| Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holland | |
| Father: | Sir Robert de Holland |
| Mother: | Elizabeth de Samlesbury |
| Spouse: | Maud la Zouche |
| Birth Place: | Lancashire |
| Death Date: | October 1328 |
| Burial Place: | Lancashire |
Robert de Holland, 1st Baron Holand (1283 – October 1328) was an English nobleman, born in Lancashire.
Holland was a son of Sir Robert de Holland of Upholland, Lancashire, and Elizabeth, daughter of William de Samlesbury.
Holland was a member of the noble Holland family and a favourite official of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, and was knighted by 1305. He was appointed on 20 December 1307 in a matter concerning the Knight Templars, shortly before Edward II ordered their arrest and trials in January 1308. In October 1313 Holland was pardoned for his role in the death of Piers Gaveston. From 1314 to 1321 he was called to Parliament as a baron and was appointed as secretary to the Earl of Lancaster.
Holland's favoured treatment by the powerful earl caused his rival knights in the area, led by Adam Banastre, Henry de Lea, and William de Bradshagh (Bradshaw), to start a campaign of violence towards him and the earl's other supporters known as the Banastre Rebellion. The rebels protested against the earl's actions and authority by attacking the homes of his supporters and several castles, including Liverpool Castle. Holland later assisted in the hunt for fugitives after the rebels had been routed in Preston by a force under the command of the Sheriff of Lancashire.
On 4 March 1322 Holland was ordered to join the king with horses and men to defend against Lancaster's rebellion. Twelve days later Holland betrayed the king and fought alongside Lancaster at the Battle of Boroughbridge.
After their defeat, Holland surrendered and was imprisoned and had his lands confiscated. He was released from prison but was accused of having joined with other rebels in raids on the estates of Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester, over the next few years. Holland was again imprisoned in Warwick Castle before being moved in 1326 to Northampton Castle from which he escaped.
Following Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer's overthrow of Edward II, Holland was pardoned for his escape from Northampton at the request of Henry de Beaumont; his lands were restored to him on 24 December 1327.
Holland still had enemies from the Banastre Rebellion though and in June 1328 they attempted to outlaw Holland for the deaths of Banastre and his followers, thirteen years after their deaths. Holland appealed against this but was killed in October in a wood near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Thomas Wither is named by some as the murderer and is claimed to have been a supporter of the new Earl of Lancaster, Henry but in light of Holland's outlawry in June may have been a supporter of Banastre as well. Holland was beheaded, his head sent to the Earl of Lancaster at Waltham Cross and his body to Preston, Lancashire where it was buried in the church of Grey Friars. The inaccuracies of some accounts of Holland suggest his rivals may have smeared him deliberately.
An Inquisition Post Mortem held in October 1328 found he held lands in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and London.
Holland married before 1309/10 (being contracted to marry in or before 1305/6) Maud la Zouche, daughter and co-heiress of Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby, by his wife, Eleanor de Segrave. Holland and Maud had nine children:
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