Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter

English admiral (1430–1475)

John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter (father)
Anne Stafford (mother)

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. He was the only son of John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, and his first wife, Anne Stafford. His maternal grandparents were Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford, and Anne of Gloucester.

Career

He inherited the Dukedom of Exeter and Earl of Huntington 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.^[1]

Constable of the Tower

Exeter was for a time Constable of the Tower of London, and afterwards the rack there came to be called "the Duke of Exeter's daughter".^[2]

Wars of the Roses

In 1447 he married Anne, the eight-year-old daughter of Richard of York. However, in the Wars of the Roses, he remained loyal to Henry VI against the Yorkists. He was imprisoned at Wallingford Castle when York briefly seized power after the First Battle of St Albans in 1455. In 1458 he participated in The Love Day, an attempt at reconciliation between the rival factions. He was a commander at the Lancastrian victories at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460 and the Second Battle of St Albans in 1461, and in the decisive defeat at Towton in 1461. He fled to Scotland after the battle, and then joined Queen Margaret in her exile in France. He was attainted 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, 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, his body being found in the sea between Dover and Calais, Fabyan saying "but how he drowned, the certainty is not known".^[3] However, Giovanni Panicharolla, the Milanese envoy to the Burgundian court, was told by Duke Charles that the King of England had given specific orders for the sailors to throw his former brother-in-law overboard.^[4]^[5]

Family

On 30 January 1446, in the chapel of the Bishop of Ely, Hatfield, Herefordshire,^[6] he married Anne of York, the eldest child of Richard, Duke of York, and Cecily Neville.^[7] She was an older sister of Edward IV and Richard III.

He had one legitimate child:^[7]

Anne Holland (1461^[8] – between 26 August 1467 and 6 June 1474), who married Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset.

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

Ancestors of Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter

16. Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand

8. Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent

17. Maud le Zouche

4. John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter

18. Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent

9. Lady Joan, 4th Countess of Kent

19. Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell

2. John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter

20. Edward III of England (=28)

10. John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

21. Philippa of Hainault (=29)

5. Lady Elizabeth of Lancaster

22. Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster

11. Lady Blanche of Lancaster

23. Lady Isabel de Beaumont

1. Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter

24. Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford

12. Hugh de Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford

25. Margaret de Audley, 2nd Baroness Audley

6. Edmund Stafford, 5th Earl of Stafford

26. Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick

13. Lady Philippa de Beauchamp

27. Lady Katherine de Mortimer

3. Lady Anne Stafford

28. Edward III of England (=20)

14. Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester

29. Philippa of Hainault (=21)

7. Lady Anne of Gloucester

30. Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford

15. Lady Eleanor de Bohun

31. Lady Joan de Bohun

References

^ Kendall, P.M. Warwick the Kingmaker. p. 305.
^ However, Stubbs says it was named after the 2nd duke, who was also constable of the Tower, in his The Constitutional History of England in Its Origin and Development, vol. 3, p. 302
^ Robert Fabyan. The new chronicles of England and France, in two parts, p. 663. [1]
^ Desmond Seward. The Wars of the Roses and the Lives of Five Men and Women in the Fifteenth Century, Constable & Robinson, 2002. p. 240.
^ Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts in the Archives and Collections of Milan 1385-1618, p. 220 [2]
^ Pidgeon, Lynda (2023). "Anne of York and her Loyal Yorkist: Sir Thomas St Leger (ex. 1483)". The Ricardian. XXXIII: 107.
^ ^a ^b Douglas Richardson. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial And Medieval Families, Genealogical Publishing, 2005. pp. 299–301. Google eBook
^ Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Digby 57, fol. 2*r

External links

Griffiths, R.A. (1968). "Local Rivalries and National Politics: The Percies, the Nevilles, and the Duke of Exeter, 1452–55". Speculum. 43 (4): 589–632. doi:10.2307/2855323. JSTOR 2855323. S2CID 155012397.
Hicks, Michael (2004). "Holland, Henry, second duke of Exeter (1430–1475), magnate". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online) (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50223. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Pugh, T.B. (1990). "Richard, Duke of York, and the Rebellion of Henry Holand, Duke of Exeter, in May 1454". Historical Research. 63 (152): 248–262. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.1990.tb00888.x.

Political offices
Preceded by The Duke of Suffolk	Lord High Admiral 1450–1461	Succeeded by The Earl of Kent
Peerage of England
Preceded by John Holland	Duke of Exeter 1447–1461	Forfeit

Wars of the Roses

Key figures

Monarchs	Henry VI Edward IV Edward V Richard III Henry VII
Lancaster Tudor	Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England⁴ Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset John Beaumont, Viscount Beaumont Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley James Butler, Earl of Ormond John Butler, Earl of Ormond John Clifford, Baron Clifford John Courtenay, Earl of Devon Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter John Neville, Baron Neville² John Neville, Marquess of Montagu³ Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick³ Thomas Neville, Bastard of Fauconberg³ Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland Thomas Ros, Baron Ros Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham⁴ Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby George Stanley, Baron Strange William Stanley⁴ George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury Andrew Trollope Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford James Tuchet, Baron Audley Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke⁵ Margaret Beaufort Owen Tudor Edward Woodville, Lord Scales
York	Anne Neville, Queen of England John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Desmond William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke William Hastings, Baron Hastings John Howard, Duke of Norfolk Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury Sir Thomas Neville William Neville, Earl of Kent Sir Richard Herbert Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence¹ Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon Margaret of York Richard of York