The Turbulent Life And Tragic End Of The Last Plantagenet | Margaret Pole

one of the last plantagenets was Margaret pole and despite not being ambitious for the throne of England herself she would still face a horrific un botched death she would survive countless monarchs Changing Hands over the country including two of her own uncles but eventually her faith would prove the stumbling block for her life Margaret was born on the 14th of August 1473 at Farley Castle near B she had brother Edward who would be the only other surviving child of their parents George plantagenet Duke of Clarence and Isabelle Neville daughter of Richard Neville Edward of wari himself Margaret's maternal grandfather Richard Neville had died 2 years prior to Margaret's birth at the Battle of Barnet fighting against her Uncle Edward IV after this her father George was also bestowed with the titles of Earl of Warick and of Salsbury however it wasn't all Pleasant George was known for having a violent and unpredictable temper at times but it didn't become more apparent how unstable he was until years later Isabelle died in December 1476 when Margaret was just 3 years old aged just 25 years old herself it's now thought Isabelle died either of consumption or fever after giving birth but at the time George was convinced his wife had been poisoned to make this worse he actually accused one of her ladies in Waiting anchoret twio of doing the deed with no evidence whatsoever he barged into anor's house dragged her out and took her off to a makeshift trial at Warick after removing her Jewels justices of the peace were also Dragged In to make it look realistic although it was obvious from the outset they had no choice but to agree to George's accusation he said anchoret had given Isabelle a poisoned drink of Ale on the 10th of October and the jury found her guilty she was taken immediately from The Trial in the Guild Hall to the local jail and from there to The Gallows the same day her indictment trial and sentence had all occurred within a few hours on the same day the J afterwards admitted to finding anchoret guilty mostly from fear of what would happen to them if they didn't as did the sheriff who was forced to drag poor anchoret to The Gallows Edward IV would later posthumously pardon her but it couldn't bring her back from the dead Margaret's otherwise Noble and Wealthy childhood would have been overshadowed by this as well as her brothers she remained within her father's household and would likely have had female nursemaids and Ladies as part of her own small household staff not much is recorded of her interactions or relationship with her father but due to her age when he died plus the fact he was often at court or abroad it's likely Margaret wasn't very close to him but also George's bad decisions wouldn't end with assuming her mother had been poisoned after Isabelle's death George had hoped to marry Mary of burgundy the stepdaughter daughter of his sister Margaret of York who had married Mary's father Charles the Bold the Duke of burgundy Mary of burgundy was young and pretty but most importantly she was the sole aess to the jkom of burgundy the wealthiest and most cultured Court in Europe at the time King Edward however ever distrusting of his unstable brother's motives refused to accept the marriage and George threw his toys out of the pram about it he had already rebelled against Edward once before and been pardoned for it Clarence left court a mutual hostility grew between the brothers when remarks said about the other were both gossiped about just a few months later in May of 1477 clarence's astronomer John Stacy under the pressure of torture confessed to having foreen the death of the king Stacy also implicated a chaplain from Ox had named Thomas Blake and George's retainer Thomas Beret all three were found guilty of treason and only Blake survived being hanged by a last minute reprieve George was not himself implicated and had this all been left alone it would have been the end of the matter for Edward despite their fraught relationship but George did not leave it at that and he had the Declaration of Innocence from Beret read out to the Royal Council through John Godard an ex lancastrian it was the trigger that made Edward call Clarence to court accuse him of treason and lock him away in the Tower of London the king called for a bill of a tainer on his brother and not long after his conviction of treason he was privately executed at the tower on the 18th of February 1478 it's possible he was drowned in a barrel of MSY wine apparently George's favorite although there's not much evidence either way this changed things for Margaret and her brother Edward as their father's lands had been attained this meant his lands and properties now belonged to the crown and his titles were stripped from both him and his heirs as a result they now had to go and live with their cousins in the Royal household but when Margaret was 10 years old her Uncle Edward died suddenly on the the 9th of April 1483 and while the crown was meant to go to his young 12-year-old son Margaret's cousin Edward V things wouldn't quite work out like that Edward V and his younger brother Richard of schury were placed into the Tower of London by their other Uncle Richard Duke of Gloucester to await young Edward's coronation while there however Gloucester claimed to have seen evidence that Edward was in fact illegitimate and therefore unable to be king luckily he stepped up to the plate and