Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury
Encyclopedia
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 - 27 May 1541) was an English
peeress
, one of two women in sixteenth-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband, the daughter of George of Clarence, the brother of King Edward IV
and King Richard III
. She was among the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses
; she was executed in 1541 at the command of King Henry VIII
, who was her cousin Elizabeth's
son. Pope Leo XIII
beatified her as a martyr for the Roman Catholic Church
on 29 December 1886.
in Somerset
, the eldest daughter of the 1st Duke of Clarence
and the former Isabella Neville, elder daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and of Salisbury
("Warwick the Kingmaker") and Anne Beauchamp
, his wife, who inherited the Earldom of Warwick. Her grandfather was killed fighting against her uncle, Edward IV of England at the Battle of Barnet
; her father had then been created Earl of Salisbury and of Warwick; he was already Duke of Clarence. Edward IV had declared that her brother Edward
should be known as Earl of Warwick as a courtesy title, but no peerage was ever created for him.
When she was three, her mother and her youngest brother died; her father killed two of his servants who he thought had poisoned them. He plotted against Edward IV, his brother, and was attainted
and executed for treason, and his lands and titles forfeited. When she was ten, Edward IV died; her uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, declared that Edward's marriage was invalid, his children illegitimate, and that Margaret and her brother Edward were debarred from the throne by their father's attainder. He assumed the throne himself as Richard III of England
.
Richard III ordered the children held at Sheriff Hutton Castle
in Yorkshire, since they were rivals for the throne. When he was defeated by Henry VII of England
, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the new king married her cousin Elizabeth, Edward IV's daughter. He kept her brother Edward in the Tower of London
. Edward was briefly displayed in public at St Paul's Cathedral
in 1487 in response to the presentation of the impostor Lambert Simnel
as the 'Earl of Warwick' to the Irish lords. Shortly thereafter, probably in November 1487, Henry VII gave Margaret in marriage to his cousin, Sir Richard Pole
, whose mother was half-sister of the King's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort; this would make it more difficult for plotters to use her as figurehead. When Perkin Warbeck
impersonated her cousin Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
in 1499, her brother Edward was attainted and executed for involvement in the plot.
Sir Richard Pole held a variety of offices in Henry VII's government, the highest being Chamberlain for Arthur, Prince of Wales
, Henry's elder son. When Arthur married Catherine of Aragon
, Margaret Pole became one of her ladies-in-waiting, but her entourage was dissolved when Arthur died in 1502, in his teens.
When her husband died in 1504, Margaret Pole was a widow with five children, a limited amount of land inherited from her husband, no salary and no prospects; Henry VII paid for Sir Richard's funeral. To ease the situation, Lady Pole devoted her third son Reginald Pole to the Church, where he was to have an eventful career: papal Legate, Archbishop of Canterbury, accused by the Pope of heresy; he was to bitterly resent this abandonment in later life.
She managed her lands well; by 1538, she was the fifth richest peer in England. She was a patron of the new learning
, like many Renaissance nobles; Gentian Hervet translated Erasmus' de immensa misericordia Dei (The Great Mercy of God) into English for her.
Her first son, Henry Pole
, was created Baron Montagu
, another of the Neville titles; he spoke for the family in the House of Lords. Her second son, Sir Arthur Pole, had a generally successful career as a courtier, becoming one of the six Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber; he had a setback when his patron Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
was convicted of treason in 1521, but was soon restored to favor. He died young about 1526, having married the heiress of Sir Roger Lewknor; the Countess and Lord Montagu pressed his widow to a vow of perpetual chastity to preserve her inheritance for her Pole children. Her daughter Ursula
had married the Duke of Buckingham's son, Edward Stafford; but after the Duke's fall, the couple was given only some fragments of his estates. The Countess raised her Stafford granddaughters.
Her third son, Reginald Pole, studied abroad in Padua; he was dean in Exeter and in Dorset, and canon in York, as well as several other livings, although he had not been ordained a priest; he represented Henry VIII in Paris in 1529, persuading the theologians of the Sorbonne to support Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Her youngest son Geoffrey Pole
also married well: to Catherine, daughter of Sir Edmund Pakenham, and inherited the estate of Lordington. He sat in the House of Commons from a family seat, and was in Thomas Cromwell's service at Anne Boleyn's coronation in 1533.
