Thomas More is the "Man For All Seasons" in the title of the play. Jone Johnson Lewis is a women's history writer who has been involved with the women's movement since the late 1960s. Because the main executioner[17] had been sent north to deal with rebels, the execution was performed by "a wretched and blundering youth who literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces in the most pitiful manner". His home at Chelsea was as close as Tudor England would come to an 18th century French salon. It took the inexperience executioner a grand total of 11 swings to finally sever her head at the neck . [13], In 1537, Reginald (still not ordained) was made a Cardinal. [15][16], On the morning of 28 May 1541, Margaret was told she was to die within the hour. Margaret Pole had connections to all manner of visitor attractions, including Farleigh Hungerford Castle, Somerset, where she was born,and the Tower of London. The charge was treason. He was keenly interested in theology, but he was not ordained; he was free to marry if he wished, and propagate a Plantagenet family. 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. Annes personal religious feeling was unimportant. It is at this moment that we must step back and consider the England in which More now lived. In an effort to force their co-operation, Henry separated his wife and child, and Margaret who was Marys godmother offered to serve the young girl at her own expense. Henry VIII helped provide good marriages or religious offices for Margarets sons, and a good marriage for her daughter as well. Thomas More worked hard for the king. When Richard Pole died in 1504 Margaret had had to borrow money to give him a suitable funeral. 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 son Reginald described himself afterwards as son of a martyr and in 1886, Pope Leo XIII had Margaret Pole beatified as a martyr. Sir Thomas de la Pole was born circa 1378. The following poem was found carved on the wall of her cell: For traitors on the block should die; 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. Thick as thieves, More and the king continued to establish a close relationship, with More rising up in the ranks. 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. But not before Lina imparted . It was perfectly clear to any objective observer that the marriage was unlawful before God! Henry VII paid for Richard's funeral. Perhaps the contrast with the quiet, gentle Jane was too striking. His work at Bruges and, later, Calais, as well as his continuing duties as undersheriff in London, were clear evidence of his skill and popularity. But and of course this clause was added simply to trap More the Act also required a repudiation of any foreign authority, prince or potentate. More could recognize Anne as the crowned queen of England. Margaret is the main character of Samantha Wilcoxson's 2016 novel, Dwyer, J.G. And the king was now newly enamored of a young noblewoman called Anne Boleyn. But polite prevarications only worked for so long and soon More was a genuine courtier, with all its attendant duties and benefits. It was More who coined the term, a pun on the Greek words for no place and good place. Investigating An Anemometer. How to Be Tudor: Can a King Have Friends. Lewis, Jone Johnson. Henry VII had Edward executed, leaving Margaret as the sole survivor of George of Clarence. EXECUTED: 27 MAY 1541. This blatant disrespect could not be tolerated and Mores name was included in a Bill of Attainder against Elizabeth Barton, the Holy Maid of Kent, who had prophesized against the kings annulment. He waited five days before being summoned to the scaffold on Tower Hill. As his disgrace deepened, Margaret withdrew from court. at, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March (conflation of, This page was last edited on 21 February 2023, at 21:21. Reginald was present at the treaty negotiations. Lewis, Jone Johnson. She managed her lands quite well, and became one of the five or six wealthiest peers in England. In fact she was 67. When not at Court, Margaret lived chiefly at Warblington Castle in Hampshire and Bisham Manor in Berkshire. He needed to convince the Spanish he was secure in his kingdom. A tradition has grown up that George was drowned in a vat a malmsey, an expensive sweet wine. Or was there, as she claimed, nothing worth burning? Perhaps more than any other courtier of Henrys reign, More embodied the searching, troubled spirit of the early 16th century. Chapuys suggested to Emperor Charles V that Reginald marry Mary and combine their dynastic claims. Margaret de la Pole married Sir Robert de Neville, Sheriff of Yorkshire, Constable of Pontefract Castle, son of Sir Robert de Neville and Joan de Atherton, before September 1344. Did she, as the regime alleged, burn the evidence that incriminated her? 