The new memorial that has been erected in front of the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula on Tower Green marks the spot 'identified' in the Victorian period as being the . Perhaps his earlier justification for the annulment had been a matter of self-interest, a selective interpretation of opaque text. In this first biography of a significant female figure in the male-dominated world of British Tudor politics, Hazel Pierce reconsiders the life and martyrdom of Catholic duchess Margaret Pole against the changing social and political landscape of her times. For these reasons, More had no cause to suspect his monarch of anything less than fealty to their shared faith. She also had restored to her the title to the Earldom of Salisbury. Margaret was looked after well in the Tower, with Henry VIII paying for her food, clothing and a woman to attend her. Rather, he felt that he could be more effective in the city itself, not closeted away amongst the nobles and councilors of Henrys court. My faithfulness stands fast and so, Credit: PjrWindows / Alamy Stock Photo. At their trial, a Cromwellian observer said, the noblemen stood at the bar with castyng up of eies and hands, as though those thyngs had ben never herd of before, that thenne were laid to theyr charge. Her husbands career flourished. Henry and his ministers suspected Reginald of plotting to marry the kings daughter Mary, and unite her claim with his. And More was more convinced than ever that he needed to leave royal service. The second season of The Spanish Princess premieres on Starz on Sunday, October 11. We know her, as we know so many of her contemporaries, through her inventories, through legal documents and official letters. Her life, marked by stunning reversals of fortune, is an irresistible subject, but it presents a familiar difficulty for the historian. This was not due to any dislike of the king. Marys food, Henry ordered, was to be served with joyous and merry communication. Thomas More was beheaded in 1535 for his refusal to accept the Acts of Supremacy and the Act of Succession (1534) of Henry VIII of England and swear allegiance to Henry as head of the English Church. [6] She remained there until she returned to favour when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509. His father, Sir Richard Pole, was a cousin of King Henry VII, and his mother, Margaret, countess of . 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. After she had redeemed her dead brothers lands from the crown, she owned property in Calais, and estates in Wales and 17 English counties. But Reginald stayed in Italy through the reign of Anne Boleyn supposedly preparing a learned statement on the kings case. (2020, August 26). Margaret Pole ended up becoming a Catholic martyr. [2] His heir was his son Thomas. Thomas Cromwell producerade en tunika av typen 'Five Wounds of Christ', som pstods vara en symbol fr nskan att placera . She was a patron of the New Learning, like many Renaissance noblewomen; Gentian Hervet had translated Erasmus' de immensa misericordia Dei (The Great Mercy of God) into English for her. He blindfolded himself and exhorted the assembled crowd to witness his end in the faith and for the faith of the Catholic Church, the kings good servant but Gods first. Even Mores Protestant enemies did not believe him a traitor; his death was almost universally held to be nothing less than martyrdom. For at least five years, Montagu, Exeter and others had been passing information to the emperor through his ambassador, urging the invasion of England, and Reginald himself had assured the readers of his 1536 letter that a host of disaffected subjects were lurking within the realm, ready to support the invaders against Henry as soon as foreign troops landed. It was not so much a letter as a small book. She is the daughter of a duke and the niece of two kings, Edward IV and Richard III. He had a true gift for friendship and inspired deep loyalty amongst his family and friends. Quite the opposite. A devoted Catholic, More refuses to sign Parliament's Act of Supremacy, which declares King Henry, and not the Pope, the Supreme Head of the new Church of England. Henry needed a son and heir. Read More. 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. And the king was not pleased with the young lawyer; he promptly imprisoned Mores father in the Tower until he paid a substantial fine. On her wrist, emblematic, is a small barrel. [15][16], On the morning of 28 May 1541, Margaret was told she was to die within the hour. Anne was the anointed queen. 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. The following poem was found carved on the wall of her cell: For traitors on the block should die; "Pole, Margaret Plantagenet, Bl." Then, her prayers completed, she faced the incompetent axeman. In 1512, Parliament, with Henrys assent, restored to her some of the lands that had been held by Henry VII for her brother while he was imprisoned, and then had been confiscated when he was executed. He grew up cultivated and cosmopolitan, sensitive, lively-minded. He then disappeared into his private closet, and after an hour, came out as cheerful as before. Birth date: February 7, 1478. Elizabeth Throckmorton. And while this reasoning worked to replenish the royal treasury for Henry VII, it also provided the second Tudor king with a chance to curry popular favor when he in one of his first acts as Henry VIII imprisoned and later executed Edmund Dudley and Richard Empson, who were Mortons (and his fathers) tax collectors. Cardinal Wolsey and the king needed no further reason to bring More into