fol. 2*r – between 26 August 1467 and 6 June 1474), who married

Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, 7th Baron Ferrers of Groby, (145520 September 1501) was an English nobleman, courtier and the eldest son of Elizabeth Woodville and her first husband Sir John Grey of Groby. Her secon ...

. Since Henry had no legitimate male issue the disposition of his estates became a complex matter for his widow, the dowager Duchess of Exeter.

Ancestry

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Exeter, Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of 1430 births 1475 deaths 15th-century English Navy personnel 103 Earls of Huntingdon Formerly missing people Heirs to the English throne

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

Lord High Admirals of England Military personnel from Devon Military personnel from Exeter People lost at sea People of the Wars of the Roses Unsolved deaths