Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury#Descendants

File:Margaret de la pole.jpg{{More citations needed section|date=November 2024}}

Margaret was born at Farleigh Castle in Somerset. She was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence,{{Cite web |last=Borman |first=Tracy |author-link=Tracy Borman |title=The Extraordinary Life and Death of Lady Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury |url=https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/the-extraordinary-life-and-death-of-lady-margaret-pole-countess-of-salisbury/#gs.i2jgjp |access-date=12 November 2024 |website=Historic Royal Palaces}} 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. 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.{{Cite ODNB |last=Pollard |first=A. J. |date=3 January 2008 |orig-date=23 September 2004 |title=Neville, Richard, sixteenth earl of Warwick and sixth earl of Salisbury [called the Kingmaker] (1428–1471), magnate |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-19955 |access-date=2024-11-07 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/19955}}{{Citation |last=Liedl |first=Janice |title="Rather a Strong and Constant Man": Margaret Pole and the Problem of Women's Independence |date=2014 |work=Women during the English Reformations: Renegotiating Gender and Religious Identity |pages=29–43 |editor-last=Chappell |editor-first=Julie A. |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137465672_3 |access-date=2024-11-13 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137465672_3 |isbn=978-1-137-46567-2 |editor2-last=Kramer |editor2-first=Kaley A.|url-access=subscription }}

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. Margaret would have had a claim to the Earldom of Warwick, but the earldom was forfeited on the attainder of her brother Edward.ODNB. She was most likely named for her paternal aunt Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy.{{cite book |last=Higginbotham |first=Susan |author-link=Susan Higginbotham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wmnWDAAAQBAJ&q=Isabelle&pg=PP25 |title=Margaret Pole: The Countess in the Tower |date=15 August 2016 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-3609-2}}

Isabel died suddenly on 22 December 1476, when Margaret was only three years old. Two months earlier she had given birth to a son, Richard (who would only outlive her by a year).{{Cite book |last=Weir |first=Alison |author-link=Alison Weir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=28oSeb3qT_IC&dq=%22margaret+pole%22&pg=PA1 |title=Traitors of the Tower |date=2010 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-09-954228-5 |language=en |chapter=Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541)}} 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".{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Rebecca Sophia Katherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8TrEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22isabel+neville%22+poison&pg=PT44 |title=Tudor Feminists: 10 Renaissance Women Ahead of their Time |date=30 March 2024 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-3990-4363-2}}{{Page needed|date=December 2024}} He had them brought to trial, found guilty and executed on very slim evidence by a rigged court in April 1477.{{Cite book |last=Sadler |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HgWtAgAAQBAJ&dq=Ankarette+Twynyho&pg=PA224 |title=The Red Rose and the White: The Wars of the Roses, 1453-1487 |date=2014-01-14 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-90518-9 |pages=224 |language=en}} His grief over his wife's death, and the midwife having been a distant cousin of the Woodvilles,{{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Michael Van Cleave |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj6uYu0LiO0C&dq=Ankarette+Twynyho&pg=PA222 |title=Three Crises in Early English History: Personalities and Politics During the Norman Conquest, the Reign of King John, and the Wars of the Roses |date=1998 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-7618-1188-6 |pages=222 |language=en}} suggested by his sister-in-law Elizabeth Woodville, made him distance himself from his brother, Edward IV.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

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.{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 1: Daughter of Clarence (1473 – 1487) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}} 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,{{Cite web |title=Margaret Pole, Tudor Matriarch and Martyr |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/margaret-pole-tudor-matriarch-and-martyr-3530618 |access-date=2024-11-06 |website=ThoughtCo |language=en}} and married Anne Neville, Margaret’s maternal aunt. In 1484, Margaret and her brother were residing in the King's Northern estates in the care of their aunt. Pole learned how to play the virginals as a child.

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. Margaret and her brother were taken into their care as wards of the crown. 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.