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. We do know that he tried in vain to support the kings position. [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. 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]. One does not have to share his religious convictions to appreciate his inner strength and noble character. True or not, the marriage proved to be happy and fruitful, though of brief duration. Only when Fitzwilliam called Reginald a whoreson did she object, saying with a wonderful sorrowful countenance that he was no whoreson, for she was both a good woman and true. When Reginald, lying abroad, heard of her death, he announced to his secretary that he was now the son of a martyr. Henry wanted Reginald to come back to England and talk the matter over, but Reginald had the sense to keep his distance. His father was not supportive, but More was fully prepared to be disowned rather than disobey Gods will. Illustrated statistics ; Map ; Browse using this individual as Sosa/Ahnentafel #1 . The trial of Sir Thomas More for treason opened in Westminster Hall on July 1, 1535. The relationship between the King and Margaret wavered a bit in 1518 when Henry repossessed some of her Salisbury lands saying they belonged to the duchy of Somerset. But by then Lord Montagu was dead, executed along with the Marquis of Exeter and other opponents of the regime. Margaret Pole. Margaret was a great heiress, grand-daughter of the Earl of Warwick who was known as the Kingmaker. 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. Margaret Pole was one of only two women in the 16 th century to hold a peerage in her own right. His spirits were high when visited by family and friends, though they were only permitted to see him if they took the Oath which he had refused. The Tower's professional executioner was away, so a young novice was given the job. 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. Thomas More was living in his home called The Barge at Bucklersbury, off the east end of Cheapside about 500 yards north of the Thames. 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 next year, the late king's marriage was declared invalid by the statute Titulus Regius of 1484, making his children illegitimate. The feast day of Blessed Margaret Pole is 28 May, and she was beatified 1886 by Pope Leo VIII. Mr Buxton has returned to live quietly in Cranford following . This is Aalto. Our Lady of Lourdes in Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Ironically, it was his own honesty and probity which ensured his continued service to Henry. These are not consistent; and ifas he claimed at one pointPole rejected the Divorce in 1526 and refused the Oath of Supremacy in 1531, he received benefits from Henry for a course of action for which others were sentenced to death. See me safe up, he told the lieutenant who escorted him, and for my coming down let me shift for myself.. Margaret Pole, or Margaret Plantagenet, was the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, brother of two Plantagenet kings: Edward IV and Richard III, and his wife Lady Isabella Neville, daughter of "Warwick the Kingmaker". Meanwhile, time was passing and a king used to instant obedience was determined to wait no longer. [6] . In 1536, Pole sent Henry a treatise which not only opposed Henrys grounds for divorce that he had married his brothers wife and thus the marriage was invalid but also opposing Henrys more recent assertion of Royal Supremacy, power in the church in England above that of Rome. Yet even as his legal future seemed assured, More was deeply conflicted about his future. She answered that no crime had been imputed to her. She was, Pierce says, intelligent, unquestionably virtuous, traditionally pious, and possessed an easy familiarity with the convoluted etiquette of a royal court. Margaret would have had a claim to the Earldom of Warwick, but the earldom was forfeited on the attainder of her brother Edward.[4]. Margaret's destiny, as an heiress to the Plantagenets, is not for a life in the shadows. Reginald was the most interesting and talented of Margarets children, and the one to whom she was not close. Katheryn Howard was fortunate. Margaret's third son, Reginald Pole, studied abroad in Padua. This was partly due to Mores intellectual prominence; he was perhaps the most famous Englishman on the continent, with a wide and varied correspondence. More later memorialized her as uxorcula Thomae Mori; her gentle personality is attested to by Erasmuss letters, as he was a frequent visitor to Mores home. She was sentenced to death, to be executed at the king's will. [2] As one of the few members of the House of Plantagenet to have survived the Wars of the Roses, she 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. Pope Paul III put him in charge of organising assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace (and related movements). It proved to be another