jeste and to rayle," where open argument would be dangerous.
His speeches are by far the longer, and are thus calculated
to have the chief effect upon the reader's mind. Heresy was
largely propagated at that time by talking and writing of this
nature.
XIV.
THE BLESSED MARGARET POLE,
COUNTESS OF SALISBURY.
London, East Smithfield, 28 May, 1541.
In the spring of the year 1471 the battle of
Tewkesbury and the deaths of Henry VI. and
of Prince Edward of Lancaster finally secured
Edward IV. possession of the throne of England.
At the same time George, Duke of Clarence, his
younger brother, who had contributed to the Yorkist
victory, appeared to have blotted out the memory of
his previous unfaithfulness to the cause and to be
solidly reconciled to the King.
It was about this time that his daughter
Margaret, the future martyr, was born at Castle
Farley, near Bath, the date given by Fuller being
the 14th of August, 1473. Clarence had married
at Calais on the nth of January, 1469, Isabel, the
elder daughter of the great Earl of Warwick, the
''king-maker," and at the time of Margaret's birth
had one other child, the ill-fated Edward, Earl of
Warwick.
The life that opened with so fair-seeming a
prospect was destined to be sanctified by strange
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 503
reverses and great sorrows. The little Margaret ,
was but three years old when her mother died,^ and |
but a year later her father was arraigned by his
royal brother on a charge of high treason and put
to death, or at all events found dead in the Tower.-
Who took charge of the orphans, or where they
passed their childish years does not clearly appear,
but in 1480 Edward of Warwick seems to have
been living with Elizabeth of York and her young
brothers and sisters, children of Edward IV., at the
palace of Shene, which w^as the nursery of the
royal children.^ It is scarcely probable that one of
the two orphans should have been living with their
royal cousins and not the other, and it seems likely
that whether moved by pity and remorse, or
influenced by the good heart of the Queen, Edward
had taken charge of the children of his murdered
brother, and brought them up with his own.
Margaret was, however, not ten years old when
this peaceful time at Shene came to an abrupt end.
On the gth of April, 1483, the King died, and wathin
a few weeks the young Prince of Wales (now
Edward V.) and his brother, her cousins and play-
mates, were in the power of their uncle, who soon
seized the throne as Richard III., and the Queen,
1 December 22, 1476. (Lingard.)
- January 16, 1478. There does not seem to be any historical
foundation for the popular story that he was drowned in a butt of
his favourite wine.
3 There are entries in the wardrobe expenses of that year of
articles of clothing supplied to the Earl of Warwick amongst those
for some of the royal children and officers of the King's household.
(Sir Harris Nicolas, Wardrobe Expenses of Edward IV. pp. 157, 158.)
Only the entries of 1480 are published.
§04 BLESSED MARGARET POLE
a heart - broken fugitive, with the five young
Princesses took refuge in the sanctuary at West-
minster ; while before the end of the summer it
was known that the royal brothers had been foully
murdered in the Tower.
The new Queen took young Warwick (and
presumably his sister) with her to their ancestral
home, Warwick Castle, which in fact was her own
birthplace, and there the King joined her and kept
Court for a week. The position of Clarence's
orphans must have been most insecure, since they
were the children of Richard's eldest brother ; in
fact Warwick was now the nearest male heir to
' Edward IV.^
But before long a strange turn in their fortunes
occurred. Just a year after Richard's usurpation,
his only son died, and shortly afterwards Edward of
Warwick was proclaimed heir to the throne, and
took his place at Court and at the royal table
accordingly. His sister would of course share
with him this short-lived honour. There were for
the moment only two lives between her and the
throne. But this only lasted for a year.
It had no doubt been due to the influence of
Queen Anne, who was the younger daughter of the
" king-maker," and therefore the children's maternal
aunt, and at her death in 1485 it ceased. Richard
now changed his plans, and declared another boy-
1 The Act of Parliament which settled the crown on Richard
and his heirs, had been careful to exclude from the succession the
children of the late Duke of Clarence, on the pretext of their father's
attainder.
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 505
nephew, John, Earl of Lincoln, son of his sister
Margaret, Duchess of Suffolk, his heir presumptive.
Edward of Warwick was removed to Sheriff
Hutton, in Yorkshire, where although in one of his
father's baronial castles, he was a prisoner, kept
under close ward. The King shortly afterwards
sent to join him his cousin, Princess Elizabeth,^ soon
to be Henry VI I, 's Queen, and we can have small
doubt that Margaret was there too.