the kings service. (Along with Margaret her sister-in-law Eleanor Pole was also a lady-in-waiting to Katherine. Henry and others were executed, though Geoffrey was not. When he later built his Great House in Chelsea, its rooms were specifically designed to encourage quiet study and prayer. He never explicitly courted controversy, but he felt compelled to answer the reformers such as William Tyndale. In 1504, More was elected to Parliament and one of his first acts was to oppose Henry VIIs request of a grant of three-fifteenths. Margaret Pole was born about four years after her parents had married, and was the first child born after the couple lost their first child on board a ship fleeing to France during the Wars of the Roses. Get the best results here. This was an obvious lie; More had never said anything of the sort to any other visitor, why Rich? [27] She is commemorated in the dedication of the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace & Blessed Margaret Pole in Southbourne, Bournemouth.[28]. Her father was the younger brother of Edward IV and Richard III. Margaret was superfluous; curtly, Henry wrote her off as a fool. It did not matter. [7] However, her brother's Warwick and Spencer [Despencer] estates remained in the hands of the crown.[8]. He returned to Padua in 1532 and received a last English benefice in December of that same year. But Margaret kept any dissident thoughts to herself, avoiding jeopardy until, in the summer of 1536, the actions of her son Reginald plunged her whole family into trouble. Its influence upon William Shakespeares Richard III is immense. His father was not supportive, but More was fully prepared to be disowned rather than disobey Gods will. And because of his early education in religious matters, Henry was no mere spectator in religious debate. BORN: 1473. Then, in good faith, between your grace and me is but this, that I shall die today, and you tomorrow.. Mores letters indicate that he was not particularly keen to enter royal service. And More determined that their daughters would receive the same education as their son. Margaret's loyalty was to Katherine of Aragon and to her daughter Princess Mary to whom she was governess and godmother. 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. 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. The symbolism and importance of this decision cannot be underestimated. Margarets husband Richard died in 1504, leaving her with five young children and very little land or money. The countess was to look after the little girls health and diet, ensure that she did not wear herself out in learning French and Latin, and see that her immediate environment was kept spotless, so that everything about her be pure, sweet, clean and wholesome, as to so great a princess doth appertain. If he had trusted her once, he no longer did so. The Bishop of Rochester John Fisher is executed on the same charge. 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. And his patron Morton was infamous as the architect of that kings very successful and subsequently very unpopular tax policy. He died young (about 1526) having married the heir of Roger Lewknor. When her husband died in 1505, Margaret became a widow with five children. Mortons tax philosophy was a marvel of inescapable logic: If the subject is seen to live frugally, tell him because he is clearly a money saver of great ability, he can afford to give generously to the King. She served later as a governess to Mary. She was an apt enough pupil to later converse with visitors in Latin. [13], In 1537, Reginald (still not ordained) was made a Cardinal. Among his guests, in fact, was the king himself. On his accession he granted her an annuity of 100 a year and on 14 Oct 1513 he created her Countess of Salisbury and gave her the family lands of the earldom of Salisbury. Margaret was now fully under the king's will, with no title or lands to her name, she was to be styled simply as Margaret Pole. They had 1 son & 3 daughters: [1] Sir Thomas. In June 1535, after he had been imprisoned for over a year, Cromwells servant, Richard Rich, now solicitor general, stated that he had spoken with More and More had denied Parliaments power to make Henry head of the church. Higginbotham is more comfortable with biography, but this has not deterred her publisher from dressing up her new book like a historical novel of the type she doesnt much like, with a moody wash of colour and a woman with trailing skirts and half a head. Joan, wife of Roger Swillington. However, we should not assume that Mortons politics had any profound impact upon More. The boy, born in 1519, was welcome proof to Henry that he could father a son and that his lack of an heir was entirely Katharines fault. Arthur Pole suffered a setback when his patron Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was convicted of treason in 1521, but he was soon restored to favour. Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, was born at Farley Castle, near Bath, on 14th August, in or about the year 1473. Art and science The German artist Hans Holbein the Younger paints King Henry VIII. Margaret reminded Reginald what they all owed to the Tudors, and urged him to give up his enterprise, to take another way and serve the king: his renegade actions, she said, had plunged her into grief and fear, and trust me, Reginald, there never went the death of thy father or of any child so nigh my heart. Thomas Cromwell, who spied efficiently on the whole family, tried to have Reginald abducted or assassinated. She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute. 