Edward of Angoulême was second in line to the throne of the Kingdom of England before his death. Born in Angoulême, he was the eldest child of Edward, Prince of Wales, commonly called "the Black Prince", and Joan, Countess of Kent, and thus was a member of the House of Plantagenet. Edward's birth, during the Hundred Years' War, was celebrated luxuriously by his father and by other monarchs, such as Charles V of France.
Possible depiction of Edward and his mother Joan as the infant Jesus and the Virgin Mary on the Wilton Diptych, c. 1395
The Château d'Angoulême, c. 1800s.
The Wilton Diptych.
A gold noble from the reign of Richard II
Joan, Countess of Kent, 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. Although the French chronicler Jean Froissart called her "the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving", the appellation "Fair Maid of Kent" does not appear to be contemporary. Joan inherited the titles 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell after the death of her brother John, 3rd Earl of Kent, in 1352. Joan was made a Lady of the Garter in 1378.
Joan of Kent
Arundel Castle in Sussex, where Joan, her mother and siblings were placed under house arrest
Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, intended as Joan's burial place. The monument of the Black Prince is above.