The 22nd of August of the same year put an
end to Richard's reign and life on the field of
Bosworth. The Princess Elizabeth exchanged her
prison for the throne as consort of Henry VH., but
Edward of Warwick, as the male representative of
the Yorkist line, was too important to be set free,
and only passed from the prison of his own castle
to that of the Tower. Margaret was but a child
of twelve ; there had been no instance yet of a Queen
regnant in England, and if a Princess were to
succeed, all the daughters of Edward IV. would
claim before her, and Elizabeth of York, the Queen
Consort, in the first place, so soon as Henry had
annulled the act of his predecessor, making the
children of Edward legally illegitimate. Margaret
therefore gave no anxiety to the new Sovereign, and
we may easily understand that the remembrance of
companionship at Shene and at Sheriff Hutton
would have secured for her the friendship or even
affection of her cousin, the Queen. But the lot of
her only brother must have been both a sorrow and
' Miss Strickland, Queens of England, vol. ii. p. 393. Lift" of
Eliaabeth of York.
5o6 BLESSED MARGARET POLE
an anxiety to her. For some time his destiny was
kept a profound Court secret. But in 1487 the King,
with a view to expose the imposture of Lambert
Simnel, caused him to be brought out from the
Tower and conducted in a pubhc manner through
the city to Shene, where he was well known. He
was also received by the Queen and several noble-
men, and no doubt on this occasion Margaret must
have had the comfort of seeing him. Twelve years
later, on the 28th of November, 1499, she had to
endure the sorrow of his public execution on Tower
Hill, under the pretext of some supposed treason.
Cardinal Pole declares that his uncle was as innocent
as a child of a year old. Catherine of Arragon, who
must have had the best means of knowing, ever
believed, though Lingard treats the rumour as un-
founded, that her father, Ferdinand of Arragon, had
refused to give her in marriage to Prince Arthur as
long as a male heir of the house of York was living,
and that the innocent Warwick was put to death to
remove this difficulty. So many cruel vicissitudes,
especially in early life, could not but exercise a
decisive influence on Margaret's character, and we
see in them the means God used to mature the
virtues of His servant and prepare her for the grace
of martyrdom which was to crown her life after
many years.
At the time of her brother's death she had been
several years married. Cardinal Pole was born in
1500, and he was her fourth child.
According to the best authorities the marriage
had taken place about 1491, when Margaret was
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 507
eighteen years of age.^ With the double object of
honouring a favoured subject by an alhance with
the royal blood, and of precluding any revival of
Plantagenet claims by uniting Margaret to a subject
of tried fidelity, the King chose for her husband
Sir Richard Pole. He was on his father's side of
a Buckinghamshire family, but on his mother's was
nearly related to the first Tudor sovereign,- and
had followed Henry's fortunes. He was created a
Knight of the Garter, and Chamberlain to the
Queen, and on the birth of Arthur (a.d. i486) was
made governor to the Prince. He continued to
hold this office on Arthur's marriage to Catherine
of Arragon, and when a princely Court was installed
at Ludlow^ Castle for the newly married pair (a.d.
1502) Margaret also formed part of it, as one of
the Princess's household.^
Sir Richard Pole died the next year,* and would L
seem to have left his widow but poorly provided V
for, as his funeral expenses were paid by the King,
not a man at all likely to spend the /â– 40 needlessly.
Margaret was left with five children, all young, to
bring up. It is to be presumed that she continued
her office about the Princess Catherine, on which
she had entered at Ludlow, but we lose sight of
her for some years. There is no doubt, however,
1 Gairdner, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xlvi. p. 28.
2 Sir Richard Pole's mother, and Margaret, Countess of
Richmond, were half-sisters. See Burke's Extinct Peerages.
3 Miss Strickland, Queens of England, vol. ii. p. 509.
■» Sir Harris Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York,
p. 182, where there is an entry, Nov. 15, 1503: "To my Lord
Herbert in loan by his bille for burying Sir Richard Pole, £^0."