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. Margaret's destiny, as an heiress to the Plantagenets, is not for a life in the shadows. It took many blows to finally kill her and this botched execution was itself remembered and, for some, considered a sign of martyrdom. He did not struggle with the reduction in means, and busied himself with planning a tomb for himself and his wives , as well as defending his faith in various pamphlets. Geoffrey appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Margaret, warned of the threat he represented to her own interests and life, said: I trow he is not so unhappy that he will hurt his mother, and yet I care neither for him, nor for any other, for I am true to my Prince., At this point she was questioned rigorously by Henrys councillor William Fitzwilliam. However, things suddenly change in May 1541 when a decision was made to execute her. Where is Hans Holbein when you need him? [6] . Even the more sedate accounts agree that, like Thomas Cromwell, she was hacked about by a second-string executioner. May 28, 2015. Contemporary chroniclers often referred to him as a friend of the poor. How to Be Tudor: Can a King Have Friends. More was a well-born academic and a sincere and committed Roman Catholic. In the end, he decided, in the words of his friend Erasmus, to be a chaste husband rather than an impure priest.. This phrase has been interpreted as meaning Edward was of low intelligence; it only means that he was unworldly, and Higginbotham sees this. Reginald 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 royal supremacy. Pole and his hagiographers gave several later accounts of Pole's activities after Henry met Anne Boleyn. So yes, the Pole family were cousins to de la Pole family. Yet if you were to ask Mores contemporaries to describe him, their words would be as conflicted and contradictory as the man himself. According to the account, she turned her head "every which way", instructing the executioner that, if he wanted her head, he should take it as he could. . He had once served under Wolsey and knew More well. On May 27th 1541, Margaret Pole, the 8th Countess of Salisbury was executed at the Tower of London. Margaret remained in the Tower of London for more than two years. It was perfectly clear to any objective observer that the marriage was unlawful before God! The danger the Tudors saw lay not in the present disposition of the Pole family who vehemently protested their loyalty but in their claim to the throne, and in Reginalds actions while he was out of the jurisdiction. In 1876, during restoration work on the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula, the bones of a tall, elderly woman came to light. One of her children, Reginald Pole, would go on to become a cardinal, and then . 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. On 1 July 1535, he was indicted on high treason. [5] When Perkin Warbeck impersonated Edward IV's presumed-dead son, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, in 1499, Margaret's brother Edward was attainted and executed for involvement in the plot. In the end, he could not be persuaded. [11], In 1531, Reginald Pole warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage. And so he was. Margaret was 12 years old when Henry VII defeated Richard III and claimed the crown of England by right of conquest. Margaret and her son, Henry, pressed Arthur's widow to take a vow of perpetual chastity to preserve her inheritance for her Pole children. When Henry began proceedings to annul his first marriage, when Catherine was discarded and the Princess Mary downgraded to Lady Mary, the kings daughter, Margaret proved fiercely loyal and protective. Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 - 27 May 1541), was an English peeress.She was the daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, and Isabel Neville and was niece of kings Edward IV and Richard III.Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. Inventories paint the picture: tableware of silver and gold, Venetian glass, mother-of-pearl, tapestries portraying the journeys of Ulysses and the discovery of Newfoundland; the countess herself, tall, stately, wears ermine, tawny damask, black satin and black velvet. As Countess of Salisbury, Margaret managed her lands well and by 1538 she was the fifth richest peer in England. Please include name, address and a telephone number. Pole, niece of both Edward IV and Richard III, was the only woman apart from Anne Boleyn to hold a peerage in her own right during the . [9] Her youngest son, Geoffrey Pole, married well to Constance, daughter of Edmund Pakenham, and inherited the estate of Lordington in Sussex. But to Mores credit, he made an impassioned plea for greater freedom of speech in parliament. Her fiction is stiff and chary, as if she is too constrained by her knowledge of the pitfalls to turn her characters loose in their own lives. St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Bridge Gate, Derby, Our Lady and the English Martyrs' church in Cambridge. Perhaps the contrast with the quiet, gentle Jane was too striking. Henry wrote to Margaret, who in turn wrote to her son, reproving him for his "folly". Since Margaret and her brother, Edward, were debarred from the throne by their father's attainder, their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was offered the crown and became king as Richard III. The popular image is of a man principled, steadfast, courageous who placed his own conscience above his kings demands. Was More surprised by this speech? 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