The new Tudor King suspected anyone with blood ties to the Plantagenets as coveting the throne,{{Cite book |last=Penn |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Penn (historian) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v594Ayh-_i8C&q=editions:MwNmTFjKGWMC |title=Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England |date=2012-03-06 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-9156-9 |pages=22–23 |language=en}} and as young Edward was the last male Plantagenet and a potential House of York claimant,{{Cite book |last=de Lisle |first=Leanda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0DtpU2HtHUC&q=margaret+pole+ |title=Tudor: The Family Story |date=2013-08-29 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-4481-9006-5 |language=en}} he was moved to the Tower of London in 1485.{{Cite ODNB |last=Carpenter |first=Christine |date=3 January 2008 |orig-date=23 September 2004 |title=Edward, styled earl of Warwick (1475–1499), potential claimant to the English throne |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-8525 |access-date=2024-11-07 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/8525}} 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. 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.{{Cite book |last=Amin |first=Nathen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3MqEAAAQBAJ&q=warwick |title=Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders: Simnel, Warbeck, and Warwick |date=2021-04-15 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-7509-1 |language=en}} His lands and titles were confiscated.{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 2: Tudor Matron (1487 – 1504) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/tudor-matron-1487-1504 |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}}

Margaret remained important to the new Tudor dynasty due to her Yorkist lineage and unquestionably noble blood.{{Cite book |last=Pennington |first=Adam |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzgyEQAAQBAJ&dq=Richard+pole&pg=PR14 |title=Henry VIII and the Plantagenet Poles: The Rise and Fall of a Dynasty |date=2024-11-24 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-3990-7174-1 |pages=xiii-xiv |language=en}} When she was 14 years old, Henry VII arranged her marriage to his favoured cousin and loyal servant, Richard Pole, who was 11 years her senior and from a gentry family. Whilst Richard's mother Edith St. John was an older half-sister of the King's mother, Margaret Beaufort, making him from a Lancastrian supporting family, 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. Horace Walpole later reflected in his correspondence that "Henry had married her to the insignificant Sir Richard Pole who is called a Welsh Knight".{{Cite book |last=Walpole |first=Horace |author-link=Horace Walpole |url=https://archive.org/details/yaleeditionofhor0000walp |title=The Yale edition of Horace Walpole's correspondence |date=1937 |publisher=[New Haven] : [Yale University Press] |others=Internet Archive}} Nevertheless, the King and Queen attended the marriage ceremony. Historians debate the date of the marriage; it may have taken place in 1487 or 1491.{{Cite news |last=Mantel |first=Hilary |date=2017-02-02 |title=How do we know her? |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n03/hilary-mantel/how-do-we-know-her |access-date=2024-12-06 |work=London Review of Books |language=en |volume=39 |issue=3 |issn=0260-9592}}

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'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. Around the time when Richard was appointed Arthur's Chamberlain, Margaret received a generous gift of £20 from Henry VII.

When the Prince of Wales married the Spanish Infanta Catherine of Aragon in 1501, they established an independent household at Ludlow Castle.{{Cite book |last=O'Day |first=Rosemary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PgKSouk9fHUC |title=The Routledge Companion to the Tudor Age |date=2012-07-26 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-96253-0 |pages=1554 |language=en}} Margaret was appointed as one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting.{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Melita |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wSo2DwAAQBAJ&q=margaret+pole+ |title=The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and His Daughter Mary |date=2017-09-15 |publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited |isbn=978-1-4456-6126-1 |language=en}} Despite a ten year difference in age, she and the Princess became loyal friends. The friendship lasted throughout their whole lives and they exchanged frequent correspondence.{{Cite web |last=Wilcoxson |first=Samantha |date=9 August 2017 |title=The Price of Loyalty, The Friendship of Katharine of Aragon and Lady Margaret Pole |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/guest-articles/the-price-of-loyalty |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}} Margaret held her position until Catherine's entourage was dissolved, after Arthur died on 2 April 1502.{{Cite web |last=Horrox |first=Rosemary |date=2004 |title=Arthur, prince of Wales (1486–1502) |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-705 |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |language=en}}

Richard Pole died of an illness in 1505,{{Cite book |last=Drees |first=Clayton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vdhyEAAAQBAJ&dq=margaret+plantagenet+pole+marriage&pg=PA192 |title=Henry VIII: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works |date=2022-04-15 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-5381-2284-6 |pages=192 |language=en}} leaving Margaret a widow with five young children. She borrowed £40 from Henry VII to pay for Pole's funeral, with Charles Somerset, 1st Earl of Worcester, standing in surety for the loan.{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 3: Widows and Orphans (1504 – 1509) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/widows-and-orphans-1504-1509 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}} 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.

