Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox royalty Template:Infobox saint Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 – 27 May 1541), was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (a brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III) and his wife Isabel Neville.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":12">Template:Cite ODNB</ref> As a result of Margaret's marriage to Richard Pole, she was also known as Margaret Pole. She was one of just two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right (suo jure) without a husband in the House of Lords.<ref name=":7" />

One of the few members of the House of Plantagenet to have survived the Wars of the Roses, Margaret was executed in 1541 at the command of King Henry VIII, the second monarch of the House of Tudor, who was the son of her first cousin, Elizabeth of York.<ref name=":3" /> Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on 29 December 1886.<ref>Dwyer, J. G. (2003) "Pole, Margaret Plantagenet, Bl." New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale. pp. 455–56.</ref> One of her sons, Reginald Pole, was the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury.

Early life

A possible Victorian copy of an original manuscript

Margaret in her youth

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Margaret was born at Farleigh Castle in Somerset.<ref name=":0" /> She was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence,<ref name=":13">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=":12" /> Isabel was the elder daughter and coheiress of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ("Warwick the Kingmaker") and his wife Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick.<ref name=":3" /><ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref><ref name=":22">Template:Citation</ref>

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.<ref name=":21" /> Margaret would have had a claim to the Earldom of Warwick, but the earldom was forfeited on the attainder of her brother Edward.<ref name="ODNB">ODNB.</ref> She was most likely named for her paternal aunt Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

Isabel died suddenly on 22 December 1476, when Margaret was only three years old.<ref name=":0" /> Two months earlier she had given birth to a son, Richard (who would only outlive her by a year).<ref name=":6">Template:Cite book</ref> The death of his wife led Clarence to believe that her lady-in-waiting and midwife, Ankarette Twynyho, and a servant, had poisoned her and his son with a "venomous drink of ale".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed He had them brought to trial, found guilty and executed on very slim evidence by a rigged court in April 1477.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His grief over his wife's death, and the midwife having been a distant cousin of the Woodvilles,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> suggested by his sister-in-law Elizabeth Woodville, made him distance himself from his brother, Edward IV.Template:Citation needed

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.<ref name=":14">Template:Cite web</ref> 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,<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref> and married Anne Neville, Margaret’s maternal aunt.<ref name=":3" /> In 1484, Margaret and her brother were residing in the King's Northern estates in the care of their aunt.<ref name=":0" /> Pole learned how to play the virginals as a child.<ref name=":14" />

In 1485, Richard III was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor, who succeeded him as Henry VII. The new King married Margaret's cousin, Elizabeth of York, Edward IV's eldest daughter.<ref name=":3" /> Margaret and her brother were taken into their care as wards of the crown.<ref name=":0" /> They lived with the King's mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, and Margaret is recorded as attending the christening of the King's and Queen's first child, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, in Winchester during September 1486.<ref name=":0" />

The new Tudor King suspected anyone with blood ties to the Plantagenets as coveting the throne,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and as young Edward was the last male Plantagenet and a potential House of York claimant,<ref name=":25">Template:Cite book</ref> he was moved to the Tower of London in 1485.<ref name=":21">Template:Cite ODNB</ref> 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.<ref name=":21" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His lands and titles were confiscated.<ref name=":15">Template:Cite web</ref>

Marriage

Margaret remained dynastically important to the new Tudor dynasty due to her Yorkist lineage and unquestionably noble blood.<ref name=":26">Template:Cite book</ref> When she was 14 years old, Henry VII arranged her marriage to his favoured cousin and loyal servant, Richard Pole,<ref name=":15" /> who was 11 years her senior and from a gentry family.<ref name="rbhmp" /> Whilst Richard's mother Edith St. John<ref name="rbhmp" /> was an older half-sister of the King's mother, Margaret Beaufort,<ref name="Catholic" /> making him from a Lancastrian supporting family,<ref name=":26" /> he was of a lower status compared to his new wife. It has been argued by historians such as Tracy Borman that this was intended to undermine her status, weaken her claim to the English throne and ensure that she was married to a loyal supporter.<ref name=":13" /> Horace Walpole later reflected in his correspondence that "Henry had married her to the insignificant Sir Richard Pole who is called a Welsh Knight".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Nevertheless, the King and Queen attended the marriage ceremony.<ref name=":0" /> Historians debate the date of the marriage; it may have taken place in 1487 or 1491.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":15" /><ref name=":24">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name=":15" />