said he'd give the job a go the boys would Disappear by the end of the summer and to this day discussion continues as to whether they were murdered or rescued whatever the case by September 1483 gler was King as Richard thei and Edward IV's Sons had disappeared this left Edward the false daughters but also Margaret and her brother Edward as the next heirs to the throne while their father's attainer meant Margaret and her brother couldn't inherit the titles he had held it technically didn't actually prevent a claim to the throne however Richard declared this was in fact the case and sent the two children to live at Sheriff Hutton Castle in Yorkshire from September of that year they were well taken care of here and they were even whis Whispers as Richard and his wife and Neville failed to produce an air that Edward might be considered for the throne although this is unlikely while Richard was also happy to say the attainer barred Edward from the throne Margaret seems to have remained at Sheriff Hutton but her brother went to live in London with his new Guardian Thomas Gray first Marquis of Dorset however when Anne died in 1485 the last holder of the title Earl of Salsbury as her father's last surviving Heir Richard invested the title back to his nephew Edward this increased wealth and power for the young boy and his Guardian but by August 1485 it was all a moot point as Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth and England's Crown went to the Victor Henry viith while Henry iith relied on Claim by Conquest quest to hold the crown bolstering it by marrying Elizabeth of York the eldest daughter of Edward IV his claim could still be considered shaky when compared to Margaret's brother Edward this heightened their importance and young Edward plantagenet now aged about 10 was taken to the Tower of London this wasn't the first time a young boy had disappeared into the tower and it wasn't long before people took advantage of the situation when r rumors swept around of young Edward's Death 2 years later in 1487 a young boy called Lambert simnel appeared with supporters who claimed he was in fact Edward plantagenet in order to quash this idea Henry iith had Edward taken out of the Tower and paraded around the Streets of London but sadly this didn't seem to do much good it wasn't until Lambert sel's supporters were arrested and or executed that the whole thing died down Lambert simal as a young boy being allowed a job in Henry's kitchens and Edward went back to the tower but in 1490 he was confirmed by the king in the title of Earl of Warick which really he was entitled to as it came from his mother and not his father Margaret was now 14 years old old enough at the time to be married and in the light of her brother's dynastic importance Henry thought it was a good idea to arrange one for Margaret she was betrothed to the king's cousin Sir Richard Paul who was around 14 or 15 years older than her but the match was mostly made because Richard pole was a safe bet not only were he and the King related as Richard's mother was a half sister of Margaret bord Henry's mother but he was also a loyal supporter of the king but many people considered it also to be a way of keeping Margaret down dynastically as it was a lower marriage than she could have once expected Margaret was the daughter of a Juke a niece of two kings whereas Paul although he was no commoner was not considered the same rank as Margaret at the time of their marriage in November 1487 but Margaret and her husband appear to have had a happy marriage and it's likely she was grateful to Simply feel she was in a safe place after the many years of uncertainty being married to the king's loyal cousin no matter his rank would mean Margaret could relax a little this was made better by pole becoming one of Henry's most important courtiers over the years he became Constable of several castles Sheriff of marineth Chamberlain of North Wales and Chester and a member of the council in the Welsh marches in 1493 he was appointed as Lord Chamberlain to Prince Arthur's household when it was established that year in Ludo castle and in 1495 Paul also became justice of North Wales and Constable of canavan castle one of the most important fortresses on the North Welsh Coast as for Margaret she started her married life at bokma house in Med menam a village in buckinghamshire where Paul had made his main home whenever her husband had to carry out his duties in Wales however Margaret often stayed at ston Castle in Staffordshire to be nearby further suggesting they at least had a respectful and caring relationship she first fell pregnant a few years after their marriage giving birth to their first child in 1492 a son named Henry after the king they then seems to have been a few years with no children but there could be two reasons for this the first is simply that Paul appears to have had a lot of roles to fill and he could have been too busy the second is that there may have been other pregnancies that ended in miscarriage or still birth and sadly those children simply haven't been recorded her next surviving child came along in 1499 another boy this time named Arthur presumably after the King's son Prince Arthur in April 1499 Paul officiated at the proxy wedding of Prince Arthur to Katherine of aragan and he was created a knight of the G in the same year all seemed to be going well for Margaret and her family however it was all about to come crashing down within a few years firstly another