Joan is the ultimate sex goddess; attractive, an entertaining and humorous conversationalist. Nearly every man she meets finds her sexually stimulating and often the feelings are reciprocated. Inevitably she is extremely experienced in sexual matters.
She is also ambitious, determined and generous to those who help her achieve her ambitions. Despite continually vowing to reform her dissolute lifestyle, in order to become the next Queen of England, she cannot help herself. Seduction has become just one of the many skills at her disposal.
A child, only just eleven, Joan went through a romanticised marriage with Thomas Holland.
Perhaps more significantly the marriage had been consummated. The consummation had taken the form of a theatrical performance in which a virgin princess sacrificed herself to a barbarian invader to save her people. There was an audience to this performance who would later bear witness to the fact that the consummation had actually occurred.
Joan herself moved on quickly. She seduced both the Black Prince and William Montacute. Neither of them ever fully recovered. Joan developed a menage a trois which was enjoyed by all of them.
Having been educated as a Cathar she did not realise how important an event in her life the make-believe marriage was likely to be.
Edward III had tried to protect his son in 1342 by marrying Joan to William Montacute. But William was by now the Black Prince’s best friend. The marriage was used in practice to hide a continuing love affair between Joan and the Prince.
Joan’s world came crashing down when Thomas Holland reclaimed her as his wife. Joan slumped into a dissolute lifestyle which was the scandal of Europe.
Joan’s triumph is that she emerged from that as loving, constructive and ultimately faithful, as she re-established her relationship with the Prince.
Her tragedy was that despite her love for the Prince she became aware of his incompetence in political governance but was unable to get him to change