The Countess of Salisbury's own favor at Court varied. She had a dispute over land with Henry VIII in 1518; he awarded the contested lands to the Duchy of Somerset
, which had been held by his Beaufort grandfather — and was now in the possession of the Crown – i.e., Henry. In 1520, Salisbury was appointed Governess to Henry's daughter, the Lady Mary
; the next year, when her sons were mixed up with Buckingham, she was removed, but she was restored by 1525. When Mary was declared a bastard in 1533, the Countess refused to give Mary's gold plate and jewels back to Henry; when Mary's household was broken up at the end of the year, Salisbury asked to serve Mary at her own cost, but was not permitted; when the Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys
suggested, two years later, that Mary be handed over to the Countess, Henry refused, calling her "a fool, of no experience." When Anne Boleyn was arrested, and eventually executed, in 1536, Salisbury was permitted to return to Court — briefly.
In 1537, Pole (still not ordained) was created a Cardinal; Pope Paul III
put him in charge of organizing assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace
(and related movements), an effort to organize a march on London to install a Roman Catholic government instead of Henry's; neither Francis I of France
nor the Emperor supported this effort, and the English government tried to have him assassinated. In 1539, Pole was sent to the Emperor to organize an embargo
against England — the sort of countermeasure he had himself warned Henry was possible.
Sir Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald, and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter
(Henry VIII's first cousin and the Countess' second cousin) had turned up his name; he had appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Sir Geoffrey said that his eldest brother, Lord Montagu, and the Marquess had been parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, and Lady Salisbury were arrested in November 1538.
In January 1539, Sir Geoffrey was pardoned, and Montagu (and Exeter) were executed for treason after trial. In May 1539, Montagu, Lady Salisbury, Exeter and others were attainted, as her father had been; this conviction meant they lost their titles and their lands — mostly in the South of England, conveniently located to assist any invasion; they were sentenced to death, and could be executed at the King's will. As part of the evidence for the Bill of Attainder, Cromwell produced a tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, symbolizing her support for Roman Catholicism and the rule of Reginald and Mary; the supposed discovery, six months after her house and effects were searched at her arrest, is likely to be a fabrication.
Margaret Pole, as she now was, was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years; she, her grandson (Montagu's son), and Exeter's son were held together and supported by the King; she was attended by servants, and received an extensive grant of clothing in March 1541. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favor and was executed and attainted.
To the end, she contradicted the accusion of treason. The following poem was found carved on the wall of her cell:
On the morning of 27 May 1541 (her martyrdom is commemorated on the 28th; the 27th is the day of Saint Augustine of Canterbury
), Lady Salisbury was told she was to die within the hour. She answered that no crime had been imputed to her; nevertheless she was taken from her cell to the place within the precincts of the Tower of London, where a low wooden block had been prepared. As she was of noble birth, she was not executed before the populace, though there were about 150 witnesses. The frail and ill Lady was dragged to the block and, as she refused to lay her head on it, was forced down. As she struggled, the inexperienced executioner
's first blow made a gash in her shoulder rather than her neck. Ten additional blows were required to complete the execution. A less reputable account states that she leapt from the block after the first clumsy blow and ran, pursued by the executioner, being struck eleven times before she died. She was buried at the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London.
Her grandfather died, leaving no sons and two daughters; his lands were divided between them, and when the younger daughter, Anne Neville
, Richard III's queen, died without surviving children, Edward, as her nephew, inherited the lot. In the thirteenth century, the elder daughter's husband, George of Clarence, would have inherited the chief estate of the family and the earldoms. By modern law, it would have required a new creation for George to be an Earl, although the law of abeyance
, first devised under the Stuarts, would permit the King to declare one of the daughters a Countess in her own right; this did not happen. In the fifteenth century, an only daughter would have inherited — this is how the title came to the Nevilles in the first place — but when a peer left several daughters, the title immediately reverted to the Crown, which might very well regrant it to a member of the family.
