what can be inferred about Henry VIIIs decision to execute the Countess of Salisbury?

Margaret Pole

Margaret Plantagenet was born during 1 of the near unstable periods in English royal history. The daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, brother to King Edward IV, and Isabel Neville, girl of the powerful Earl of Warwick, Margaret was destined for a future of privilege and power. She was built-in a Princess, into the majestic house of Plantagenet, and, not having the do good of hindsight, would never have guessed her Plantagenet blood would cause such a number of life changing events.

In 1478, her male parent Clarence was executed by her uncle the rex on grounds of treason. By the tender historic period of 5, Margaret had lost both of her parents, and her future was uncertain. What would become of this young princess?

1485, the Battle of Bosworth. Richard III, the last Plantagenet king was defeated in battle by the Lancastrian Henry Tudor. Henry had at present founded an entirely new dynasty, and sat on the throne every bit the get-go Tudor Monarch. Margaret must have felt insecure. She and her blood brother, Edward, were next in line to the throne through their Yorkist blood, which the new Tudor king was fully aware of. The young Edward of Warwick, younger blood brother of Margaret, was hastily detained and kept under business firm arrest earlier existence incarcerated into the Belfry of London. His claim to the throne fabricated him too much of a threat to be freely living in society, therefore the new Tudor king had no alternative only to confine the young aristocrat. Henry arranged a series of clever marriages for the daughters of the previous male monarch and also for Margaret. The Yorkist princesses were married off to allies of Henry, who he knew could be trustworthy, indeed ensuring the princesses did non marry men who could pose a threat to Henry's throne. Margaret was paired with Sir Richard Pole, an unlikely match in status, Margaret being of royal birth and Richard only a member of the gentry, hardly a suitable match.

When Henry VIII inherited the throne in 1509, Margaret's fortunes greatly improved. She was employed dorsum into the service of Katherine of Aragon, who was now queen equally the new King's wife. In 1512 she was granted the title Countess of Salisbury in her own right, restoring her to a title that had been previously held in her family. This restoration benefited Margaret greatly, providing her with an income through her Salisbury lands and estates, which eventually led to her existence one of the wealthiest peers in England.

Margaret was known for her devout Roman Catholic behavior, as was her son Reginald. During the 1530s, with religious modify in England, Reginald fled abroad. He refused to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the new Church building of England and staunchly disagreed with his intermission from the Catholic church building and the Pope, an deed of high treason on behalf of Reginald. This left Margaret in a precarious state of affairs, was she to support her treasonous son in a far abroad land or her sovereign lord and king?

In 1536, Reginald altogether broke with the King. He had urged the Princes of Europe to depose Henry immediately. The English language King was incensed with anger, with Reginald out of reach, his wrath turned to the remaining Pole family unit. Although both Reginald's older brother and his mother wrote to the male monarch in reproof of Reginald's attitudes and deportment, he was in no mood to spare them.

In January 1539, Sir Geoffrey Pole was pardoned, after being arrested in August 1538 and placed in the Tower. Margaret'due south son Henry and Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, were both executed for treason. In May 1539 Margaret and other members of her family were attainted. Due to the conviction, Lady Salisbury was stripped of her lands and titles. As part of the bear witness for the Bill of Attainder put against Margaret, Thomas Cromwell produced a tunic begetting the 5 Wounds of Christ, symbolizing Margaret's back up for Roman Catholicism and of her son, the exiled primal. The supposed discovery, half dozen months afterward her households were searched at her abort, is surely a fabrication of the truth. Margaret was now fully under the king's will, with no title or lands to her proper noun, she was to be styled only as Margaret Pole. We tin can't imagine how Margaret was feeling, she was 65 years of age when brought to the tower in 1539, an advanced historic period past the standards of the day. We tin can only imagine her mental state was a mixture of uncertainty and anxiety for the welfare of her family and of her own mortality. As Hazel Pierce states in her biography of Margaret Pole "The downfall of the Pole family unit might be viewed past some as a failure on Margaret'south part: failure to maintain her family's position, failure to continue her sons more firmly under command, failure to deed as politics and common sense dictated rather than in accord with her conscious."

Margaret was at present sentenced to death. She had been interred in the Tower of London for two and a half years, forever conscious of what her fate would be. Although Margaret was incarcerated, she was however waited on past a number of servants and received a grant of fine habiliment in March 1541 from the current queen's wardrobe. A story goes that Queen Katherine Howard, Henry VIII's 5th wife, empathised with the elderly countess in the belfry and requested her tailor to send her some comforting items, such as a furred nightgown and furred slippers. Nosotros cannot be sure if Katherine straight sympathized with the countess or if information technology was merely her queenly duty to dispatch some of the garments she did not habiliment anymore.

On the forenoon of 27th May 1541, Margaret Pole was informed she would be expressionless within the hour. Henry VIII was determined to rid his realm of anyone that may pose a threat to his throne, which included a fragile 67-twelvemonth-old lady. Until the end, Margaret claimed her innocence before God, she stated no law-breaking had been imputed to her and that she was wrongly judged. According to popular conventionalities, a poem was found carved on the wall of her prison cell, as follows:

'For traitors on the block should dice;
I am no traitor, no, not I!
My faithfulness stands fast and so,
towards the block I shall not go!
Nor make ane step, as you shall see;
Christ in Thy Mercy, save Thou me!'

If Margaret did in-fact cleave this concluding plea of innocence into her prison cell wall, it clearly shows she had been wronged by the law. Regardless, the former countess was removed from her prison cell and taken to the place within the precincts of the tower where she would exist executed.

Due to her onetime status and beingness of noble birth, Lady Pole was spared the dishonour of a public execution, although according to Eustace Chapuys, Imperial Administrator, there were numerous witnesses present, including the lord mayor of London. A story that has been popularized through the centuries is that Margaret had to exist physically held downward during her execution and that once the kickoff blow of the axe missed her neck she leapt from the scaffold and attempted to scurry abroad. This story seems quite far-fetched, however, according to the Calendar of Country Papers, the Executioner was dubbed a 'unmeant youth' who 'hacked her head and shoulders to pieces.' The execution was patently a encarmine thing with an undoubtedly lamentable and tragic end for Lady Pole. Royal Administrator Chapuys wrote in disgust that 'there was no need or haste to bring so ignominious a decease upon her' he carried on to say, due to her advancing years, that she could not 'in the ordinary form of nature alive long.' Her remains were cached in the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London.

She died a traitor under the constabulary, but to many others an unlawfully judged elderly woman who did not deserve her vicious end. Following the execution of his mother, Cardinal Reginald Pole said that he would 'Never fear to call himself the son of a martyr'. And 345 years later, in 1886, Lady Salisbury became exactly that. On the 29th Dec 1886, she became the Blessed Margaret Pole under the Roman Catholic Church. She was beatified by Pope Leo Thirteen.

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Source: https://www.tudorsociety.com/the-downfall-of-margaret-pole-countess-of-salisbury-by-alexander-taylor/

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