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.{{cite journal |last=Powell |first=Sue |title=Margaret Pole and Syon Abbey |journal=Historical Research |volume=78 |issue=202 |date=1 November 2005 |pages=563–567 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2281.2005.00254.x}}{{Citation |last=Delman |first=Rachel M. |title=Women Religious, Secular Households: The Outside World and Crossing Boundaries in the Later Middle Ages |date=2023-01-24 |work=Medieval Women Religious, c.800-c.1500 |pages=121–136 |editor-last=Curran |editor-first=Kimm |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781800108981%23c7/type/book_part |access-date=2024-11-05 |edition=1 |publisher=Boydell and Brewer Limited |doi=10.1017/9781800108981.009 |isbn=978-1-80010-898-1 |editor2-last=Burton |editor2-first=Janet|url-access=subscription }} 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.

Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon in 1509,{{Cite book |last1=Cannon |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FKhB1kiXq7YC |title=The Kings and Queens of Britain |last2=Hargreaves |first2=Anne |date=2009-03-26 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-158028-4 |pages=252 |language=en}} and Margaret was once again appointed as one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. She attended to the new Queen during the coronation. Her son Henry was also immediately given a place in the King's household.{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 4: Countess of Salisbury (1509 – 1521) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/countess-of-salisbury-1509-1521 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}}

In July 1509, the King granted Margaret an annuity of £100 a year. Then on 4 February 1512, after Margaret's petition to the King, her brother's attainder was reversed and an Act of Parliament restored the Earldom of Salisbury to her. 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 {{frac|2|3}} of a pound, thus £2,667{{cite web |title=Manuscripts and Special Collections Money |url=https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/researchguidance/weightsandmeasures/money.aspx |publisher=University of Nottingham |access-date=30 November 2024}}) for the restoration of her lands, {{Inflation|UK|2666|1512|fmt=eq|cursign=£|r=-4}}.{{cite book |editor1-last=Brewer |editor1-first=J. S. |editor1-link=John Sherren Brewer |title=Letters and papers foreign and domestic of the reign of Henry VIII |date=1872 |publisher=Longman |location=London |page=2023 |volume=IV (2)}} These terms were generous when compared to the amounts other peers were made to pay for restoration of land.Wilson (2024) p 62

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

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

Margaret’s lineage was continued through her five children, Henry, Ursula, Arthur, Reginald, and Geoffrey, who all rose to prominence. Her first son, Henry Pole, was created Baron Montagu in 1514, another of the Neville titles in its first creation,{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} speaking for the family on Margaret's behalf in the House of Lords. His mother negotiated his marriage to the coheiress Jane Neville, daughter of Lord Bergavenny.

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. 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),{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} having married Jane Pickering, the heiress of Roger Lewknor. Margaret and her son Henry pressed Arthur's widow to take a vow of perpetual chastity to preserve her inheritance for the Pole children.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

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.{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Barbara Jean |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZDusAAAAIAAJ |title=Edward Stafford, Third Duke of Buckingham, 1478-1521 |date=1986 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-1316-0 |pages=55–56 |language=en}} 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} 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.

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.{{Cite ODNB|last=Mayer|first=T. F.|date=23 September 2004|title=Pole, Reginald (1500–1558), cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-22456|access-date=2024-09-13|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/22456}} He was Dean of Exeter and Wimborne Minster, Dorset, and a canon of York. 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. He was the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England.{{Cite journal |last=Mayer |first=Thomas F. |date=1987 |title=A Diet for Henry VIII: The Failure of Reginald Pole's 1537 Legation |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/abs/diet-for-henry-viii-the-failure-of-reginald-poles-1537-legation/4BF1F884954141F69EFCC78FD848B715 |journal=Journal of British Studies |language=en |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=305–331 |doi=10.1086/385892 |issn=0021-9371|url-access=subscription }}

Margaret's youngest son, Geoffrey Pole, married Constance, daughter of Edmund Pakenham, and inherited the estate of Lordington in Sussex.{{Cite ODNB |last=Mayer |first=T. F. |date=2004 |title=Pole, Sir Geoffrey (d. 1558), alleged conspirator |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-22447 |access-date=2024-09-13 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/22447}}

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.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