5o8 BLESSED MARGARET POLE
that Henry VIII. continued to her the favour she
had enjoyed under the previous reign, for in 1513
he granted her petition, " that whereas by an Act of
Parhament, passed the 19th of Henry VII., Edward,
Earl of Warwick, was declared a traitor and his
lands forfeited, it would please the King that she
might inherit, as being the sister and next of blood,
to his state and dignity, and so be styled Countess
of Sarum."^ The attainder was reversed on the
7th of November, 1513, and on March the 4th of
the following year the Parliament passed an Act
of Restitution in favour of Margaret, who thus
entered into the enjoyment of her ancestral
possessions. " She thus became possessed of a
very magnificent property, lying chiefly in Hamp-
shire, Wiltshire, the western counties, and Essex.
But there is no doubt it was heavily burdened by
redemption money claimed by the King. On the
25th of May, 1512, she paid Wolsey £1,000, and in
1538 was sued for a further instalment of ;£"2,333
6s. 8d."^
She probably owed her reinstatement in the
King's favour to Catherine of Arragon, who had
been married to him shortly after his accession in
1509-
Besides the affection which Catherine formed
for her from their first meeting, and which never
wavered till her death, she ever looked upon herself
as the innocent cause of the death of the Earl
of Warwick, and was anxious to make all the
1 October 14, 1513.
'â– ^ Dictionary 0/ National Biography.
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 509
reparation in her power to his sister and her
family.^
When the Princess Mary was born (a.d, 1516),
it was Margaret of SaHsbury who on the third day
carried her to her baptism in the Greyfriars Church
at Greenwich, and immediately afterwards was her
sponsor in Confirmation.'
A more important mark of trust and favour was
her appointment as Lady Governess of the Princess
and her household.^ In this position she presided
over a veritable Court when (1525) the King sent
his little daughter of nine years old to reside at
Ludlow, with a Council and a large household.^
The Lady Governess received minute instructions
of which the following is the preamble. " First,
principally and above all things, the Countess of
Salisbury, being Lady Governess, shall according
to the singular confidence that the King's Highness
hath in her, give most tender regard to all such
1 See her Life by Miss Strickland, ii. p. 509.
- See a vivid picture of this memorable event in Mary I. Queen of
England, by J. M. Stone, pp. 2, 3.
•* There is some uncertainty about the period at which she
received this appointment. Miss Strickland [Queens of England,
vol. iii. p. 303) says : " After the first months of her infancy . . . the
care of her person was entrusted to Margaret Bryan, the wife of
Sir Thomas Bryan, who was called the Lady Mistress, . . . the
Countess of Salisbury was state-governess and head of the house-
hold." But Sir F. Madden (Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess
Mary, Introd. p. xx.) understands Lady Margaret to have been
"appointed Lady Maistress or Governess to the Princess shortly
after her birth, and so continued some years." There is, however,
no doubt about the Countess of Salisbury's position from 1525.
* Madden, Introd. xxix. The household numbered in all 304
persons, and amongst them many of high rank and importance.
510 BLESSED MARGARET POLE
things as concern the person of the said Princess,
her honourable education and training in all virtuous
demeanour, that is to say, at due times to serve God,
from whom all grace and goodness proceedeth."^
It was on this occasion that the Blessed Richard
Fetherston, who also won the martyr's crown,
was appointed tutor to the Princess.
The Countess was naturally brought much into
the society of the Queen, and Catherine's affection
for her overflowed upon her children. Amongst
them the object of her special predilection was
Reginald, Margaret's fourth son, whom Catherine
loved as if he had been her own child. He was
sent very early to Oxford, and took his degree at
the age of fifteen. He then went to study at the
University of Padua, and came home in his twenty-
seventh year with a brilliant reputation, striking
personal beauty,^ and great prospects, for the King
^ As the Blessed Margaret had a large share in the formation
of the Princess Mary, it will not be out of place to put before the
reader the following estimate of her at this period by Sir Francis
Madden, a Protestant, one than whom none was more qualified
by intimate knowledge of his subject to form a judgment. " If ever
woman," he writes, "undeservedly suffered from insult and degra-
dation, Mary did ; and if ever woman cultivated in solitude and
retirement the virtues of benevolence, charity, kindness, and
unaffected piety, or advanced herself by the acquirement of such
branches of science or art as tend to elevate and soften the mind,
Mary was that one." These are not mere assertions, but are founded
on the authority of existing documents, and on the concessions of
many of our latest and best informed writers. (Privy Purse Expenses
of the Princess Mary. Introductory Memoir.) He enumerates later,
among her accomplishments, a good knowledge of Greek and Latin,
Italian, Spanish and French, and considerable skill in playing on
three musical instruments. Sir F. Madden's work was published in
1831.
