John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter

John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, 1st Earl of Huntingdon (c. 1352 – 16 January 1400), KG, of Dartington Hall in Devon,[1] was a half-brother of King Richard II (1377–1399), to whom he remained strongly loyal.

Joan was daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, a son of King Edward I (1272–1307), and Thomas would be made Earl of Kent, in what is considered a new creation, as husband of Joan, in whom the former Earldom was vested as eventual heiress of Edmund of Woodstock.

The mother of both Holland and Richard II, Joan of Kent, died shortly afterwards, it was said of grief at the quarrel between her sons.

[3] In 1389 he was appointed Lord Great Chamberlain for life, Admiral of the Fleet in the Western Seas,[4] and constable of Tintagel Castle in Cornwall.

Following their return the king sent him to try to negotiate with his own first cousin and Holland's brother-in-law Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt.

Their aim was to assassinate King Henry and his sons, and to return Richard, then in prison, to the throne.

The plot failed and Holland fled, but was caught, near Pleshey Castle in Essex, and executed on 16 January 1400.