In 1516, Margaret became godmother of the King's and Queen's daughter Mary and stood sponsor for her confirmation. In 1520 she was also appointed as Lady governess to Mary, a position of great honour and prestige that solidified her as a powerful force for patronage. In July 1521, when her sons were caught up in the Duke of Buckingham's treason conviction, she was dismissed from her appointment.{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 5: Suspicion (1521 – 1525) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/suspicion-1521-1525 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}} It had been restored to her by 1525,{{harvnb|Pierce|1996|pages=86–89}} when Margaret was reappointed governess to the Princess at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire.{{Cite journal |last=Broadwood |first=A. A. |date=1908 |title=A Misjudged Queen |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001258060802700206 |journal=The Downside Review |language=en |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=165–178 |doi=10.1177/001258060802700206 |issn=0012-5806|url-access=subscription }}{{Citation |last=Pollnitz |first=Aysha |title=Christian Women or Sovereign Queens? The Schooling of Mary and Elizabeth |date=2010 |work=Tudor Queenship: The Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth |pages=127–142 |editor-last=Hunt |editor-first=Alice |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230111950_9 |access-date=2024-11-05 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9780230111950_9 |isbn=978-0-230-11195-0 |editor2-last=Whitelock |editor2-first=Anna|url-access=subscription }} Margaret and the Princess spent the Christmases of 1529 and 1530 at court.{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 6: My Lady Governess (1525 – 1533) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/my-lady-governess-1525-1533 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}} During her time as governess, Margaret became like "a second mother" to Mary.{{Cite web |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 7: Darkening Days (1533 – 1538) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/darkening-days-1533-1538 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}}

Margaret was initially amongst a group of high ranking noblewomen who openly opposed the King's divorce from Catherine of Aragon. 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.{{Cite journal |last=Harris |first=Barbara J. |date=June 1990 |title=Women and Politics in Early Tudor England |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/abs/women-and-politics-in-early-tudor-england/9C79CCF3A7263F6B23D9FA42DE7E23B1 |journal=The Historical Journal |language=en |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=259–281 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00013327 |issn=1469-5103|url-access=subscription }} This soured Margaret's relationship with Henry.

When Mary was declared illegitimate in 1533,{{Cite book |last=Loades |first=D. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YiO1QgAACAAJ |title=Mary Tudor: A Life |date=1989 |publisher=Basil Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-15453-2 |language=en}} Margaret refused to give Mary's gold plate and jewels back to the King. 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.”

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. 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".{{harvnb|Pierce|1996|pages=102}} 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.

{{More citations needed section|date=November 2024}}

In 1531, Margaret's son Reginald had warned of the risks if Henry should divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. 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.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In June 1536, Reginald definitively broke with the King. 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".{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 8 : Mother of the King's Enemy (1536 – 1538) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/mother-of-the-kings-enemy-1536-1538 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}} This was a great offence to the King. Reginald also urged the princes of Europe to invade England and depose Henry immediately.

Margaret was summoned to the King's presence where he personally informed her of Reginald's treasonable actions. She consulted with her son Henry then wrote directly to Reginald,{{Cite journal |last=Palgrave |first=Francis |date=1836 |title=XVII. Letter purporting to be written by Margaret Countess of Salisbury to her Son, Cardinal Pole; communicated, with remarks, by Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H., F.R.S. and S.A., to Sir Henry Ellis, K.H. F.R.S., Secretary |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/archaeologia/article/abs/xvii-letter-purporting-to-be-written-by-margaret-countess-of-salisbury-to-her-son-cardinal-pole-communicated-with-remarks-by-sir-francis-palgrave-kh-frs-and-sa-to-sir-henry-ellis-kh-frs-secretary/DEF569B1D0857577F80183AC3C038D7B |journal=Archaeologia |language=en |volume=26 |pages=377–379 |doi=10.1017/S0261340900018968 |issn=2051-3186}} saying that she could not bear the King's wrath, strongly reproving him for his "folly", 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". She sent a copy of the letter to the King's council and retired from court. After Anne Boleyn was arrested and executed, Margaret was permitted to return to court, albeit briefly, to serve the new Queen Jane Seymour.

In 1537, Reginald was made a Cardinal, despite not being ordained a priest.{{Cite web |date=10 February 2015 |title=Margaret Plantagenet: Life Story, Chapter 9 : The Wrath of a Prince (1538 – 1541) |url=https://tudortimes.co.uk/people/margaret-plantagenet-life-story/the-wrath-of-a-prince-1538-1541 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Tudor Times |language=en-gb}} Pope Paul III put him in charge of organising assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace. The English government tried to assassinate him.

Margaret's son Geoffrey was arrested in August 1538. 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."[https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hus&AN=58087893&site=ehost-live The Extermination of the White Rose]" (2011) History Today, vol. 61, no. 1. p. 35. Retrieved 5 November 2024. ISSN 0018-2753. 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. Montagu, Exeter, and Margaret were all arrested in November 1538 as the entire Pole family became implicated in the treason. 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."