Pretender to the throne appeared appeared in the form of Perkin warbeck a charismatic and believable man from the low countries who claimed to be Richard of shrewbury when Perkin was finally arrested after actually getting on well with Henry and going to his court he was taken to the Tower of London in the Autumn of 1499 due to some persuasion on warbeck's part he convinced his jailers to allow him to share rooms with the Earl of Warick the two young men got on well and Edward although it's hard to know how willingly got involved in a plot to escape with Perkin to the anxiety ridden Henry wanting to escape could only mean the pair wanted to overthrow him and after a trial on November the 21st 1499 Edward was executed a week later for treason on the 28th of November Margaret had now lost her brother her only living relative from her immediate family while by this point she hadn't seen him for several years due to them being separated as children Margaret must have still felt the pain of this loss any inheritance her family may have once had was now hers by right and she was now one of the last plantagenets from a main family line it was in the next few years Margaret would go on to have three more children her son regginald in 1500 most likely born at stouton Castle Jeffrey born a year later in 1501 and her daughter Ursula who was born around 1504 when Prince Arthur married Katherine of aragan on the 14th of November 1501 Margaret became one of the new princess of wales's ladies in Waiting in December of that year the two women clicked immediately and a lifelong friendship struck up between them sadly Katherine's household was dissolved shortly after in April 1502 when the young prince died unexpectedly of an illness a few years later things went from bad to worse for Margaret as her husband Richard died in 1504 no record remains of his cause of death or date which indicates it was likely a Swift and sudden illness the most likely killer of adults in the city 16th century Margaret was now a 31-year-old widow with no income and five children to care for Henry gave Margaret a loan of £40 with generous repayment terms to cover her husband's funeral and a grant of £526 Shilling 8 but her meager jointure would not have been enough to live on even with these extras it's likely this was at least partially behind her reasons in giving her son Reginald to the church it wasn't uncommon for a noble younger son to go into an ecclesiastical life especially with four sons in a family but this would also mean Margaret was able to relinquish all financial responsibility for him it must have been a difficult decision for a mother to make but one that made sense in the harsh reality of the time she lived in years later Reginald was still bitter about the choice his mother made throwing it back in her face during an argument that she provided for his siblings but not himself as for Margaret and her other four children unable to continue living in her husband's properties she had to go to Sion Abbey and become a guest of the nuns there but in 1509 Margaret's fortunes were to change yet again Henry VII now King married Katherine of aragan on once more Margaret was placed in Catherine's household as a lady in waiting things improved further in 152 when she was restored to the elom of Solsbury in her own right becoming suo Jour Countess of Salsbury and all the lands her brother had held at his death became hers it was a silent recognition of the Injustice of his death and although she had to pay 5,000 marks for her restoration it was on far more generous terms than any of her male peers had to pay for theirs Margaret was also now the first woman in 16th century England to hold a page in her own right and she was one of only two 16th century women who ever would the other one being Anne berin Margaret proved to be a capable businesswoman and she managed her estate so well that by 1538 she would be among the top five wealthiest peers of her generation she was also careful in who she employed to manage her Estates and many of them were women in many areas such as litigation and arranging the marriages of her children Margaret was equal to the men around her but in places where she wasn't she used her male children to stand in for her her eldest son Henry sat in the House of Lords in her place as women were not allowed in into the chambers and led her men in battle when it was required Margaret's children did very well out of her restoration her second son Arthur went in 1514 with Margaret chudder as part of her Entourage by 1518 was a gentleman of Henry's privy chamber Arthur became close friends with a patron of his Edward Stafford the third Duke of Buckingham but when Buckingham was convicted of treason in 15 21 Arthur was expelled from Court however by the following year he was back again Reginald studied abroad in Padua and despite not being ordained as a priest he became dean of exiter and wimbor Minster Dorset and a cannon of York in 1529 he would be part of those representing Henry VII to convince the French theologians of the sborn to accept his separation from Cather of aragan Margaret's daughter Ursula also did well from her mother's rise at court in 1515 she was suggested as a potential wife for the Duke of Milan but on the 20th of October 1518 Ursula instead married Henry Stafford first Baron Stafford son of Edward Stafford however after his father's downfall Henry and Ursula were left in a difficult financial situation but this would improve