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Execution of Margaret Pole
On 27 May 1541, England's Henry VIII ordered the execution of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, one of the last surviving legitimate Plantagenet …
Timeline
- 1539–1541Tower of London · LondonMargaret Pole was implicated because of her son Reginald Pole's involvement in the Exeter Conspiracy; around 1539 she was imprisoned in the Tower of London and convicted of treason without a formal jury trial.
- 1541Tower Green, London · LondonOn 27 May 1541, the 67-year-old Margaret Pole was executed in the Tower of London. The execution was exceptionally brutal; she became one of the few noblewomen executed during Henry VIII's reign, provoking widespread contemporary and later discussion of Tudor despotism and religious persecution.
Sources
- Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Pole,_8th_Countess_of_Salisbury
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Margaret Pole, countess of Salisbury — Oxford University Press (2004)
- The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c.1400–c.1580 — Eamon Duffy (1992)