Margaret was nevertheless accused of abetting her sons and of having “comytted and p[er]petrated div[er]se and sundry other detestable and abominable treasons.”{{Citation |last=Weinreich |first=Spencer J. |title=Cardinal Pole's Arrival in Flanders, and the Results Thereof |date=2017-01-01 |work=Pedro de Ribadeneyra’s 'Ecclesiastical History of the Schism of the Kingdom of England' |pages=272–274 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004323964/B9789004323964-s043.xml |access-date=2024-11-05 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004323964_043 |isbn=978-90-04-32396-4|url-access=subscription }} She was interrogated for three days by William FitzWilliam, Earl of Southampton, and Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, while imprisoned at Cowdray House, Midhurst, West Sussex, which was Fitzwilliam’s home. 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." 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]." 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."

In January 1539, Geoffrey was pardoned, but Montagu and Exeter were executed for treason after trial.{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5OI6BAAAQBAJ&q=margaret+pole |title=The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors |date=2014-09-02 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-28809-0 |language=en}} 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.

In May 1539, Margaret was attainted, as her father had been. 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. Her estate, including Warblington Castle, was temporarily awarded to Sir Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton and the king's personal secretary.'[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol3/pp134-139 Warblington'] In Page, William ed. (1908) A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 3. British History Online. Retrieved 13 November 2024.

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. This had allegedly been found in her coffers at Warblington Castle.

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. In 1540, Cromwell had also fallen from favour and was himself attainted and executed.{{Cite web |last=Schofield |first=John |date=4 January 2016 |title=Thomas Cromwell and the 'ungoodly' executioner |url=https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/thomas-cromwell-and-the-ungoodly-executioner/ |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=The History Press |language=en-GB}}

The following poem was found carved on the wall of Margaret's cell:{{cite web |last=Ridgeway |first=Claire |date=27 May 2010 |title=The Execution of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury |url=http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/the-execution-of-margaret-pole-countess-of-salisbury/5592/ |access-date=12 June 2011 |publisher=The Anne Boleyn Files}}{{cite web |last=Wilson |first=William R. |title=The Tower of London |url=http://travellinghistorian.com/towa.html |access-date=12 June 2011 |publisher=The Travelling Historian}}

{{poemquote|"For traitors on the block should die;

I am no traitor, no, not I!

My faithfulness stands fast and so,

Towards the block I shall not go!

Nor make one step, as you shall see;

Christ in Thy Mercy, save Thou me!"}}

On the morning of 27 May 1541, Margaret was told she would die within the hour. 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.{{Catholic|wstitle=Blessed Margaret Pole|inline=1}}

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.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}}

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".{{cite book |editor1-last=de Gayangos |editor1-first=Pascual |editor1-link=Pascual de Gayangos |title=Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers relating to the negotiations between England and Spain |date=1890 |publisher=HMSO |location=London |pages=331–332 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EOW1PxnGGhkC&dq=%22sentence+of+death+was+made+known+to+her%22&pg=PA331 |volume=VI (1)}} It took eleven strokes of an axe for the executioner to remove her head. The first blow missed its mark, gashing her shoulder.{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yiA7AwAAQBAJ |title=Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain |date=2011 |publisher=The History Press |isbn=978-0-7524-6662-0 |pages=12–13}}

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.{{harvnb|Pierce|1996|pages=314–315}}Cokayne, George Edward. The Complete Peerage, v. XII p. II, p. 393{{cite web |last=Eakins |first=Lara |title=Margaret Pole |url=http://tudorhistory.org/people/mpole/ |access-date=18 January 2014 |website=Tudor History}}{{cite web|title=Block and Axe|url=http://www.royalarmouries.org/tower-of-london/power-house/institutions-of-the-tower/prison/execution/block-and-axe|publisher=Royal Armouries|access-date=18 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925173144/https://www.royalarmouries.org/tower-of-london/power-house/institutions-of-the-tower/prison/execution/block-and-axe|archive-date=25 September 2015|url-status=dead}}