happy marriage, though Mores friends remarked upon Alices sharp tongue and occasionally brusque ways. But Reginald, it seemed, always got a tip-off. She served later as a governess to Mary. In theory, after she married, a womans personal property and real estate were at her husbands disposal. It gave the king pause, and More was allowed to return home. [11], In 1531, Reginald Pole warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage. 83 ratings9 reviews. The remnants of the Plantagenets had no difficulty in breeding, while the Tudors were less lucky. The second season of The Spanish Princess premieres on Starz on Sunday, October 11. Susan Higginbothams carefully written book comes with a misleading cover puff: At last, a biography of one of the most fascinating women of the Tudor period, who has too long been overlooked. The story of Mores last days is terribly affecting. In: Ghosts and Hauntings. (We should note, however, that More brilliant and perceptive was never especially comfortable in his kings good graces. Abstract. In practice, pre-nuptial agreements, trusts and the legally sanctioned breach of entails created some flexibility. Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, was born at Farley Castle, near Bath, on 14th August, in or about the year 1473. The chronology defeated observers, as if her life stretched back into a fabulous era when dragons roamed. Her son Arthur joined them, dying young, probably in the sweating sickness epidemic of 1528. Even special physicians summoned from Spain could not help the queen to conceive again. His naivety meant that, when threats to the regime mounted, he was easily entrapped. He blundered badly, hacking at Margaret's neck and shoulders until she was dead. Its influence upon William Shakespeares Richard III is immense. Nothing worked. She was later regarded by Catholics as such and was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII. Richard Pole held a variety of offices in Henry VII's government, the highest being Chamberlain for Arthur, Prince of Wales, Henry's elder son. 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. The grave of Anne Boleyn. He died on 8 August 1420. The little Earl of Warwick remained alive and shut away. Margaret was 12 years old when Henry VII defeated Richard III and claimed the crown of England by right of conquest. Margarets brother was 24. We do not know. The French ambassador said she was above eighty years old when Henry VIII had her beheaded, while the Imperial ambassador said she was nearly ninety. It was, Pierce says, as if Margaret had won the lottery. In the spring of 1536 the Boleyn family were destroyed, and the Pole family and other English grandees grouped themselves about the incoming queen, Jane Seymour. This conviction meant they lost their titles and their landsmostly in the South of England--conveniently located to assist any invasion. And his patron Morton was infamous as the architect of that kings very successful and subsequently very unpopular tax policy. 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. In 1886, Margaret would be beatified by Pope Leo XIII as a martyr to Henrys regime. For Mores part, he undoubtedly appreciated his second wifes superb housekeeping skills for they allowed him the freedom to pursue his increasingly successful career. He was even more aware than the king of Mores popular appeal; and this was to Mores detriment for it meant that his refusal to publicly support the king was not something that could be forgiven or forgotten. Margarets later life, at least, is well documented, but we cannot approach her story from the inside. The prestige of her ancient family, her traditionalist stance in religion, and her status as a peer in her own right all these defined a woman who might wish to resist the new order. As a boy, More spent some time in the household of John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury. There is no greater tale of a father and daughter relationship than the story of Sir Thomas More and his Dearest Meg, his eldest daughter Margaret. More would have to either acknowledge the kings spiritual supremacy and marriage to Anne Boleyn, or he would die. The Duke of Clarence plotted against Edward IV and in February 1478 was attainted and executed for treason. letters@lrb.co.uk Art and science The German artist Hans Holbein the Younger paints King Henry VIII. In 1554, Mary reversed the attainder against Reginald Pole, and he was ordained as a priest in 1556 and finally consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1556. https://www.thoughtco.com/margaret-pole-tudor-matriarch-and-martyr-3530618 (accessed March 1, 2023). King was now newly enamored of a young noblewoman called Anne Boleyn well documented, but,. Got a tip-off, troubled spirit of the Plantagenets, is not for a life the... 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