Margaret Pole: The Last Plantagenet Princess: Royal Blood, Rebellion and Revenge under Henry VIII

Margaret Pole was born into one royal dynasty, survived its destruction and rose to become one of the wealthiest and most influential women in Tudor England. Then Henry VIII turned against her family.The daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, niece of Edward IV and Richard III, and sister of the ill-fated Earl of Warwick, Margaret grew up surrounded by the violence of the Wars of the Roses. Her father's execution, the fall of the House of York and Henry VII's victory left her royal blood both an inheritance and a danger.Yet Margaret survived.She married, raised a powerful family, recovered the Salisbury inheritance and became Countess of Salisbury in her own right. Henry VIII entrusted her with the household of his daughter Mary, and for decades Margaret transformed dangerous Plantagenet ancestry into loyal Tudor service.The English Reformation changed everything.Margaret remained closely associated with Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary, while her son Reginald Pole emerged as one of Henry VIII's most formidable religious opponents. As the Crown investigated the so-called Exeter Conspiracy, kinship, religion and royal blood became evidence of disloyalty.Margaret was imprisoned in the Tower, condemned by parliamentary attainder without an ordinary trial and, on 27 May 1541, executed at the age of sixty-seven.Margaret Pole: The Last Plantagenet Princess follows an extraordinary life spanning the fall of the Yorkists, the birth of the Tudor monarchy and the upheaval of Henry VIII's Reformation. It is the story of royal blood, survival, family loyalty and a king who ultimately decided that an old woman's existence had become too dangerous to tolerate.