Margaret's husband Richard prospered under the Tudor regime and held various offices in Henry VII's government. He was appointed as a Knight of the Garter in 1499, and he was entrusted with the prestigious role of Chamberlain for Arthur, Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the throne.<ref name=":15" /> Around the time when Richard was appointed Arthur's Chamberlain, Margaret received a generous gift of £20 from Henry VII.<ref name=":15" />

When the Prince of Wales married the Spanish Infanta Catherine of Aragon in 1501, they established an independent household at Ludlow Castle.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Margaret was appointed as one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting.<ref name=":8" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Despite a ten year difference in age, she and the Princess became loyal friends.<ref name=":13" /> The friendship lasted throughout their whole lives and they exchanged frequent correspondence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Margaret held her position until Catherine's entourage was dissolved, after Arthur died on 2 April 1502.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Widowhood

Richard Pole died of an illness in 1505,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> leaving Margaret a widow with five young children.<ref name=":7" /> She borrowed £40 from Henry VII to pay for Pole's funeral,<ref name=":0" /> with Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, standing in surety for the loan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name=":7" />

She took lodgings at Syon Abbey, on the banks of the River Thames, along with her daughter Ursula and youngest son Geoffrey, as guests of the Bridgettine nuns.<ref name=":22" /><ref name=":10">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> To ease the difficult financial situation, her eldest sons were likely sent to other noble households.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":15" /><ref name=":24" /> Margaret was also supported by monthly payments from the King's Mother from May 1505 until May 1509.<ref name=":10" /> She remained at Syon Abbey until Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509, and her fortunes improved.<ref name=":13" />

Countess of Salisbury

Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon in 1509,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Margaret was once again appointed as one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting.<ref name=":11" /> She attended to the new Queen during the coronation.<ref name=":0" /> Her son Henry was also immediately given a place in the King's household.<ref name=":16">Template:Cite web</ref>

In July 1509, the King granted Margaret an annuity of £100 a year.<ref name=":0" /> Then on 4 February 1512, after Margaret's petition to the King,<ref name=":0" /> her brother's attainder was reversed and an Act of Parliament restored the Earldom of Salisbury to her.<ref name="rbhmp" /> It included some of her brother's former land. Henry VII had controlled these lands while Margaret's brother was a minor and then during his imprisonment; he confiscated them after Edward's trial. She paid 5,000 marks (the mark had a value of Template:Frac of a pound, thus £2,667<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>) for the restoration of her lands, Template:Inflation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> These terms were generous when compared to the amounts other peers were made to pay for restoration of land.<ref name=":16" /><ref name=":7" /><ref>Wilson (2024) p 62</ref>

Edward's Warwick and Spencer [Despencer] estates remained in the hands of the Crown,<ref>The National Archives, minsters' accounts, SC6/HENVIII.</ref> 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.<ref name=":7" /> It was built in brick, was sumptuously furnished and had a moat.<ref name=":24" /> The King and Queen are known to have visited for extended periods and Henry VIII reportedly enjoyed the hunting there.<ref name="rbhmp" /> She had many church livings under her control.<ref name=":22" /> She also commissioned a chantry at Christchurch Priory.<ref name=":24" />

As Countess of Salisbury, she played an active role in administering her estates.<ref name=":13" /> By 1538 she was the fifth-richest peer in England<ref name=":7" /> and ranked among the most powerful tenants in-chief during Henry VIII’s reign.<ref name=":22" /> She was a patron of the New Learning, like many Renaissance noblewomen.<ref name=":13" /> Gentian Hervet translated Erasmus' de immensa misericordia Dei (The Great Mercy of God) into English for her.<ref name=":7" />

Margaret’s lineage was continued through her five children, Henry, Ursula, Arthur, Reginald, and Geoffrey, who all rose to prominence.<ref name=":22" /> Her first son, Henry Pole, was created Baron Montagu in 1514, another of the Neville titles in its first creation,Template:Citation needed speaking for the family on Margaret's behalf in the House of Lords.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":7" /> His mother negotiated his marriage to the coheiress Jane Neville, daughter of Lord Bergavenny.<ref name=":22" />