2 Queens of England, vol. iii. p. 321.
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 51 1
was attached to him, had borne the whole cost of
his education, and from the age of seventeen had
provided him with benefices ; he was now Dean of
Exeter and Prebendary of York, and before long had
the offer of the archbishopric of York, on Cardinal
Wolsey's death. Reginald was, however, still a
layman, and whilst many writers declare that the
Princess, now growing into womanhood, showed
the greatest partiality for him, the Queen was
heard to express a wish that Mary might marry
a son of Lady Salisbury, in order to atone for the
wrong done to the Earl of Warwick.^
Meanwhile the question of Henry's divorce was
beginning to be talked about first in whispers and
then publicly. Reginald warmly took the part of
the injured Queen, and after a stormy scene with
Henry, who tried in vain to gain from him some
kind of sanction to the divorce, withdrew, as soon
as he could get the King's leave, from the country.
A time had now come in England when every-
one was obliged to take a side. It is needless to
say which side the good Countess of Salisbury took.
The divorce was pronounced by Cranmer in May,
i533j the King having previously married Anne
Boleyn. But Catherine had already been for nearly
two years separated from her child. Lady Salisbury
had hitherto been left in charge of her. But when
the King ordered Mary to drop the title of Princess
and met with a firm refusal, he determined to break
up her household and to remove her from the
Countess of Salisbury's influence. The blow was
^ Ibid p. 324.
512 BLESSED MARGARET POLE
foreseen both by her and by the Queen. In a
letter^ written by Catherine to her daughter in
\\ August, 1533, she says : " I pray you recommend
me unto my good lady of SaHsbury, and pray her
to have a good heart, for we never come to the
Kingdom of Heaven but by troubles." The trouble
was close at hand. Mary was living at this time
at New Hall in Essex. ^ In October, a commission
from the King came down to discharge the house-
hold, but the measure was not fully carried out
till February, 1534. " Worst of all," says Miss
Strickland, describing this event, " Mary was torn
from her venerable relative, Margaret, Countess of
Salisbury, by whose arms she had been encircled
in the first days of her existence. This was a blow
more bitter than the mere deprivation of rank or
titles."'' It was as great a sorrow to the Countess.
Chapuys reports to the Emperor on the i6th
of December, 1533, that the Lady Governess, " a
lady of virtue and honour, if there be one in
England, has offered to follow and serve her at
her own expense. But it was out of the question
that this would be accepted, for in that case they
would have had no power over the Princess."'*
The health both of Lady Salisbury and the
Princess suffered. On the 12th of February, 1534,
^ Arundel MS. British Museum, 151, f. 194.
'- Now the Convent of the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre.
The ancient presence-chamber is now the conventual chapel, and
the altar occupies the place where once was the royal dais. New
Hall, or Beaulieu, was always a favourite residence with Mary.
•* Queens of England, vol. iii. p. 332.
* Letters and Papers, vol. vi. n. 1528.
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 513
Margaret's eldest son, Lord Montague, writes that
" his mother is at Bissam and very weak." On the
25th of February, 1535, Chapuys sends a long
despatch to the Emperor, relating an interview he
has had with the King about Mary's health. He
says he had " consulted with the physicians, who
were unanimously of opinion that the Princess's
illness was caused by distress and sorrow. . . . ' I
asked,' he says, ' that he would at least put the
Princess under the care of her old gouvernante, the
Countess of Salisbury, whom she regarded as a
second mother.' He replied that the Countess was'
a fool, of no experience, and that if his daughter
had been under her care during this illness she
would have died, for she would not have known
what to do." In spite of the King's ill-tempered
refusal, it would seem as if the Countess was with
her again for a time, for in an account of the
Princess's (Elizabeth's) household expenses, March
25, 1535, the following passage occurs:^ "5. Item,
where the Lady Mary, the King's daughter, after she
was restored to her health of her late infirmity,
being in her own house, was much desirous to have
meat immediately after she was ready in the
morning, or else she should be in danger eftsoons
to return to her said infirmity, therefore order was
taken by my Lady of Salisbury and the Lord Hussey,
by the advice of the physicians, that every day, not
being fasted, she should be at dinner between nine
and ten of the clock in the morning and to eschew
the superfluous breakfasts," tSic.