little when Margaret took on one of her granddaughters into her own household to ease the finances required for their children and Ursula and Henry were fully restored in wealth and power when Mary the first took the throne many years later Margaret was also an extremely well-educated woman and was a patron of many humanist Scholars erasmus's de imensa Misericordia day or the great mercy of God was translated into English for her by jeen Herve of oron one of those she patronized her association with humanist Scholars was likely also encouraged by her son Reginald who would have introduced many of those she knew at first Margaret did well at court but as Queen Catherine fell from Henry's favor so did Margaret in 1518 she had a dispute with the King over some land that she felt she had a claim to Henry ruled against her and instead awarded the contested Lance to the dukedom of Somerset which incidentally had been held by the bort family and were now in possession of the crown but in 1520 as a favorite of Catherine's Margaret was placed in the household of the king's young daughter Princess Mary she was Mary's governess and the two had a close bond that would remain for the rest of Margaret's life life however when Arthur fell out of favor due to his friendship with Edward Stafford so did Margaret she was removed from Mary's household but by 1525 she had been placed back as governor in that same year Henry became infatuated with an berin and he began to figure out how to set Catherine aside obviously Catherine refused to comply with his demand and so courus became split on those who supported Henry and those who supported Catherine Margaret definitely fell into the second group and openly supported her Queen and friend in 1531 however Catherine was banished from Court 2 years later in January 1533 Henry had his marriage to Katherine declared void and married amberin as his second wife as a result Mary Catherine and Henry's daughter was also declared illegitimate and in December of that year would have her own household dissolved and she would be sent to live with her baby half sister Elizabeth at Hatfield house this meant also that Margaret was no longer permitted to be part of Mary's household Mary had a strong maternal bond with Margaret who became a motherly presence for the daughter of her friend when Henry demanded Mary's gold plate and jewels be handed over to him Margaret bravely refused She also asked if she would be able to serve Mary for nothing that she would pay for everything and it would cost the crown nothing to allow her to continue to look after Mary Henry refused even 2 years later when the Imperial Ambassador eustus chapu suggested it was a good idea Henry called Margaret a fool with no experience but but worse was Yet to Come despite representing the king once for his marriage to amberin Margaret's son Reginald had come to believe the marriage was wrong warning as such in 1531 in 1532 shapis made a suggestion to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles I that perhaps Reginald could marry Mary and combine their dynastic claims this seemingly innocent suggestion was far more more dangerous than it appeared as it suggested Reginald and Mary might be able to take the English Throne if Henry was removed from it Reginald also wrote a pamphlet that rejected Henry's take on marrying a brother's widow and on the idea that a king could have Supremacy over the church he also spoke to the crowned heads of Europe who were opposed to Henry's stance urging them to depose the English king by by 1536 Reginald had cut all ties with the English court but Anberlin was also executed that year Margaret was briefly allowed to return to court but not for long in 1537 Reginald was made a cardinal still having not been ordained and ironically against his own advice the pope put him in charge of organizing the pilgrimage of Grace and finding those who would lead it this was a rebellion that began in Yorkshire and spread around the north of England and the intention was to march on London and replace several of Henry's reformist ministers with traditional catholic ones this movement wasn't supported by the crowned heads of Europe and the English tried to assassinate Reginald to no avail in 1539 the pope then sent Reginal to Emperor Charles to organize an embargo against England back at home in England Margaret's other son Jeffrey was also facing problems in 1538 a plot to assassinate and remove Henry from the throne had apparently been discovered and Jeffrey who was still in contact with Reginald was implicated he was arrested in August by Thomas Cromwell who ignored Jeffrey's appeal under interrogation he said his older brother Henry had been aware of his contact and the whole family came under suspicion Henry and Margaret were also arrested and taken into the Tower of London in November on the 12th of November Margaret's interrogation began but she gave firm and steadfast answers when asked questions clearly proving her innocence William Fitz William the Earl of Southampton was one of her interrogators and while he didn't like her he grudgingly admitted he was impressed with the strength of character Margaret displayed and how she didn't back down despite his attempts at intimidation by January 1539 Jeffrey had been pardoned and released but on the 9th of January his brother Henry Lord montigue was found guilty of treason and executed Henry's youngest son also called Henry was held in the tower with his grandmother and was