Her second son, Arthur Pole, had a successful career as a courtier, becoming one of the six Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber and one of the noblemen who accompanied the king's sister Mary Tudor to France for her marriage to King Louis XII in 1514.<ref name=":7" /> Arthur suffered a setback when his patron Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was convicted of treason in 1521 but was soon restored to favour. He died young (about 1526),Template:Citation needed having married Jane Pickering, the heiress of Roger Lewknor.<ref name=":7" /> Margaret and her son Henry pressed Arthur's widow to take a vow of perpetual chastity to preserve her inheritance for the Pole children.Template:Citation needed

Margaret's daughter Ursula married Henry Stafford, the only son of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Lady Alianore Percy, in 1519. She was about 15 years old, and he was not yet 18 at the time of the marriage.<ref name=":9">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed 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.<ref name=":9" />

Margaret's third son, Reginald Pole, was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and studied abroad at the University of Padua in Italy, with a £100 stipend from the king.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite ODNB</ref> He was Dean of Exeter and Wimborne Minster, Dorset, and a canon of York.<ref name=":1" /> He had several other livings, although he had not been ordained a priest. In 1529, he represented Henry VIII in Paris, persuading the theologians of the Sorbonne to support Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.<ref name=":1" /> He was the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Margaret's youngest son, Geoffrey Pole, married Constance, daughter of Edmund Pakenham, and inherited the estate of Lordington in Sussex.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite ODNB</ref>

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 Duke's of Buckingham and Norfolk.<ref name=":22" /> 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.Template:Citation needed

Governess to Mary Tudor

In 1516, Margaret became godmother of the King's and Queen's daughter Mary<ref name=":22" /> and stood sponsor for her confirmation.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":16" /> In 1520 she was also was appointed as Lady governess to Mary,<ref name=":7" /> a position of great honour and prestige that solidified her as a powerful force for patronage.<ref name=":22" /> In July 1521, when her sons were caught up in the Duke of Buckingham's treason conviction, she was dismissed from her appointment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It had been restored to her by 1525,<ref name=":6" /><ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> when Margaret was reappointed governess to the Princess at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Margaret and the Princess spent the Christmases of 1529 and 1530 at court.<ref name=":17">Template:Cite web</ref> During her time as governess, Margaret became like "a second mother" to Mary.<ref name=":18">Template:Cite web</ref>

Margaret was initially amongst a group of high ranking noblewomen who openly opposed the King's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.<ref name=":13" /> Others were Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk and the King's sister; Elizabeth Howard, Duchess of Norfolk; Gertrude Courtenay, Marchioness of Exeter; and Anne Grey, Baroness Hussey.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite journal</ref> This soured Margaret's relationship with Henry.<ref name=":13" />

When Mary was declared illegitimate in 1533,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Margaret refused to give Mary's gold plate and jewels back to the King.<ref name=":6" /> Mary's Chamberlain John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford, wrote to Thomas Cromwell that “in no wyse she wyll as yete deliyver to Mistress Frances the jewells for anything that I can say or doo onlesse that yt may please you to obteyne the kings letters unto hyr in that behalf.”<ref name=":17" />

Mary's household was broken up at the end of 1533 and Margaret asked if she could serve Mary at her own cost, but this was not permitted.<ref name=":6" /> When the Imperial Ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, suggested two years later that Mary be handed over to Margaret, Henry refused, calling Margaret "a fool, of no experience".<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> She was also unwell for several months during this time, in her sickbed at Bisham.<ref name=":18" /> 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.<ref name=":24" />

Fall

Template:More citations needed section In 1531, Margaret's son Reginald had warned of the risks if Henry should divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn.<ref name=":1" /> Chapuys suggested to Emperor Charles V that Reginald should marry Henry VIII's daughter Mary and combine their dynastic claims. Chapuys also communicated with Reginald through his brother, Geoffrey.Template:Citation needed