1 Letters and Papers, vol. viii. n. 440.
HH
514 BLESSED MARGARET POLE
The breach between the Blessed Margaret and
the King was becoming wider. He was resisted by
her son Reginald ; he was resisted by his own
daughter, whom she had brought up and who was
devoted to her, and now he was resisted by herself.
In fact, it was impossible for any one in Margaret's
position to continue long without coming into
collision with him, with his measures, or with the
men who carried them out. We have seen that she
was living at this time at Bisham, a manor belonging
to her family, and would naturally have influence in
the Priory of Canons Regular of St. Augustine,
founded there by Montague, Earl of Salisbury, in
the time of Edward III. On the 27th of April,
1535, Sir Nicholas Carew writes to thank Cromwell
" for having written in favour of his friend for the
Priory of Bissam. Hears that the prior, by the
persuasion of my Lady of Salisbury and Warde, wath
other people, refuses to resign, though even they
thought him very unmeet to continue till they saw
Cromwell meant to prefer one contrary to their
minds." ^ A prior " contrary to their minds " meant
one on whom Cromwell could count to be false to
his sacred trust and surrender the monastery to the
King, and this was exactly what happened — for
they succeeded shortly afterwards in making the
notorious Barlow prior, and he surrendered the
priory next year.^
Immediately after the passing of the Act of Supre-
macy (February, 1535) he sent imperative commands
^ Letters and Papers, vol. viii. n. 596.
^ Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. vi. p. 575.
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 515
to Pole to write him, in clear and explicit terms, his
opinion of that measure, as well as of the divorce,
under pain of the royal displeasure against himself
and those who belonged to him. Again and again
during the course of the year Cromwell, Bishop
Tunstall, Thomas Starkey, his mother's chaplain,
afterwards chaplain to the King, and others wrote
to him on their own account and by express
command of the King, urging him to hasten his
compliance with the royal will,^ It appears from
the correspondence that Henry or his advisers
seriously hoped their persuasions, or his own
interests, or fear of the royal anger, would at length
enlist Pole on the King's side. But when the able
Defence of the ChnrcWs Unity, which was at once a
theological treatise and a vigorous denunciation
of the King's iniquities, reached Henry in the
spring of 1536, his anger knew no bounds. He
himself wrote peremptory orders to Pole to return
to England, making neither excuse nor delay ;
Cromwell also writing two successive despatches
to urge his immediate obedience. Pole,- however,
says he saw, like the cautious animal in the fable,
the footsteps of those who went into the lion's den,
but none of any who came out, and politely declined.
The King was foiled, and it needed nothing more to
exasperate him : but a new cause of irritation arose
at the very moment. The object of his royal indig-
nation was summoned to Rome to take part, by
order of Paul HI., in drawing up a scheme of
' Letters and Papers, vol. viii. nn. 218, 219, 220, 501, 1156.
- Apologia ad Ccesarem, cap. vi.
5i6 BLESSED MARGARET POLE
reform. He set out from Venice to obey the
command, but had only reached Verona when he
was overtaken by an Enghsh courier with threats
from Cromwell and entreaties from his mother and
brother, alarmed no doubt for the consequences, to
deter him from going on. He has left it on record
that both in writing his Defensio, and now in
obeying the Pope's summons, he but too clearly
foresaw that the King would wreak on his family the
vengeance he could not execute on himself. But
his duty to God and to His Vicar was clear, and he
did not hesitate. He arrived in Rome, and before
the end of the year (1536), in spite of his own
reluctance, was exalted to the Cardinalate, for
which his great descent, his edifying life, his
brilliant talents, and his courage in defence of the
Church marked him out. The cup of Henry's
wrath was now full. An attempt must be made to
reach the Cardinal abroad, since he will not come
home. " There may be found ways enough in
Italy," Cromwell wrote in ominous words, "to rid a
treacherous subject. Where justice can take no place
by process of law at home, sometimes she may be
enforced to seek new means abroad."^ Such threats
were no empty words, and various schemes against
the Cardinal's life were happily frustrated, leaving
proofs of their source in the hands of the intended
victim.^
^ Letters and Papers, vol. xii. (2), n. 795. This letter is a draft, and
is ascribed to September, 1537.
- Epistola Poli, ii. 66, iii. 99, seq. Sir Thomas Wyatt, the
English Ambassador in Spain, did all he could to get Pole
assassinated.
BLESSED MARGARET POLE 517
There was one way, however, in which it was
possible to punish him. He had left hostages in