J. H. Round, as followed by the Complete Peerage, holds, therefore, that her brother was representative of his father, and not of her grandfather, and that what was restored to his estate was his father's Earldom of Salisbury; so she is second Countess.
in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII
.
in Hampshire
and Bisham Manor
in Berkshire
. She and her husband were parents to five children:
in the Showtime series The Tudors
is loosely inspired by her.
She also appears in William Shakespeare
's Richard III
, as the young daughter of the murdered Clarence.
Attribution
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
peeress
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
, one of two women in sixteenth-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband, the daughter of George of Clarence, the brother of King Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
and King Richard III
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
. She was among the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
; she was executed in 1541 at the command of King Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, who was her cousin Elizabeth's
Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until 1503, and mother of King Henry VIII of England....
son. Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
beatified her as a martyr for the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
on 29 December 1886.
Life
Lady Margaret was born at Farleigh Hungerford CastleFarleigh Hungerford Castle
Farleigh Hungerford Castle, sometimes called Farleigh Castle or Farley Castle, is a medieval castle in Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, England. The castle was built in two phases: the inner court was constructed between 1377 and 1383 by Sir Thomas Hungerford, who made his fortune working as a...
in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, the eldest daughter of the 1st Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Warwick, KG was the third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the...
and the former Isabella Neville, elder daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and of Salisbury
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick
Richard Neville KG, jure uxoris 16th Earl of Warwick and suo jure 6th Earl of Salisbury and 8th and 5th Baron Montacute , known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, and military commander...
("Warwick the Kingmaker") and Anne Beauchamp
Anne Neville, 16th Countess of Warwick
Anne de Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick was the daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, and his second wife Isabel le Despenser. Isabel was a daughter of Thomas le Despenser Anne de Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick (13 July 1426 – 20 September 1492) was the daughter of...
, his wife, who inherited the Earldom of Warwick. Her grandfather was killed fighting against her uncle, Edward IV of England at the Battle of Barnet
Battle of Barnet
The Battle of Barnet was a decisive engagement in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic conflict of 15th-century England. The military action, along with the subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward IV...
; her father had then been created Earl of Salisbury and of Warwick; he was already Duke of Clarence. Edward IV had declared that her brother Edward
Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick
Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick was the son of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and a potential claimant to the English throne during the reigns of both Richard III and his successor, Henry VII...
should be known as Earl of Warwick as a courtesy title, but no peerage was ever created for him.
When she was three, her mother and her youngest brother died; her father killed two of his servants who he thought had poisoned them. He plotted against Edward IV, his brother, and was attainted
Attainder
In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura is the metaphorical 'stain' or 'corruption of blood' which arises from being condemned for a serious capital crime . It entails losing not only one's property and hereditary titles, but typically also the right to pass them on to one's heirs...
and executed for treason, and his lands and titles forfeited. When she was ten, Edward IV died; her uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, declared that Edward's marriage was invalid, his children illegitimate, and that Margaret and her brother Edward were debarred from the throne by their father's attainder. He assumed the throne himself as Richard III of England
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
.
Richard III ordered the children held at Sheriff Hutton Castle
Sheriff Hutton Castle
Sheriff Hutton Castle is a quadrangular castle in the village of Sheriff Hutton, North Yorkshire, England.-History:The original motte and bailey castle, the remains of which can be seen to the south of the churchyard. was built by Bertram de Bulmer, Sheriff of York during the reign of King Stephen...
in Yorkshire, since they were rivals for the throne. When he was defeated by Henry VII of England
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
, at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the new king married her cousin Elizabeth, Edward IV's daughter. He kept her brother Edward in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
. Edward was briefly displayed in public at St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
in 1487 in response to the presentation of the impostor Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel was a pretender to the throne of England. His claim to be the Earl of Warwick in 1487 threatened the newly established reign of King Henry VII .-Early life:...
as the 'Earl of Warwick' to the Irish lords. Shortly thereafter, probably in November 1487, Henry VII gave Margaret in marriage to his cousin, Sir Richard Pole
Sir Richard Pole
Sir Richard Pole, KG was a Welsh supporter of King Henry VII created Knight of the Garter and married to Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, a member of the Plantagenet dynasty, to reinforce the Tudor alliance between the houses of Lancaster and York.-Family:A descendant of an ancient Welsh...
