SIR JOHN HOLLAND
Born 1360
Status: Married, to Elizabeth of Lancaster (born 1363; m. 1386).
Children: Richard Holland (b. 1386), Constance Holland (b. 1387), John Holland (b. 1391), Elizabeth Holland (b. 1394)
Titles: Duke of Exeter, Earl of Huntingdon.
Traits:
+2 Survival
+1 Duels
+1 Battles
+2 Charisma
Temperaments:
Sanguine:
- Confident: This character is very self-assured, brimming with confidence and difficult to shake even under pressure. However, taken to an extreme, they can show a suicidal disregard for their life and the lives of others, and fail to take...well, failure into account when planning. +1 battle rolls, +1 to rout rolls.
Choleric:
- Bloodthirsty: This character is hotheaded and loves to jump into fights, lethal or otherwise. This is not something others find endearing off the battlefield, though. +1 Battles, -1 to NPC reaction rolls.
- Impulsive: This character acts before (sometimes, without) thinking. They might move and decide more quickly than others, but their recklessness can lead them to disaster as well. +5% movement speed, -1 to detection rolls.
BIOGRAPHY:
The youngest child of Joan of Kent and Thomas Holland, born in 1360, was none less the most turbulent one. When his grandfather died he was already young man of ill-temperament, the only who had remained unmarried of all his siblings. He was largely dependent on the royal household for his livelihood, lacking his elder brother’s resources and doting, for John was still too young to have showed some kind of promise or be rewarded by his services. The youngest Holland, however, neither lacked ambitions or wits and he promptly associated himself with John of Gaunt; it was under his aegis that he had his first military and diplomatic experience. What Gaunt saw in the hot-headed, malicious and dangerously ambitious Holland is little known, but rarely has the magnate been misled by an individual, be the king’s half-brother or not. Some say he truly wanted to anchor the government around himself and thus needed the support of the king’s half-siblings, and through them, that of the widow Princess of Wales, Joan. Whatever they shared in those earlier days was later cemented when a Carmelite friar, whose story was some given credence (at least by the duke’s many enemies), stated Gaunt was conspiring to usurp the crown. The friar was finally tortured and stabbed to death by John Holland and several accomplices. This dark deed gained him Gaunt’s friendship and allegiance. Just like Thomas Holland had found an ally on his brother-in-law, Arundel, John found himself aligned with Gaunt’s party against the other royal uncles, who viciously vied for power. In the following years Holland was granted lands all over the realm, building a powerbase around Lincolnshire and Huntingdonshire, complimented his income with several grants in Cornwall and Devon. The youngest Holland, despite not having a title who back it up, had reached certain prominence at court with income on his income to fund his expenditures.
However, he almost ruined everything he had worked for when he mercilessly killed Ralph Stafford, heir of the 2nd Earl, and a companion of the king. The equally hot-headed kind forfeited John’s lands and almost prosecuted him: not even Joan of Kent’s efforts managed to reconcile the half-siblings. The aged countess died of grief out this event in 1385. Hollandspent the following year regaining the royal trust, feat he managed to do, in no little part with the help of Gaunt. He was restored to graces despite what transpired, that very year, at court: he had seduced and impregnated Lancaster’s daughter, Elizabeth, who was sick of her minor husband and let her be wooed by the king’s half-brother. The high-spirit lady had preferred the rascal over his boring match and had his father annul the marriage to the Earl of Pembroke immediately, marrying Holland in 1386, their first son being born soon thereafter. Surprisingly, Gaunt wasn’t displeased, not in the slightest, for he brought his son-in-law to Spain that year, to serve as his constable, with his wife in tow. Soon thereafter and for his exploits under Gaunt, he was created Earl of Huntingdon by the king, a title backed by the extensive grants and appointments the king had bestowed upon him in the last decade.
John Holland isn’t as tall as the King, sharing his full-brother’s average height. However, he is way more handsome than them both, having the golden locks of the late Lady Joan, and a slender, muscular frame both the stout Kent and the delicate King lack. With a well-cropped beard framing his strong jaw and two chiselled cheekbones, his features are quite enticing to women, having seduced quite a few prominent ladies, including Isabela of Castile, duchess of York. The daughter of Pedro I didn’t abide herself by the morals of the English court and took a liking for the young John Holland around 1475, when the already handsome nobleman was just shy of 15 years of age; a relationship that wasn’t exactly secretive. Her reputation never recovered from that incident; not that Holland cared at all. Arrogant to the point of foolhardiness and quite vain, the handsome earl is one of the first and foremost courtiers of the royal court, as the king’s brother and Gaunt’s son-in-law. |
Cold Harbrough
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