Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Portrait of unknown sitter, traditionally thought to be Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury; Credit – Wikipedia

One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, Margaret was born on August 14, 1473, at Farleigh Hungerford Castle in Somerset, England. Her father was George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York who was the York claimant during the Wars of Roses until his death at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460.  Margaret’s paternal uncles were the Yorkist monarchs King Edward IV and King Richard III.  Margaret’s mother was Lady Isabel Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (the Kingmaker of the Wars of the Roses) who was also killed at the Battle of Wakefield. Margaret’s maternal aunt was Anne Neville who was married to King Henry VI‘s only child, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales until his death at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Later, Anne married King Richard III.

Margaret had three siblings but only one sibling survived early childhood:

Margaret’s mother Isabel died when Margaret was three years old. Now it is thought that Isabel died of either tuberculosis or childbed fever, but George, Duke of Clarence thought his wife had been poisoned by a servant who was subsequently tried and hanged. When Margaret was four-years-old, her father was tried for treason against his brother King Edward IV and privately executed in the Tower of London. Margaret and her younger brother Edward were placed in the care of their maternal aunt Anne Neville. In 1485, the last Yorkist king, Richard III, was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth and the Lancaster claimant Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond assumed the throne as King Henry VII. Henry VII then married Margaret’s first cousin Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of King Edward IV.

After the rise of the Tudors, the remaining members of the House of York were systematically dealt with through marriage, imprisonment, and eventually, execution. Margaret’s brother Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, who was the next male Yorkist claimant to the throne, was held at the Tower of London until he was executed in 1499. It was thought at the time that Edward was executed in response to pressure from King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile to ensure there would be no potential heirs who could jeopardize the eventual accession to the throne of King Henry VII’s heir Arthur who was to marry Ferdinand and Isabella’s daughter Catherine of Aragon.

Sometime between 1491 and 1494, King Henry VII arranged for Margaret to marry Sir Richard Pole. It is thought that this marriage was arranged because Sir Richard’s mother was a half-sister of the king’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort and this would make it more difficult to use her in a plot to overthrow the Tudors. Margaret and Richard had five children:

  • Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu (c. 1492 – 1539) married Jane Neville, daughter of George Neville, 4th Baron Bergavenny; had issue; was one of the peers in the trial of Anne Boleyn; beheaded for treason during the reign of King Henry VIII
  • Reginald Pole (c. 1500 – 1558) Cardinal, Papal Legate, last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Queen Mary I.
  • Sir Geoffrey Pole of Lordington (c. 1501 – 1558) married Constance Pakenham, granddaughter and heiress of Sir John Pakenham; had issue; suspected of treason by King Henry VIII by conspiring with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, lived in exile in Europe
  • Sir Arthur Pole of Broadhurst (c. 1502 – 1535) married Jane Lewknor, daughter of Roger Lewknor; no issue
  • Lady Ursula Pole (c. 1504 – 1570), married Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford; had issue

After the accession of King Henry VIII in 1509, Margaret was initially in favor at court. She was created Countess of Salisbury in her own right in 1513 and was godmother and later governess of Mary Tudor (later Queen Mary I), daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Some of the lands that the family lost when George, Duke of Clarence was attainted were restored and Margaret became the fifth richest English peer.

Margaret had a strong and independent personality and eventually, she angered the king. In 1539, Margaret was accused of conducting treasonable correspondence with her son Cardinal Pole and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. An Act of Attainder was passed by Parliament and Margaret lost all her land and her title. It is suspected that the charges and the evidence were fabricated by Thomas Cromwell who himself fell out of favor and was executed in 1540.

On May 27, 1541, Margaret was told that she would be executed that day. She argued that there was no proof that she had committed a crime. The 67-year-old Margaret was dragged to the block at Tower Green where she refused to place her head saying, “So should traitors do, and I am none.” The inexperienced executioner proceeded to “hack her head and shoulders to pieces” with ten blows of the ax. Margaret was buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr of the Roman Catholic Church on December 29, 1886, and she is known as Blessed Margaret Pole. Her feast day should coincide with the day of her martyrdom, however, May 27 was already in use as the feast of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, so Margaret’s feast day is May 28.

Tower Green, the site of the scaffold where Margaret Pole and others were executed inside the Tower of London; Credit – Wikipedia

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