, whose mother was half-sister of the King's mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort; this would make it more difficult for plotters to use her as figurehead. When Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the English throne during the reign of King Henry VII of England. By claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV, one of the Princes in the Tower, Warbeck was a significant threat to the newly established Tudor Dynasty,...
impersonated her cousin Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, 1st Duke of Norfolk, 1st Earl of Norfolk, Earl Marshal was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. He was born in Shrewsbury....
in 1499, her brother Edward was attainted and executed for involvement in the plot.
Sir Richard Pole held a variety of offices in Henry VII's government, the highest being Chamberlain for Arthur, Prince of Wales
Arthur, Prince of Wales
Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales was the first son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and therefore, heir to the throne of England. As he predeceased his father, Arthur never became king...
, Henry's elder son. When Arthur married Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
, Margaret Pole became one of her ladies-in-waiting, but her entourage was dissolved when Arthur died in 1502, in his teens.
When her husband died in 1504, Margaret Pole was a widow with five children, a limited amount of land inherited from her husband, no salary and no prospects; Henry VII paid for Sir Richard's funeral. To ease the situation, Lady Pole devoted her third son Reginald Pole to the Church, where he was to have an eventful career: papal Legate, Archbishop of Canterbury, accused by the Pope of heresy; he was to bitterly resent this abandonment in later life.
Countess of Salisbury
When Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, he married Catherine of Aragon himself; Lady Pole was again appointed one of her ladies-in-waiting. In 1512, Parliament restored to her her brother's lands, which were the Warwick and Salisbury lands of her grandfather; Henry VII had controlled them, first during her brother's minority and then during his imprisonment, and had confiscated them after his trial; the same Act also restored to her the Earldom of Salisbury.She managed her lands well; by 1538, she was the fifth richest peer in England. She was a patron of the new learning
New Learning
In the history of ideas the New Learning in Europe is a term for Renaissance humanism, developed in the later fifteenth century. Newly retrieved classical texts sparked philological study of a refined and classical Latin style in prose and poetry....
, like many Renaissance nobles; Gentian Hervet translated Erasmus' de immensa misericordia Dei (The Great Mercy of God) into English for her.
Her first son, Henry Pole
Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu
Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu , the only holder of the title Baron Montagu under its 1514 creation, was most famous as one of the peers in the trial of Anne Boleyn.-Life:...
, was created Baron Montagu
Baron Montagu
The titles Baron Montacute or Baron Montagu were created three and two times respectively in the Peerage of England.-Montacute:The first creation was for John de Montacute who was summoned to parliament on 29 December 1299. The third baron was created Earl of Salisbury in 1337. On the death of the...
, another of the Neville titles; he spoke for the family in the House of Lords. Her second son, Sir Arthur Pole, had a generally successful career as a courtier, becoming one of the six Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber; he had a setback when his patron Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, KG was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and the former Lady Catherine Woodville, daughter of the 1st Earl Rivers and sister-in-law of King Edward IV.-Early life:Stafford was born at Brecknock Castle in Wales...
was convicted of treason in 1521, but was soon restored to favor. He died young about 1526, having married the heiress of Sir Roger Lewknor; the Countess and Lord Montagu pressed his widow to a vow of perpetual chastity to preserve her inheritance for her Pole children. Her daughter Ursula
Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford
Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford was an English noblewoman, a wealthy heiress, and the only daughter of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, the last surviving member of the Plantagenet dynasty who was executed for treason by the command of King Henry VIII in 1541...
had married the Duke of Buckingham's son, Edward Stafford; but after the Duke's fall, the couple was given only some fragments of his estates. The Countess raised her Stafford granddaughters.
Her third son, Reginald Pole, studied abroad in Padua; he was dean in Exeter and in Dorset, and canon in York, as well as several other livings, although he had not been ordained a priest; he represented Henry VIII in Paris in 1529, persuading the theologians of the Sorbonne to support Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Her youngest son Geoffrey Pole
Geoffrey Pole
Sir Geoffrey Pole of Lordington, Sussex was an English knight who supported the Catholic Church in England and Wales when Henry VIII of England was establishing the alternative Church of England with himself as leader....
also married well: to Catherine, daughter of Sir Edmund Pakenham, and inherited the estate of Lordington. He sat in the House of Commons from a family seat, and was in Thomas Cromwell's service at Anne Boleyn's coronation in 1533.