In June 1536, Reginald definitively broke with the King.<ref name=":1" /> He replied to a letter that he had received from Henry VIII with a copy of his own pamphlet, pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione, commonly known as De unitate. The pamphlet denied both royal supremacy and Henry's position on marriage to a brother's wife, and referred to him as "a robber, murderer and greater enemy to Christianity than the Turk".<ref name=":19">Template:Cite web</ref> This was a great offence to the King.<ref name=":6" /> Reginald also urged the princes of Europe to invade England and depose Henry immediately.<ref name=":19" />

Margaret was summoned to the King's presence where he personally informed her of Reginald's treasonable actions.<ref name=":19" /> She consulted with her son Henry then wrote directly to Reginald,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> saying that she could not bear the King's wrath, strongly reproving him for his "folly",<ref name=":1" /> and advising him to "take another way and serve our master as thy bounden duty is to do unless thou wilt be the confusion of thy mother".<ref name=":19" /> She sent a copy of the letter to the King's council and retired from court.<ref name=":6" /> After Anne Boleyn was arrested and executed, Margaret was permitted to return to court, albeit briefly, to serve the new Queen Jane Seymour.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":24" />

In 1537, Reginald was made a Cardinal, despite not being ordained a priest.<ref name=":20">Template:Cite web</ref> Pope Paul III put him in charge of organising assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace.<ref name=":1" /> The English government tried to assassinate him.<ref name=":20" />

Margaret's son Geoffrey was arrested in August 1538.<ref name=":5" /> He had been corresponding with his brother Reginald and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter and the so-called Exeter Conspiracy implicated him. Under interrogation, Geoffrey's nerve broke.<ref name=":5">"The Extermination of the White Rose" (2011) History Today, vol. 61, no. 1. p. 35. Retrieved 5 November 2024. ISSN 0018-2753.</ref> 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.<ref name=":5" /> Montagu, Exeter, and Margaret were all arrested in November 1538 as the entire Pole family became implicated in the treason.<ref name=":13" /> Margaret wrote of Geoffrey that, "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."<ref name=":24" />

Margaret was nevertheless accused of abetting her sons<ref name=":13" /> and of having “comytted and p[er]petrated div[er]se and sundry other detestable and abominable treasons.”<ref>Template:Citation</ref> She was interrogated for three days by William FitzWilliam, Earl of Southampton, and Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely,<ref name=":4" /> while imprisoned at Cowdray House, Midhurst, West Sussex, which was Fitzwilliam’s home.<ref name="rbhmp" /> She defended herself against their accusations, and her interrogators reported to Cromwell that "We assure your lordship we have dealed with such a one as men have not dealed withal tofore [i.e. before] us; we may call her rather a strong and constant man, than a woman. For in all behaviour, howsoever we have used her, she hath showed herself so earnest, vehement, and precise that more could not be."<ref name=":4" /> She also denied receiving any treasonous letters from her sons, with the reports to Cromwell also stating that "..[either] her sons have not made her privy ne participant of the bottom and pit [of] their stomachs, or else is she the [most] arrant traitoress that ever [lived]."<ref name=":20" /> Lady Fitzwilliam refused to be in the home while Margaret was there, and Fitzwilliam himself pleaded with Cromwell to remove her from his custody. He wrote to him: "I beg you to rid me of her company, for she is both chargeable and troubles my mind."<ref name=":24" />

In January 1539, Geoffrey was pardoned,<ref name=":2" /> but Montagu and Exeter were executed for treason after trial.<ref name=":23">Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=":5" />

In May 1539,<ref name=":7" /> Margaret was attainted, as her father had been.<ref name=":12" /> The attainder meant that her titles and lands were forfeit, her Earldom was confiscated and she was demoted to the title of Lady Margaret Pole.<ref name=":20" /> Her estate, including Warblington Castle, was temporarily awarded to Sir Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton and the king's personal secretary.<ref>'Warblington' In Page, William ed. (1908) A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3. British History Online. Retrieved 13 November 2024.</ref>

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.<ref name=":22" /> This had allegedly been found in her coffers at Warblington Castle, Hampshire.<ref name=":6" />

Margaret was sentenced to death, but was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years with her grandson, Henry, and Exeter's son. The King paid adequate sums for her maintenance including wages for a waiting woman. In March 1541, the King ordered warm gowns and footwear for her to wear.<ref name=":20" /> In 1540, Cromwell had also fallen from favour and was himself attainted and executed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Execution

