Thomas Holland (or de Holand) was born in Upholand, Lancashire, in 1350 or 1354. He was the eldest surviving son of Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent, and Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent". His mother was a daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, and Margaret Wake. Edmund was in turn a son of Edward I of England and his second Queen consort Marguerite of France, and thus a younger half-brother of Edward II of England.
His father died in 1360, and later that year, on 28 December, Thomas became Baron Holand. His mother was still Countess of Kent in her own right, and in 1361 she married Edward, the Black Prince, the son of King Edward III.
At sixteen, in 1366, Holland was appointed captain of the English forces in Aquitaine. Over the next decade he fought in various campaigns, including the Battle of Nájera, under the command of his stepfather Edward, the Black Prince. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1375.
Richard II became king in 1377, and soon Holland acquired great influence over his younger half-brother, which he used for his own enrichment. In 1381, he succeeded as Earl of Kent.
On 10 April 1364 Holland married Lady Alice FitzAlan, daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel by his wife Eleanor of Lancaster. Lady Alice was later named as a Lady of the Garter. By his wife he had three sons and six daughters. All the sons died without legitimate children, whereupon the daughters and their issue became co-heiresses to the House of Holland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Holland,_2nd_Earl_of_Kent