Margaret was buried in the Chapel Royale of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London.Durnan, Michael. (2013) [https://web.archive.org/web/20131203003156/http://reginamag.com/downloads/Regina_Summer_2013_FINAL_073113.pdf My Lady Margaret, A King’s Niece] . Regina: The Secret Catholic Insider’s Guide to England, online ed. pp. 32-34. Her remains were rediscovered when the chapel was renovated in 1876.Pierce, Hazel. (23 September 2004) {{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-22451|title=Pole, Margaret, suo jure Countess of Salisbury (1473–1541), noblewoman|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/22451|access-date=18 November 2020}}{{cite book |last=Bell |first=Doyne Courtenay |author-link=Doyne Bell |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89098638729&seq=9 |title=Notices of the Historic Persons Buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London |publisher=John Murray |year=1877 |location=London |pages=24}}

When not at Court, Margaret lived chiefly at Warblington Castle in Hampshire and Bisham Manor in Berkshire.{{cite web |url=http://www.berkshirehistory.com/bios/mplantagenet.html |title=Margaret Plantagenet, Lady Pole & Countess of Salisbury (1473–1541) |author=Ford, David Nash |year=2010 |work=Royal Berkshire History |publisher=Nash Ford Publishing |access-date=16 June 2011}}

She and her husband were parents to five children:

• Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu (c. 1492{{snd}}9 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, 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.{{Cite ODNB |last=Scott |first=David |title=Bourchier, Sir John (c. 1595–1660), politician and regicide |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-2991 |access-date=2024-11-13 |date=2004 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/2991}}
• Arthur Pole (before 1499{{snd}}before 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. 1502{{snd}}12 August 1570), married Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford, and had thirteen children. Her daughter Dorothy Stafford served Queen Elizabeth as Mistress of the Robes,Somerset, Anne. (1984) Ladies in Waiting: from the Tudors to the present day, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 66. and her son Thomas Stafford was executed for treason against Queen Mary.{{Cite ODNB|last=Hicks|first=Michael|title=Stafford, Thomas (c. 1533–1557), rebel|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-26215|access-date=2024-11-05|date=23 September 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/26215}}
• Reginald Pole (c. 1502{{snd}}17 November 1558), cardinal, papal legate in various regions, including England, and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury.
• Geoffrey Pole (c. 1504–1558), 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, supported by two of his brothers. He attempted to persuade France and Spain to support his claim,"[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol1/pp259-261 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 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.{{Cite journal |last=Fett |first=Denice |date=2010-11-13 |title=Spanish Diplomacy and English Recusancy in Early Elizabethan England |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1558/refm.v15.169 |journal=Reformation |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=169–189 |doi=10.1558/refm.v15.169 |issn=1357-4175|url-access=subscription }}

File:Blessed Margaret Pole Stained Glass Window OLEM, Cambridge.png 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."{{Cite book |last=Harrison |first=Helene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1MgEQAAQBAJ&dq=margaret+pole+tower+of+london&pg=PT90 |title=Tudor Executions: From Nobility To The Block |date=2024-09-30 |publisher=Pen and Sword History |isbn=978-1-3990-4334-2 |language=en}} Margaret was later regarded by the Catholic Church as a martyr.{{Cite journal |last=Nuttall |first=Geoffrey F. |date=July 1971 |title=The English Martyrs 1535–1680: a statistical review |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-ecclesiastical-history/article/abs/english-martyrs-15351680-a-statistical-review/FDE78D5C2C9CD784DCBDD8AF33A89916 |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |language=en |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=191–197 |doi=10.1017/S0022046900058310 |issn=1469-7637|url-access=subscription }} She was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII,Camm, Bede. (1904) Lives of the English martyrs declared blessed by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and 1895. Burns and Oates Limited, ix. and is known in the Roman Catholic Calendar as the Blessed Margaret Pole.

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

• English Martyrs Church, Preston (she is on the right.){{Citation |last=Forbester |first=Mike |title=English Martyrs' Church |date=24 September 2017 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/24855617@N05/37058077090/ |access-date=30 July 2022 |via=Flickr}}
• St Joseph's Church in Sale, Cheshire{{Citation |last=Ernest Denim |title=Painted panel at St Joseph's church, Sale, Cheshire |date=25 July 2015 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/52561958@N00/19412139513/ |access-date=30 July 2022 |via=Flickr}}
• St. Marie's Church in New Bilton, Rugby, Warwickshire{{Citation |last=Thomson |first=Aidan McRae |title=English Martyrs |date=21 August 2016 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/29607505386/ |access-date=30 July 2022 |via=Flickr}}