The following poem was found carved on the wall of Margaret's cell:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Poemquote

On the morning of 27 May 1541, Margaret was told she would die within the hour.<ref name=":23" /> She answered that no crime had been attributed to her. Nevertheless, she was taken from her cell to the precincts of the Tower where a low wooden block had been prepared instead of the customary scaffold.<ref name="Catholic">Template:Catholic</ref>

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.Template:Citation needed

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".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It took eleven strokes of an axe for the executioner to remove her head. The first blow missed its mark, gashing her shoulder.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref><ref>Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage, v. XII p. II, p. 393</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Margaret was buried in the Chapel Royale of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London.<ref>Durnan, Michael. (2013) My Lady Margaret, A King’s Niece . Regina: The Secret Catholic Insider’s Guide to England, online ed. pp. 32-34.</ref> Her remains were rediscovered when the chapel was renovated in 1876.<ref name=":7">Pierce, Hazel. (23 September 2004) Template:Cite ODNB</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Descendants

When not at Court, Margaret lived chiefly at Warblington Castle in Hampshire and Bisham Manor in Berkshire.<ref name="rbhmp">Template:Cite web</ref>

She and her husband were parents to five children:

Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu (c. 1492Template:Snd9 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,<ref name=":22" /> and Joan Fitzalan, and they had four children. He was beheaded by order of Henry VIII. A great-grandson of Henry Pole was Sir John Bourchier, one of the regicides of Charles I of England, who was a great-great-grandnephew of Henry VIII.<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
Arthur Pole (before 1499Template:Sndbefore 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. 1502Template:Snd12 August 1570), married Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford, and had thirteen children.<ref name=":24" /> Her daughter Dorothy Stafford served Queen Elizabeth as Mistress of the Robes,<ref name=":11">Somerset, Anne. (1984) Ladies in Waiting: from the Tudors to the present day, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 66.</ref> and her son Thomas Stafford was executed for treason against Queen Mary.<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
Reginald Pole (c. 1502Template:Snd17 November 1558),<ref name=":1" /> cardinal, papal legate in various regions, including England, and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury.
Geoffrey Pole (c. 1504–1558),<ref name=":2" /> Lord of the Manor of Lordington in Sussex, suspected of treason by King Henry VIII and accused of conspiring with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. He lived in exile in Europe and married Constance Pakenham, granddaughter and heiress of Sir John Pakenham. John Pakenham was an ancestor to Sir Edward Pakenham, the brother-in-law to the Duke of Wellington. They had 11 children and Geoffrey's eldest son and heir, Arthur Pole, was a conspirator and aspirant to the crown,<ref name=":25" /> supported by two of his brothers. He attempted to persuade France and Spain to support his claim,<ref>"Simancas: September 1562", in Hume, Martin A. S. ed. (1892) Calendar of State Papers, Spain (Simancas), Volume 1, 1558-1567. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 259. Item 184. via - British History Online </ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Legacy

File:Blessed Margaret Pole Stained Glass Window OLEM, Cambridge.png

Stained glass windows of Gothic Revival 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

Her 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."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Margaret was later regarded by Catholic Church as a martyr.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> She was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII,<ref>Camm, Bede. (1904) Lives of the English martyrs declared blessed by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and 1895. Burns and Oates Limited, ix.</ref> and is known in the Roman Catholic Calendar as the Blessed Margaret Pole.<ref name=":20" />

Panel paintings of Margaret can be found in the following English churches:

English Martyrs Church, Preston (she is on the right.)<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
St Joseph's Church in Sale, Cheshire<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
St. Marie's Church in New Bilton, Rugby, Warwickshire<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

There are stained glass windows of her in the following English churches:

Our Lady of Lourdes in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
St. Osmund's Church in Salisbury, Wiltshire<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bridge Gate, Derby, Derbyshire<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Our Lady and the English Martyrs' church in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire<ref>Template:Citation</ref> (and another one from the right)
Shrewsbury Cathedral, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, she is in the fourth window in front of John Fisher.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

She is commemorated in the dedication of the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace & Blessed Margaret Pole in Southbourne, Bournemouth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Cultural depictions