Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell

Margaret Wake
3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell Countess of Kent
Baroness Wake of Liddell
Predecessor	Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron
Successor	John, 4th Baron, 3rd Earl of Kent
Born	c. 1297
Died	19 September 1349
Spouse	John IV Comyn m. c. 1312; dec. 1314 Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent m. 1325; dec. 1330 John De Forbes m. 1331; dec. 1349
Issue	Edmund, 2nd Earl of Kent Margaret, Viscountess of Tartas Joan The Fair Maid of Kent, Countess of Kent, Princess of Wales John, 3rd Earl of Kent
Father	John Wake, 1st Baron Wake of Liddell
Mother	Joan de Fiennes

Margaret Wake, suo jure 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell and Countess of Kent (c. 1297 – 29 September 1349) was the wife of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, the youngest surviving son of Edward I of England and Margaret of France.

Family

She was the daughter of John Wake, 1st Baron Wake of Liddell, (son of Baldwin Wake and Hawise de Quincy) and Joan de Fiennes. By her father, she was descended from Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd and Joan, Lady of Wales, the illegitimate daughter of John I of England. Her mother, Joan de Fiennes, was a daughter of William de Fiennes and Blanche (Lady of Loupeland) de Brienne. She was a sister of Margaret de Fiennes, making Wake a cousin of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. Joan de Fiennes also descended from Emperor Jean de Brienne and Berengaria of León, herself the granddaughter of Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile.

Marriages

Margaret married John Comyn (c. 1294-1314) around 1312, son of the John Comyn who was murdered by Robert the Bruce in 1306. Her husband John died at the Battle of Bannockburn, and their only child, Aymer Comyn (1314–1316) died as a toddler. She married for a second time, to Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent. They received a dispensation in October 1325, and the wedding probably took place at Christmas.

Through her marriage to Edmund of Woodstock (who was executed for treason in 1330), she was the mother of two short-lived Earls of Kent, of Margaret and Joan of Kent (wife of Edward, the Black Prince). The pregnant Margaret and her children were confined to Salisbury Castle, and her brother Thomas Wake, 2nd Baron Wake of Liddell was accused of treason but later pardoned. When King Edward III of England reached his majority and overthrew the regents, he took in Margaret and her children and treated them as his own family. She succeeded briefly as Baroness Wake of Liddell in 1349, but died during an outbreak of the plague that autumn.

Margaret and Edmund's descendants include King Henry VII and queen consorts Anne Neville, Elizabeth of York, and Catherine Parr.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell

16. Baldwin Wake               8. Hugh Wake                       17. Isabel Briwere               4. Baldwin Wake                             18. Nicholas de Stuteville               9. Joan de Stuteville                       19. Devorguilla of Galloway               2. John Wake, 1st Baron Wake of Liddell                                   20. Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester               10. Robert de Quincy                       21. Margaret de Beaumont               5. Hawise de Quincy                             22. Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Wales               11. Elen ferch Llywelyn                       23. Joan, Lady of Wales               1. Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell                                         24. Guillaume de Fiennes               12. Enguerrand II de Fiennes                       25. Agnes de Dammartin               6. William de Fiennes, Baron of Tingry                             26. Jacques de Conde               13. Isabelle de Conde                       27. Agnes de Roeux               3. Joan de Fiennes                                   28. Jean de Brienne               14. Jean de Brienne                       29. Berenguela de Borgoña, Infanta of León               7. Blanche de Brienne                             30. Geoffroy VI, Viscount of Châteaudun               15. Jeanne de Châteaudun                       31. Clémence des Roches

Depictions in fiction

Margaret is a supporting character in the Karen Harper historical fiction novel The First Princess of Wales, which gives a fictional depiction of her daughter Joan of Kent's life at the English court.

Margaret is a character in the 2014 novel "A Triple Knot" by Emma Campion which primarily focuses on her daughter Joan of Kent's struggle to validate her secret marriage to Thomas Holland after her family forces her into a marriage with William Montacute, and her close, often uncomfortable relationship with her cousin and future husband Edward, Prince of Wales.