Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

Margaret was born at Farleigh Castle in Somerset. and his wife Isabel Neville. George was a son of Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, and a brother of both Edward IV and Richard III. Warwick was killed fighting against Margaret's uncles at the Battle of Barnet. Her father, already Duke of Clarence, was then created Earl of Salisbury and of Warwick. Edward IV declared that Margaret's younger brother, Edward, should be known as Earl of Warwick, but only as a courtesy title, and no peerage was ever created for him. She was most likely named after her paternal aunt Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy. Isabel died suddenly on 22 December 1476, when Margaret was only three years old. The death of his wife led Clarence to believe that her lady-in-waiting and midwife, Ankarette Twynho, and a servant, had poisoned her and his son with a "venomous drink of ale". He had them brought to trial, found guilty and executed on very slim evidence by a rigged court in April 1477. His grief over his wife's death, and the midwife having been a distant cousin of the Woodvilles, suggested by his sister-in-law Elizabeth Woodville, made him distance himself from his brother, Edward IV. The Duke of Clarence plotted against Edward IV, and in February 1478 was attainted and executed for treason. His lands and titles were thereby forfeited. Edward IV died in 1483 when Margaret was ten. The following year, the late King's marriage was declared invalid by the statute Titulus Regius, making his children illegitimate. As Margaret and her brother, Edward, were debarred from the throne by their father's attainder, their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became King Richard III in 1483. He reinforced young Margaret and Edward's exclusion from the line of succession, and married Anne Neville, Margaret's maternal aunt. and as young Edward was the last male Plantagenet and a potential House of York claimant, he was moved to the Tower of London in 1485. 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. His lands and titles were confiscated. == Marriage ==

Margaret remained important to the new Tudor dynasty due to her Yorkist lineage and unquestionably royal blood. When she was 14 years old, Henry VII arranged her marriage to his favoured cousin and loyal servant, Richard Pole, Nevertheless, the King and Queen attended the marriage ceremony. After the marriage, Margaret lived at her husband's manor of Bockmer, Buckinghamshire and gave birth to five children. She was in attendance at court for important events such as at the Feast of St George in April 1488. Margaret was appointed as one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. Despite a ten-year difference in age, she and the Princess became loyal friends. Margaret held her position until Catherine's entourage was dissolved, after Arthur died on 2 April 1502. == Widowhood ==

Richard Pole died of an illness in 1505, leaving Margaret a widow with five young children. She had a small estate of land inherited from her husband but her jointure provided little income or means of supporting herself and her children. To ease the difficult financial situation, her eldest sons were likely sent to other noble households. She devoted her third son, Reginald Pole, to the Church, relinquishing all financial responsibility for him and sending him to the Carthusian Monastery at Sheen to be educated with the monks of the Charterhouse. Margaret was also supported by monthly payments from the King's Mother from May 1505 until May 1509. She remained at Syon Abbey until Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, and her fortunes improved. ==Countess of Salisbury==

Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon in 1509, and Margaret was once again appointed as one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. In July 1509, the King granted Margaret an annuity of £100 a year.) for the restoration of her lands, . These terms were generous when compared to the amounts other peers were made to pay for restoration of land. Edward's Warwick and Spencer [Despencer] estates remained in the hands of the Crown, but Margaret now owned property in Calais, estates in Wales and 17 English counties, and the London palace Le Herber. In 1517, Margaret commissioned the building of Warblington Castle, Hampshire, which would become her principal seat. After the Duke of Buckingham was beheaded for treason and posthumously attainted by an Act of Parliament in 1521, the couple were given only fragments of his estates. Ursula's husband was created 1st Baron Stafford by King Henry's son and successor, Edward VI in 1547. They had a total of seven sons and seven daughters. He was Dean of Exeter and Wimborne Minster, Dorset, and a canon of York. Margaret's youngest son, Geoffrey Pole, married Constance, daughter of Edmund Pakenham, and inherited the estate of Lordington in Sussex. Margaret's own favour at Court in these years varied. She received a New Years gift from the King valued at forty shillings, which was equal to the value of gifts given to the Dukes of Buckingham and Norfolk. She also had a dispute over land with Henry VIII in 1518 when he awarded contested lands to the Dukedom of Somerset, which had been held by his Beaufort great-grandfather, and was then in the possession of the Crown. == Governess to Mary Tudor ==

In 1516, Margaret became godmother of the King's and Queen's daughter Mary and replaced by Amy Boleyn. It had been restored to her by 1525, when Margaret was reappointed governess to the Princess at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire. Margaret and the Princess spent the Christmases of 1529 and 1530 at court. During her time as governess, Margaret became like "a second mother" to Mary. Margaret was initially amongst a group of high ranking noblewomen who openly opposed the King's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. This soured Margaret's relationship with Henry. Margaret refused to give Mary's gold plate and jewels back to the King. She was also unwell for several months during this time, in her sickbed at Bisham. She eventually capitulated and accepted the King's annulment, the Act of Supremacy, and the Act of Succession, and her household were instructed to comply. ==Fall==

