IN THE NEW ERA OF PEACE in 1360, nobles and gentlefolk who had vigorously plied the trade of war in France, some for decades, had suddenly to consider alternative spheres of action. Some knights and squires carried on soldiering as captains of mercenaries. They led and served in some of the ‘Companies’ in their attempts to hold on to the places which they occupied in France. Some companies sought their fortunes in other countries, such as politically fragmented Italy, where Sir John Hawkwood and members of the White Company were to operate with famous success for decades. Some now turned to the true highest path of a Christian knight by crusading. Thomas Beauchamp earl of Warwick did so in late 1364, going to Prussia to campaign with the Order of Teutonic Knights against the Lithuanians. He returned with ‘the Kynges son of lettowe’ (Lithuania), a pagan whose baptism in London he sponsored. Some, like Sir John Chandos, sought offices in the administration of the territories newly ceded to Edward III in full sovereignty by the French Crown. Others wished to return to England, to review or enhance their family's fortunes, and to beget heirs. This was specially necessary for the many knights who had perforce, through indigence or their absorption in campaigning abroad, remained bachelors, and were eager to marry heiresses and perpetuate or found families well endowed with properties.

What path might Thomas Holand have taken in the new circumstances? His career in royal administration in France had just reached a peak when he died. If he had not wanted to adjust to courtly and country pursuits in England, he might well have been employed for further service in the familiar context of Brittany, where civil war continued. He was well qualified to continue as lieutenant for the king's Norman lordships, or to be appointed as sénéchal of one of the acquired territories south of the Loire, such as the counties of Poitou, Saintonge or Quercy. He might have been moved once more to take the Cross, as crusading opportunities opened up in the 1360s.