John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter Kent by his wife Joan of Kent, "The Fair Maid of Kent", daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, a son of King Edward I (1272–1307). The Earl of Kent was a title that was created multiple times, including once for Edmund of Woodstock and once for –Thomas– Holland. Joan later married her cousin Edward, the Black Prince, the eldest son and heir apparent of her first cousin King Edward III, by whom she had a son King Richard II, who was thus a half-brother of John Holland. Early in King Richard's reign, Holland was made a Knight
Edward the Black Prince steel". Richard Barber suggests that the name's origins may have lain in pageantry, in that a tradition may have grown up in the 15th century of representing the prince in black armour. He points out that several chronicles refer to him as Edward the IV (the title he would have taken as King had he outlived his father): this name would obviously have become confusing when the actual Edward IV succeeded in 1461, and this may have been the period when an alternative had to be found. Edward's reputation for brutality in France is also well documented, and it is