In 1531, Margaret's son Reginald had warned of the risks if Henry should divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. This was a great offence to the King. saying that she could not bear the King's wrath, strongly reproving him for his "folly", Pope Paul III put him in charge of organising assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace. He said that Exeter had been party to his correspondence with Reginald and he shared details about Henry, Lord Montagu's dislike of the King and his policies. She was interrogated for three days by William FitzWilliam, Earl of Southampton, and Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, The King convinced himself that he had escaped death by a narrow margin and informed Emperor Charles V that for ten years Exeter and Montagu had planned to murder him. As part of the evidence for the bill of attainder, Cromwell produced an embroidered tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, and heraldic symbols supposedly symbolising Margaret's support for the Church of Rome and the rule of her son Reginald with the King's Catholic daughter Mary. == Execution ==

On the morning of 27 May 1541, Margaret was told she would die within the hour. Two written eyewitness reports survived her execution: one by Charles de Marillac, the French ambassador, and the other by Chapuys, ambassador to the Holy Roman Emperor. The accounts differ somewhat. Marillac's report, dispatched two days afterwards, recorded that the execution took place with so few people present that, in the evening, news of her execution was doubted. Chapuys wrote two weeks after the execution that one hundred and fifty witnesses were present for the execution, including the Lord Mayor of London. Chapuys wrote: "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". Because the chief executioner had been sent north to deal with rebels, the execution was performed by "a wretched and blundering youth who hacked her head and shoulders to pieces in the most pitiful manner". It took eleven strokes of an axe for the executioner to remove her head. The first blow missed its mark, gashing her shoulder. A third account in Burke's Peerage described the appalling circumstances of the execution. It states that Margaret refused to lay her head on the block, declaiming: "So should traitors do, and I am none". 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. Margaret was buried in the Chapel Royale of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London. Her remains were rediscovered when the chapel was renovated in 1876. The following poem was found carved on the wall of Margaret's cell: ==Descendants==

When not at Court, Margaret lived chiefly at Warblington Castle in Hampshire and Bisham Manor in Berkshire. She and her husband were parents to five children: • Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu (c. 14929 January 1539), notable as one of the peers in the trial of Anne Boleyn. He married Jane Neville, daughter and coheiress of George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny, • Arthur Pole (before 1499before 1532), Lord of the Manor of Broadhurst in Sussex. He married Jane Lewkenor, daughter of Sir Roger Lewkenor and Eleanor Tuchet, daughter of the John Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley and Anne Echingham. They had four children. • Ursula Pole (c. 150212 August 1570), married Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford, and had thirteen children. and her son Thomas Stafford was executed for treason against Queen Mary. • Reginald Pole (March 1500-17 November 1558), as he was a Catholic and could claim a line of descent from King Edward III free from the "illegitimacy" of Elizabeth I. He was found guilty of treason and was imprisoned in the Beauchamp Tower where he died on 12 August 1570. == Legacy ==

Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, Cambridge depicting Blessed Margaret Pole at prayer in her cell at the Tower of London and her beheading at Tower Green Margaret's son Reginald Pole said, "I am now the son of a martyr whom the King of England has brought to the scaffold although she was seventy years old and his own near relation, for her perseverance in the Catholic faith." Margaret was later regarded by the Catholic Church as a martyr. She was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII, and is known in the Roman Catholic Calendar as the Blessed Margaret Pole. • St Joseph's Church in Sale, Cheshire • St. Marie's Church in New Bilton, Rugby, Warwickshire There are stained glass windows of her in several English churches as well: • Our Lady of Lourdes in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. • St. Osmund's Church in Salisbury, Wiltshire • St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bridge Gate, Derby, Derbyshire • Our Lady and the English Martyrs' church in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire (and another one from the right) • Shrewsbury Cathedral, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, she is in the fourth window in front of John Fisher. She is commemorated in the dedication of the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace & Blessed Margaret Pole in Southbourne, Bournemouth. ==Cultural depictions==

• Margaret is depicted in William Shakespeare's 16th-century play Richard III as the young daughter of the murdered Duke of Clarence. • The character of Lady Salisbury in the Showtime series The Tudors, played by Kate O'Toole in 2007 and 2009, is loosely based on Margaret Pole. • Janet Henfrey portrays Margaret in Episode 4 ("The Devil's Spit") of Wolf Hall, the 2015 BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novels Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012). • Margaret is the main character of Samantha Wilcoxson's 2016 novel, Faithful Traitor. • Margaret is the main character of Philippa Gregory's 2014 novel ''The King's Curse. and by Laura Carmichael in the miniseries The Spanish Princess (2019), a sequel to The White Princess''. • Harriet Walter portrays Margaret in the Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, the BBC's 2024 television adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novel, The Mirror and the Light (2020). == Genealogical table ==