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

• Our Lady of Lourdes in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.{{Citation |last=Robarts |first=David |title=Margaret Pole & Thomas More, Burlison & Grylls 1931 |date=26 June 2014 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidrobarts/14514568195/ |access-date=30 July 2022 |via=Flickr}}
• St. Osmund's Church in Salisbury, Wiltshire{{Citation |last=Eye |first=Elmar |title=Blessed Margaret Pole and St Oliver Plunkett |date=11 February 2007 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/seadipper/411946250/ |access-date=30 July 2022 |via=Flickr}}
• St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bridge Gate, Derby, Derbyshire{{Citation |last=Budby |title=[55673] St Mary (RC), Derby: Blessed Margaret Pole |date=9 November 2017 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/30120216@N07/37605264515/ |access-date=30 July 2022 |via=Flickr}}{{Cite journal |last=Oliver |first=Andrew |date=1921 |title=Notes on the Incised Effigies of Derbyshire and Staffordshire |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00665983.1921.11073619 |journal=Archaeological Journal |language=en |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1080/00665983.1921.11073619 |issn=0066-5983|url-access=subscription }}
• Our Lady and the English Martyrs' church in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire{{Citation |last=Lew |first=Lawrence |title=English Martyrs |date=14 September 2005 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/139614654/ |access-date=30 July 2022 |via=Flickr}} (and another one from the right)
• Shrewsbury Cathedral, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, she is in the fourth window in front of John Fisher.{{Citation |last=Thomson |first=Aidan McRae |title=English Martyrs, Shrewsbury Cathedral |date=30 June 2012 |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/amthomson/7751400360/ |access-date=2 November 2022 |via=Flickr}}

She is commemorated in the dedication of the Church of Our Lady Queen of Peace & Blessed Margaret Pole in Southbourne, Bournemouth.{{cite web |title=Our Lady Queen of Peace & Blessèd Margaret Pole, Southbourne |url=https://www.avonstour.co.uk/parishes/olqp/ |accessdate=14 October 2021 |website=Avons Tour}}

{{More citations needed section|date=November 2024}}

• Margaret is depicted in William Shakespeare's 16th-century play Richard III as the young daughter of the murdered Duke of Clarence.{{Cite journal |last=Higginbotham |first=Jennifer |date=2017-09-01 |title=Finding Margaret (Pole) in Shakespeare's Richard III |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/SCJ4803002 |journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal |language=en |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=615–635 |doi=10.1086/SCJ4803002 |issn=0361-0160|url-access=subscription }}
• 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4516-2611-7 |title=The King's Curse |work=Publishers Weekly |date=21 July 2014 |access-date=8 October 2014}} She also appears in Gregory's novels The Kingmaker's Daughter (2012) and The White Princess (2013).
• Margaret was portrayed by Rebecca Benson in the television adaptation of The White Princess (2013){{cite web|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/06/game-of-thrones-actors-white-princess |title=Two More Game of Thrones Actors Just Joined Starz's The White Queen Follow-Up |first=Laura |last=Bradley |work=Vanity Fair |date=13 June 2016 |access-date=14 June 2016}} and by Laura Carmichael in the miniseries The Spanish Princess (2019), a sequel to The White Princess.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2018/05/the-spanish-princess-charlotte-hope-star-the-white-princess-follow-up-on-starz-1202393222/|title=The Spanish Princess: Charlotte Hope To Star In The White Princess. Follow-Up on Starz|first=Denise|last=Petski|website=Deadline Hollywood|date=17 May 2018|access-date=1 June 2018}}
• Harriet Walter portrays Margaret in the Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light,{{Cite web |title=The Mirror & the Light characters Listed With Descriptions |url=https://www.bookcompanion.com/the_mirror_&_the_light_character_list.html |access-date=2024-12-06 |website=Book Companion}} the BBC's 2024 television adaptation of Hilary Mantel's novel, The Mirror and the Light (2020).

{{Chart top|(selective chart)}}

{{tree chart/start}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | |Edward|v|Philippa| | | |Edward=Edward III|Philippa=Philippa of Hainault}}

{{tree chart|border=0| |,|-|-|-|v|-|^|-|-|-|.| | |}}

{{tree chart|border=0|Edward| |Edmund| | | |John|v|Blanche of Lancaster|Edward=Edward of Woodstock|John=John, Duke of Lancaster|Edmund=Edmund, Duke of York|Blanche of Lancaster=Blanche of Lancaster}}