The Countess of Salisbury's own favor at Court varied. She had a dispute over land with Henry VIII in 1518; he awarded the contested lands to the Duchy of Somerset
Duke of Somerset
Duke of Somerset is a title in the peerage of England that has been created several times. Derived from Somerset, it is particularly associated with two families; the Beauforts who held the title from the creation of 1448 and the Seymours, from the creation of 1547 and in whose name the title is...
, which had been held by his Beaufort grandfather — and was now in the possession of the Crown – i.e., Henry. In 1520, Salisbury was appointed Governess to Henry's daughter, the Lady Mary
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
; the next year, when her sons were mixed up with Buckingham, she was removed, but she was restored by 1525. When Mary was declared a bastard in 1533, the Countess refused to give Mary's gold plate and jewels back to Henry; when Mary's household was broken up at the end of the year, Salisbury asked to serve Mary at her own cost, but was not permitted; when the Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys
Eustace Chapuys
Eustace Chapuys was a Savoyard diplomat who served as the Imperial ambassador to England from 1529 until 1545 and is best known for his extensive and detailed correspondence.-Life:...
suggested, two years later, that Mary be handed over to the Countess, Henry refused, calling her "a fool, of no experience." When Anne Boleyn was arrested, and eventually executed, in 1536, Salisbury was permitted to return to Court — briefly.
Fall
In May 1536, Reginald Pole finally and definitively broke with the King. In 1531, he had warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage; he had returned to Padua in 1532, and received a last English benefice in December. Chapuys had suggested to the Emperor Charles V that Pole marry the Lady Mary and combine their dynastic claims; Chapuys also communicated with Reginald through his brother Geoffrey. Now Pole replied to books Henry sent him with his own pamphlet, pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione, or de unitate which denied Henry's position on the marriage of a brother's wife, and denied the Royal Supremacy; Pole also urged the Princes of Europe to depose Henry immediately. Henry wrote the Countess, who in turn wrote her son a letter reproving him for his "folly."In 1537, Pole (still not ordained) was created a Cardinal; Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III , born Alessandro Farnese, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1534 to his death in 1549. He came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527 and rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church following the Protestant Reformation...
put him in charge of organizing assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in York, Yorkshire during 1536, in protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. It was done in action against Thomas Cromwell...
(and related movements), an effort to organize a march on London to install a Roman Catholic government instead of Henry's; neither Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
nor the Emperor supported this effort, and the English government tried to have him assassinated. In 1539, Pole was sent to the Emperor to organize an embargo
Embargo
An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...
against England — the sort of countermeasure he had himself warned Henry was possible.
Sir Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald, and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter
Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter
Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, KG, PC was the eldest son of William Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon and Catherine of York, and grandson of King Edward IV of England.He was an older brother of Margaret Courtenay...
(Henry VIII's first cousin and the Countess' second cousin) had turned up his name; he had appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Sir Geoffrey said that his eldest brother, Lord Montagu, and the Marquess had been parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, and Lady Salisbury were arrested in November 1538.
In January 1539, Sir Geoffrey was pardoned, and Montagu (and Exeter) were executed for treason after trial. In May 1539, Montagu, Lady Salisbury, Exeter and others were attainted, as her father had been; this conviction meant they lost their titles and their lands — mostly in the South of England, conveniently located to assist any invasion; they were sentenced to death, and could be executed at the King's will. As part of the evidence for the Bill of Attainder, Cromwell produced a tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, symbolizing her support for Roman Catholicism and the rule of Reginald and Mary; the supposed discovery, six months after her house and effects were searched at her arrest, is likely to be a fabrication.
Margaret Pole, as she now was, was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years; she, her grandson (Montagu's son), and Exeter's son were held together and supported by the King; she was attended by servants, and received an extensive grant of clothing in March 1541. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favor and was executed and attainted.