likely only very young possibly around 15 years old or so Margaret and young Henry were attained as her father had been their titles and lands stripped from them Margaret's attainer was helped by Thomas Cromwell presenting evidence of a tunic supposedly found in a search of one of her properties the tunic bore the Five Wounds of Christ embroidered on it apparently a symbol of Margaret's support for her son Reginald marrying Mary and them both taking the Throne of England it's almost certain this tunic was a fabrication however Margaret and young Henry were taken care of in the tower and their financial needs were taken care of by the king himself in 1540 Cromwell fell from favor and was executed but in March 1541 Margaret was still a prisoner but she was being attended by servants and her tailor was paid a large sum for her clothing so it appeared Henry VII was not only still looking after her but was happy to keep her around by this point Margaret was 67 years old it's clear she also never wavered from her plea of Innocence to any crime as a poem was found inscribed into her cell wall 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 despite Henry seeming to be content with Margaret for the time being everything suddenly changed on the 27th of May Henry made the decision out of nowhere to execute Margaret for treason it appears considering 2 months earlier the king had paid PA for staff and clothes for her that the decision was a spontaneous one rather than a planned one this may have been connected once again to moves Reginald was making in contacting those who had been involved in the pilgrimage of Grace and plans to rescue his mother as in 1539 there had been a real fear Reginald was planning on invading England so it would appear Henry made a knee-jerk decision based on his anxiety on the morning of the 27th Margaret was told by her jailers that she was to die within the hour considering there had been no trial and no sentence Margaret was horrified and demanded to know what crime she was accused of without further Ado she was taken from her cell to where a low wooden block had been prepared outside instead of the usual scaffold more hints at the suddenness of the execu ution to make this even worse the tower's usual executioner had been sent North to deal with Rebels leaving an inexperienced young lad to do the job instead although One Source says she seemed confused as to why she was there Margaret managed to commend her soul to God ask the small crowd present to pray for the king and his family and asked that she should be remembered to Princess Mary a later Source suggested Margaret turned her head about in order to prevent the execution but was written many years after the events and is unlikely to be true what is true however is the horrific way in which poor Margaret died as if being beheaded wasn't bad enough the youth who did the ACT wasn't very good at his job Margaret suffered at the hands of the young man who was a wretched and blundering youth who hacked her neck and shoulders to pieces in the most pitiful manner apparently he missed her neck on the first Blow instead hacking into her shoulder you can imagine the pain Margaret must have been in and he took another swing to try and finish the job for her again the axe missed then swinging into the base of Margaret's skull it took several hacking blows for her head to finally be severed from her body and one can only imagine the excruciate cating pain poor Margaret must have been in for her last moments it was no way for a noble lady to go out and on top of this her execution would be viewed as a severe miscarriage of Justice then just as it is now when Reginald was told the news of his mother's death he announced that he was now the proud son of a martyr disappearing into his room for an hour alone to grieve Margaret's body was laid to rest in the tower's Chapel of St Peter ADV vinula and in 1886 she would be beatified by the pope Margaret seems to have done her best to try and get along with everyone not ruffle any feathers and to stand up for her friends or their daughters when needed but history was not on her side having been born the niece of a king and daughter to a jke Margaret should have been set for a sparkling future as the wife of of a high ranking Noble or Prince looking forward to a relatively peaceful life instead her father's actions ensured she was lowered in rank and married to a man who wasn't her social equal but they were at least happy and seemed to have cared for one another her husband's death meant Financial Straits for Margaret and her young family forcing her to give up one of her sons to the church and setting off a domino effect in how Reginald s saw England's courtly life even when she was on the up making friends with Katherine of aragan was to prove a bad move although it allowed her to be a friend to Princess Mary when Henry decided to chase anolin for wife number two Margaret was an easy target as one of the last Main plantagenet and her dynastic claims meant she was considered Dangerous by anxious men even when she had done nothing to provoke this this she was viewed as one person while being an entirely different person in reality and her execution was a mockery of the dignified kind person Margaret had been in life ensuring she was unfortunately better Remembered in history for how she died rather than how she lived if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe so you don't miss any new [Music] documentaries