She was now one of the richest people in England. The trial of Sir Thomas More for treason opened in Westminster Hall on July 1, 1535. She was pregnant at the time of her bereavement, and soon she would join the entourage of the Spanish bride. [1] He was the son of Michael de la Pole, 1st Earl of Suffolk and Katherine Wingfield . It seems Margaret was questioned about her contacts with Barton, but she came to no harm as a result and, unlike Gertrude, she escaped without grovelling. A Yorkist pretender had been crowned in Dublin, a child who claimed to be the Plantagenet heir, Edward, Earl of Warwick, Margarets 12-year-old brother. Reginald studied in Italy in 1521 through 1526, financed in part by Henry VIII, then returned and was offered by Henry the choice of several high offices in the church if he would support Henrys divorce from Catherine. In 1886, Margaret would be beatified by Pope Leo XIII as a martyr to Henrys regime. Pierces book is thorough and scholarly, and her work is acknowledged in Higginbothams biography, which is less detailed, but serious and judicious. She was head of her family, a magnate with vast resources in men and money; any disaffection on her part was dangerous. Back in 1521, there had been a wobble in the family fortunes when the Duke of Buckingham, into whose family Ursula Pole had married, was executed for treason: Margarets eldest son, Henry Lord Montagu, had been imprisoned briefly, and her duties in the princesss household were suspended. True or not, the marriage proved to be happy and fruitful, though of brief duration. Katheryn Howard was fortunate. Margaret's relationship with Henry VIII, must have been good. Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 - 28 May 1541), also called Margaret Pole, as a result of her marriage to Sir Richard Pole, was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III (all sons of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York ), by his wife Isabel . Margarets daughter Ursula would have 13 children, and three of her four sons would marry heiresses and have large families. The one potentially scandalous act of his life was his quick second marriage to a widow seven years his senior, Alice Middleton. During the reign of Edward IV, little Margaret and her brother were brought up at Sheen . His home at Chelsea was as close as Tudor England would come to an 18th century French salon. She certainly didn't bow to any pressure later in her life to give up her son. Margarets later life, at least, is well documented, but we cannot approach her story from the inside. The Duke of Clarence plotted against Edward IV and in February 1478 was attainted and executed for treason. Lewis, Jone Johnson. Margaret is a devout Catholic and a member of the House of York, which fought Henry's father during the War of the Roses; she is first cousin of Henry's mother Queen Elizabeth of York through her father George Plantagenet, Elizabeth's uncle and the brother of Edward IV. Elizabeth Throckmorton. But if the great Sir Thomas More believed the king to be wrong? When Arthur died in 1502, the Poles lost that position. He did not share his opinion with the king. He wore many hats: chief diplomat, speechwriter, advisor. But polite prevarications only worked for so long and soon More was a genuine courtier, with all its attendant duties and benefits. Margaret Poles death, notoriously, was not a clean end. He grew up cultivated and cosmopolitan, sensitive, lively-minded. The king financed Richards funeral. Now he decided to seriously test his religious convictions. Answer (1 of 16): Henry's break with Reginald Pole was the reason the Countess of Salisbury was in a situation to be executed in the first place, but the botched nature of the deed itself had rather more pedestrian origins. He lived in relative poverty, for he held no office and relied solely upon the hundred pounds per annum he collected from a property rental. . The Editor May 28, 2015. It was perfectly clear to any objective observer that the marriage was unlawful before God! Cardinal Wolsey and the king needed no further reason to bring More into the kings service. It was More's execution - far more than those of Anne Boleyn or Thomas Cromwell or Margaret Pole - which established the king's reputation for capricious cruelty. The accounts differ slightly; Marillac's report, dispatched two days afterwards, recorded that the execution took place in a corner of the Tower with so few people present that, in the evening, news of her execution was doubted. In some cases, they conspired against the crown while claiming, if it went badly, that their weak female brains had been addled by male influence, and that fragility and brittleness allowed their trust to be easily abused. We can't imagine how Margaret was feeling, she was 65 years of age when brought to the tower in 1539, an advanced age by the standards of the day. letters@lrb.co.uk A painting in the National Portrait Gallery offers a grey-white face, long, guarded, medieval, remote: 'unknown woman, formerly known as Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury'. Thomas More (1478-1535), lawyer and moral philosopher, is still regarded by many Catholics as the quintessential good man. Margaret would have had a claim to the Earldom of Warwick, but the earldom was forfeited on the attainder of her brother Edward.[4]. It mattered to London shopkeepers, and to great churchmen. You see, we speak of being anchored to our principles. Because of this, she becomes an unprovoked target for the King's anger. Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. She served later as a governess to Mary. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. He answered their queries as best he could, assuring them of his loyalty to king and state and stressing the matter of his personal conscience. (1) Basically, they disliked and mistrusted one another. Chapuys also communicated with Reginald through his brother, Geoffrey. Biography. It was a housekeeping matter, the French ambassador said; Henry, now with his fifth wife, Katherine Howard, wanted to make a progress north, and to empty the Tower before he set off, either by acts of mercy or the condemnation of detainees. [4] After her husband's death, Margaret had such inadequate means to support herself and her children that she was forced to live at Syon Abbey as the guest of the Bridgettine nuns. Thomas More, Thomas Morus ou Toms Moro [1] (Londres, 7 de fevereiro de 1478 Londres, 6 de julho de 1535) foi filsofo, homem de estado, diplomata, escritor, advogado e homem de leis, ocupou vrios cargos pblicos, e em especial, de 1529 a 1532, o cargo de "Lord Chancellor" (Chanceler do Reino - o primeiro leigo em vrios sculos) de Henrique VIII da Inglaterra. Her life, marked by stunning reversals of fortune, is an irresistible subject, but it presents a familiar difficulty for the historian. But he himself did not sign the letter in which most of Englands nobles and prelates petitioned the pope to declare the marriage unlawful. Henry Tudor had the real Warwick in custody, and was able to produce him, so the rebellion came to nothing. The nun sought out eminent supporters, especially those who, like Margaret and like Gertrudes husband, had a claim to the throne, and pressed on them the contents of her visions: unless he went back to his wife and to Rome, Henry would expire in torments. Rebecca Benson as Margaret Pole in The White Princess (2017)(Screenshot/Fair Use) Margaret Plantagenet was born on 14 August 1473 at Farleigh Castle near Bath as the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville. When Catherine of Aragon gave birth to a daughter, Mary, Margaret Pole was asked to be one of the godmothers. Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 28 May 1541), also called Margaret Pole, as a result of her marriage to Sir Richard Pole, was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III (all sons of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York), by his wife Isabel Neville. Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, was born at Farley Castle, near Bath, on 14th August, in or about the year 1473. The two men had first met in 1497 and remained close friends until Mores death. It is only in adversity that Margaret shows herself, in the records of her interrogations, when she was a woman in her sixties, experienced, shrewd, hard to frighten. Like other noble ladies the kings sister the Duchess of Suffolk, or the Duke of Norfolks wife Margaret was not comfortable at the court of Anne Boleyn. Arthur had been a courtier, an able jouster and a great favourite with Henry, serving in his privy chamber. Tragedy throws her into poverty and rebellion against the new royal family, luck restores her to her place at court where she becomes the chief lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherine and watches the dominance of the Spanish queen over her husband, and her fall. Quite the opposite. As his disgrace deepened, Margaret withdrew from court. When Prince Arthur held court in Ludlow with the 15-year-old Catherine of Aragon, Richard Pole was with him, and a friendship began between the bride and the chamberlains wife which was to outlast Catherines life and have deep and lasting consequences for Margaret Pole. Then, her prayers completed, she faced the incompetent axeman. [3], Margaret was born at Farleigh Castle in Somerset, the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and his wife Isabel Neville, who was the elder daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and his wife Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick. London, WC1A 2HNletters@lrb.co.uk She was the niece of Edward IV and Richard III of England by way of their brother George Plantagenet, 1 st Duke of Clarence. Today we know Sir Thomas More primarily as the author of Utopia, and as one of the more famous martyrs of Henry VIIIs reign. Anne was the anointed queen. Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford the daughter of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury and Sir Richard Pole. He read anything and everything he could find on the subject. Mores only communication with Barton had been to warn her against meddling in affairs of state. On 27th May, in 1541 Margaret Pole, niece of Richard III and Edward IV, was executed at the command of Henry VIII. Later, he would castigate her in the accents of a hurt child for what seemed to him abandonment, telling her that as she had given him up when he was so young, she should not interfere between him and his conscience. Margaret Pole was the daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, brother to Edward IV, and a leading figure in the Wars of the Roses. (We should note, however, that More brilliant and perceptive was never especially comfortable in his kings good graces. Their old friendship was past; the kings new advisors were anti-Catholic and pro-Protestant, most notably among them was Thomas Cromwell. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Abstract. The date of the marriage is uncertain; 1487 is likely. Margaret would have been too young to remember her mother, and it is likely that she was brought up within her fathers princely household, then after his execution lived with her cousins, the many daughters of Edward IV. Managed all schedules for company and . 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 instead of the customary scaffold.[5]. Her son Reginald described himself afterwards as son of a martyr and in 1886, Pope Leo XIII had Margaret Pole beatified as a martyr. But no one could be sure they were dead, and not escaped abroad, or living under assumed names. Chapuys wrote that, "at first, when the sentence of death was made known to her, she found the thing very strange, not knowing of what crime she was accused, nor how she had been sentenced". St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Bridge Gate, Derby, Our Lady and the English Martyrs' church in Cambridge. Not only did this mean that Margaret came of royal stock, but it meant that she came from the family that was historically opposed to the reign of the Tudors, a fact that would affect her throughout her life. According to some stories, which are not accepted by many historians, she refused to lay her head on the block, and guards had to force her to kneel. In practice, pre-nuptial agreements, trusts and the legally sanctioned breach of entails created some flexibility. That was what really cost her head in the end, but we wanted to . Richard Pole was appointed to the household of Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII and Prince of Wales, heir apparent. More importantly, he developed a personal relationship with Henry VIII, and because known as the kings intellectual courtier. (Along with Margaret her sister-in-law Eleanor Pole was also a lady-in-waiting to Katherine. Intellectuals from England and Europe visited; More was a generous and kind host. As widows, or as deputies to living husbands, they handled complex legal and financial affairs with aplomb, while assenting outwardly at least to their status as irrational and inferior beings. She, her grandson, Henry (son of her own son Henry), and Exeter's son were held together and supported by the king. Even as he secretly wore a hair shirt, he openly and consistently fasted, prayed, and maintained a relatively modest household. Most of Englands nobles and prelates petitioned the Pope thomas more and margaret pole relationship declare the marriage unlawful an 18th century salon! He did not sign the letter in which most of Englands nobles and petitioned. 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