Execution
| Blessed Margaret Pole | |
|---|---|
| 8th Countess of Salisbury | |
| Born | 14 August 1473, Farleigh Farleigh Hungerford Farleigh Hungerford is a village within the civil parish of Norton St Philip in Somerset, England, 9 miles southeast of Bath, 3½ miles west of Trowbridge on A366, in the valley of the River Frome.... Castle, Somerset Somerset The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the... , England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
| Died | 27 May 1541, Tower of London Tower of London Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space... , City of London City of London The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of... , England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
| Venerated by | Roman Catholic Church Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity... |
| Beatified | 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903... |
| Feast Calendar of saints The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the feast day of said saint... |
28 May |
To the end, she contradicted the accusion of treason. The following poem was found carved on the wall of her cell:
- For traitors on the block should die;
- I am no traitor, no, not I!
- My faithfulness stands fast and so,
- Towards the block I shall not go!
- Nor make one step, as you shall see;
- Christ in Thy Mercy, save Thou me!
On the morning of 27 May 1541 (her martyrdom is commemorated on the 28th; the 27th is the day of Saint Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...
), Lady Salisbury was told she was to die within the hour. She answered that no crime had been imputed to her; nevertheless she was taken from her cell to the place within the precincts of the Tower of London, where a low wooden block had been prepared. As she was of noble birth, she was not executed before the populace, though there were about 150 witnesses. The frail and ill Lady was dragged to the block and, as she refused to lay her head on it, was forced down. As she struggled, the inexperienced executioner
Executioner
A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.-Scope and job:...
's first blow made a gash in her shoulder rather than her neck. Ten additional blows were required to complete the execution. A less reputable account states that she leapt from the block after the first clumsy blow and ran, pursued by the executioner, being struck eleven times before she died. She was buried at the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London.
Numbering
Both her father and her mother's father were Earls of Salisbury. Did they hold the same Earldom? If not, which of the Earldoms was restored to her? The Act of Parliament does not say, and respectable authorities differ; the chief effect of these verbal issues is whether she is eighth or second holder of the Earldom (in shorthand, "8th Countess" or "2nd Countess"; other numbers are also defensible).Her grandfather died, leaving no sons and two daughters; his lands were divided between them, and when the younger daughter, Anne Neville
Anne Neville
Lady Anne Neville was Princess of Wales as the wife of Edward of Westminster and Queen of England as the consort of King Richard III. She held the latter title for less than two years, from 26 June 1483 until her death in March 1485...
, Richard III's queen, died without surviving children, Edward, as her nephew, inherited the lot. In the thirteenth century, the elder daughter's husband, George of Clarence, would have inherited the chief estate of the family and the earldoms. By modern law, it would have required a new creation for George to be an Earl, although the law of abeyance
Abeyance
Abeyance is a state of expectancy in respect of property, titles or office, when the right to them is not vested in any one person, but awaits the appearance or determination of the true owner. In law, the term abeyance can only be applied to such future estates as have not yet vested or possibly...
, first devised under the Stuarts, would permit the King to declare one of the daughters a Countess in her own right; this did not happen. In the fifteenth century, an only daughter would have inherited — this is how the title came to the Nevilles in the first place — but when a peer left several daughters, the title immediately reverted to the Crown, which might very well regrant it to a member of the family.
J. H. Round, as followed by the Complete Peerage, holds, therefore, that her brother was representative of his father, and not of her grandfather, and that what was restored to his estate was his father's Earldom of Salisbury; so she is second Countess.
Legacy
Her son, Reginald Pole, said that he would "...never fear to call himself the son of a martyr". She was later regarded by Catholics as such and was beatifiedBeatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
.