{{tree chart|border=0| |!| | | |!| | | | |,|-|-|^|-|-|-|-|.| |}}

{{tree chart|border=0|Richard II| | |!| | | | |!| | | | | | |Henry|Richard II=Richard II|Henry=Henry IV}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | | |!| | | |Joan|v|Ralph| | |!|Joan=Joan Beaufort|Ralph=Ralph Neville}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | | |!| | | |,|-|-|^|-|.| | |Henry|Henry=Henry V}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | |Richard| | |!| | | |RichardNeville| | |!|Anne=Anne Mortimer|Richard=Richard, Earl of Cambridge|RichardNeville=Richard Neville of Salisbury}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | | |!| | | |!| | | | |!| | | |!|}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | |Richard|v|Cecily| | |RichardNeville| |Henry|Richard=Richard, Duke of York|Cecily=Cecily Neville|Henry=Henry VI|RichardNeville=Richard Neville of Warwick}}

{{tree chart|border=0| |,|-|-|-|v|-|^|-|.| | | | |!|}}

{{tree chart|border=0|Ed4| |Richard| |George|-|v|Isabel|Ed4=Edward IV|Richard=Richard III|George=George Plantagenet|Isabel=Isabel Neville}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | | | | | | |,|-|-|^|-|-|.| | |}}

{{tree chart|border=0| | | | |Richard|v|Margaret| | | |Edward|Richard=Richard Pole|Margaret=Margaret Pole|Edward=Edward Plantagenet}}

{{tree chart|border=0| |,|-|-|-|v|-|^|-|v|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|.|}}

{{tree chart|border=0|Henry| |Arthur| |Ursula| |Reginald| |Geoffrey|Henry=Henry Pole|Arthur=Arthur Pole|Ursula=Ursula Pole|Reginald=Reginald Pole|Geoffrey=Geoffrey Pole}}

{{tree chart/end}}

{{Chart bottom}}

{{Reflist}}

• Dwyer, J. G. "Pole, Margaret Plantagenet, Bl." at New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale, 2003. pp. 455–456. Cited as New Catholic Encyclopedia.
• Mayer, T. F. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/22456 Pole, Reginald (1500–1558)], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn., January 2008.
• {{citation|last=Pierce|first=Hazel|title=The Life, Career and Political Significance of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury 1473–1541|url=http://e.bangor.ac.uk/4009/|publisher=Bangor University|year=1996|access-date=31 July 2016|archive-date=28 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328105602/http://e.bangor.ac.uk/4009/|url-status=dead}}
• {{ODNBweb|first=Hazel|last=Pierce|id=22451|title=Pole, Margaret, suo jure Countess of Salisbury (1473–1541)}};
• Pierce, Hazel (2003). Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, 1473–1541: Loyalty, Lineage and Leadership, University of Wales Press, {{ISBN|0-7083-1783-9}}
• {{cite book|title=The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the remaking of the English church|first=George W.|last=Bernard|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2005}}

• Roy, Neha (2023). Henry VIII's Imprisoned Women: The Women of the Tower, Pen and Sword History, {{ISBN|978-1-3990-9579-2}}

{{S-start}}

{{S-reg|en}}

|-

{{s-vac|last=Edward Plantagenet}}

{{s-ttl|title=Countess of Salisbury|years= 1513–1539}}

{{s-non|reason= Forfeit}}

{{S-end}}

{{Catholic saints|state=collapsed}}

{{Shakespeare tetralogy}}

{{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= England|portal4= Saints|commons=y}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Margaret Plantagenet, 8th Countess Of Salisbury}}

Category:1473 births

Category:1541 deaths

Category:15th-century English nobility

Category:15th-century English women

Category:16th-century English nobility

Category:16th-century English women

Category:16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs

Category:Barons Montagu

Category:Barons Monthermer

Salisbury, Margaret Pole, Countess of

Category:Daughters of English dukes

8

Salisbury

Category:English baronesses

Category:English beatified people

Category:English Christian royal saints

Category:English ladies-in-waiting

Category:Executed English women

Category:Executed people from Somerset

Category:Executed English royalty

Category:Executions at the Tower of London

Category:Forty-one Martyrs of England and Wales

Category:Governesses to the English Royal Household

Category:Hereditary peeresses created by Henry VIII

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

Category:Household of Catherine of Aragon

Category:People convicted under a bill of attainder

Category:People executed by Tudor England by decapitation

Category:People executed under Henry VIII

Category:People executed under the Tudors for treason against England

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

Category:People from Bisham

Category:People from Mendip District

Category:People from the Borough of Havant

Margaret

Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London

Category:Roman Catholic royal saints

Category:Wives of knights