She was niece of Richard II of England, son of her paternal grandmother, Joan of Kent by her second marriage to Edward, the Black Prince.
Her eldest brother, Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, was beheaded in 1400 by a mob of angry citizens at Cirencester for his role in the Epiphany Rising, which was aimed against the life of King Henry IV of England, who had usurped the throne of King Richard.
[3] Joan married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York,[4] son of Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault, ca.
[citation needed] They were granddaughters of Joan, the "Fair Maid of Kent" who inspired Edward III's founding of the Order of the Garter, according to popular legend.
He served Henry IV as treasurer, and was executed in 1415 following the failure of his plot with the Earl of Cambridge (Joan's former stepson, being the son of her first husband, and nephew by marriage, being the husband of Anne de Mortimer, her sister's daughter) to assassinate Henry V and place Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (Joan's nephew) on the throne.
Cambridge's then four-year-old son, Richard Plantagenet, ultimately championed his father's cause, which evolved into the Wars of the Roses and the Yorkist claimants achieving the throne.