Family
When not at Court, the Countess lived chiefly at Warblington CastleWarblington Castle
Warblington Castle or Warblington manor was a moated manor near Langstone in Hampshire that today consists of little more than one turret, part of the old gatehouse.-Details:...
in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
and Bisham Manor
Bisham Abbey
Bisham Abbey is a Grade I listed manor house at Bisham in the English county of Berkshire. The name is taken from the now lost monastery which once stood alongside. Bisham Abbey was previously named Bisham Priory, and was the traditional resting place of many Earls of Salisbury...
in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
. She and her husband were parents to five children:
- Henry Pole, 11th Baron Montacute (c. 1492 - 9 January 1539), notable as one of the peers in the trial of Anne BoleynAnne BoleynAnne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
; married Jane Neville, daughter of the 4th and 2nd Baron BergavennyGeorge Nevill, 4th Baron BergavennySir George Nevill, 4th and de jure 2nd Baron Bergavenny was an English nobleman.George was the son of Edward Nevill, 3rd Baron Bergavenny and Elizabeth de Beauchamp, Lady of Abergavenny. He was knighted by Edward IV on 9 May 1471, after fighting for the King at the Battle of Tewkesbury...
and the former Margaret Fenne. Beheaded by Henry VIII. Ironically a great-grandson of Henry Pole was Sir John Bourchier, a regicide of King Charles I of EnglandCharles I of EnglandCharles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
- a great-great-grandnephew of Henry VIII. - Reginald Pole (c. 1500 - 17 November 1558), cardinal, papal legate in various regions, including England, and the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of CanterburyArchbishop of CanterburyThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
. - Sir Geoffrey PoleGeoffrey PoleSir Geoffrey Pole of Lordington, Sussex was an English knight who supported the Catholic Church in England and Wales when Henry VIII of England was establishing the alternative Church of England with himself as leader....
(c. 1501 - 1558), Lord of the ManorLord of the ManorThe Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
of Lordington in SussexSussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, suspected of treason by King Henry VIII and accused of conspiring with Charles V, Holy Roman EmperorCharles V, Holy Roman EmperorCharles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
; lived in exile in EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
; married Constance Pakenham, granddaughter and heiress of Sir John Pakenham. John Pakenham was ancestor to Sir Edward PakenhamEdward PakenhamSir Edward Michael Pakenham GCB , styled The Honourable from his birth until 1813, was an Irish British Army Officer and Politician. He was the brother-in law of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he served in the Peninsular War...
, brother-in-law to Duke of WellingtonDuke of WellingtonThe Dukedom of Wellington, derived from Wellington in Somerset, is a hereditary title in the senior rank of the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first holder of the title was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , the noted Irish-born career British Army officer and statesman, and...
. - Sir Arthur Pole (c. 1502 - 1535), Lord of the ManorLord of the ManorThe Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
of Broadhurst in SussexSussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
; married Jane Lewknor, daughter of Sir Roger Lewknor and the former Eleanor Tuchet, herself daughter of the 6th Baron AudleyJohn Tuchet, 6th Baron AudleyJohn Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley, 3rd Baron Tuchet was an English peer.John Tuchet was the son of James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley . He married Ann Echingham, daughter of Sir Thomas Echingham with whom he had seven children...
and the former Anne Echingham. - Lady Ursula Pole (c. 1504 - 12 August 1570), married Henry Stafford, 1st Baron StaffordHenry Stafford, 1st Baron StaffordHenry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford was born in Penshurst, Kent, England the eldest son of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Eleanor Percy, Duchess of Buckingham. Eleanor was the daughter of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland and Maud Herbert, Countess of Northumberland...
.
Fictional portrayals
The character of Lady Salisbury, played by Kate O'TooleKate O'Toole (actress)
Kate E. O'Toole is an Irish actress. She is the daughter of actors Peter O'Toole and Siân Phillips and was named after Katharine Hepburn....
in the Showtime series The Tudors
The Tudors
The Tudors is a Canadian produced historical fiction television series filmed in Ireland, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime...
is loosely inspired by her.
She also appears in William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, as the young daughter of the murdered Clarence.
Sources
- DWYER, J. G. "Pole, Margaret Plantagenet, Bl." New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 455-456. Cited as New Catholic Encyclopedia.
- T. F. Mayer, ‘Pole, Reginald (1500–1558)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, cited as ODNB, Reginald Pole.; cited as ODNB.
Further reading
- Pierce, Hazel (2003). Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, 1473–1541: Loyalty, Lineage and Leadership, University of Wales Press, ISBN 0-7083-1783-9
Attribution