Reginald Pole - To The Reign of Queen Mary I

To The Reign of Queen Mary I

Pole was born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, on 12 March 1500. to Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury and was their third son. His maternal grandparents were George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Isabella Neville, Duchess of Clarence; thus he was a grandnephew of kings Edward IV and Richard III and a great-grandson of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.

His nursery is said to have been at Sheen Priory. He matriculated at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, in 1512, and at Oxford was taught by William Latimer and Thomas Linacre, graduating with a BA on 27 June 1515. In February 1518, King Henry VIII granted him the deanery of Wimborne Minster, Dorset; after which he was Prebendary of Salisbury and Dean of Exeter in 1527. He was also a canon in York, and had several other livings, although he had not been ordained a priest; he represented Henry VIII in Paris in 1529, persuading the theologians of the Sorbonne to support Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.

In 1521, Pole went to the University of Padua, where he met leading Renaissance figures, including Pietro Bembo, Gianmatteo Giberti (formerly pope Leo X's datary and chief minister), Jacopo Sadoleto, Gianpietro Carafa (the future Pope Paul IV), Rodolfo Pio, Otto Truchsess, Stanislaus Hosius, Cristoforo Madruzzo, Giovanni Morone, Pier Paolo Vergerio the younger, Peter Martyr (Vermigli) and Vettor Soranzo. The last three were eventually condemned as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church, with Vermigli - as a well-known Protestant theologian - having a significant share in the Reformation in Pole's native England.

His studies in Padua were partly financed by his election as a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, with more than half of the cost paid by Henry VIII himself on 14 February 1523, which allowed him to study abroad for three years.

Pole returned home in July 1526, when he went to France, escorted by Thomas Lupset. Henry VIII offered him the Archbishopric of York or the Diocese of Winchester if he would support his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Pole withheld his support and went into self-imposed exile in France and Italy in 1532, continuing his studies in Padua and Paris. After his return he held the benefice of Vicar of Piddletown, Dorset, between 20 December 1532 and about January 1535/1536.

In May 1536, Reginald Pole finally and definitively broke with the King. In 1531, he had warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage; he had returned to Padua in 1532, and received a last English benefice in December. Chapuys had suggested to the Emperor Charles V that Pole marry the Lady Mary and combine their dynastic claims; Chapuys also communicated with Reginald through his brother Geoffrey.

The final break between Pole and Henry followed upon Thomas Cromwell, Cuthbert Tunstall, Thomas Starkey, and others addressing questions to Pole on behalf of Henry. He answered by sending the king a copy of his published treatise Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione which, besides being a theological reply to the questions, was a strong denunciation of the king's policies which denied Henry's position on the marriage of a brother's wife, and denied the Royal Supremacy; Pole also urged the Princes of Europe to depose Henry immediately. Henry wrote to the Countess, who in turn wrote to her son a letter reproving him for his "folly."

The incensed king, with Pole himself out of his reach, took a terrible revenge on Pole's family. Though Pole's mother and his elder brother had written to him in reproof of Pole's attitude and action, they were not spared by the king.

In 1537, Pole (still not ordained) was created a Cardinal; Pope Paul III put him in charge of organizing assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace (and related movements), an effort to organize a march on London to install a Roman Catholic government instead of Henry's; neither Francis I of France nor the Emperor supported this effort, and the English government tried to have him assassinated. In 1539, Pole was sent to the Emperor to organize an embargo against England — the sort of countermeasure he had himself warned Henry was possible.

Sir Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald, and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter (Henry VIII's first cousin and the Countess' second cousin) had turned up his name; he had appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Sir Geoffrey said that his eldest brother, Lord Montagu, and the Marquess had been parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, and Lady Salisbury were arrested in November 1538 along with Pole's eldest brother Henry Pole, and other relations on a charge of treason, although Cromwell had previously written that they had "little offended save that he is of their kin", they were committed to the Tower of London, and in January, with the exception of his brother Geoffrey Pole, they were executed. Pole was attainted in absentia in 1539.

In January 1539, Sir Geoffrey was pardoned, and Montagu (and Exeter) were executed for treason after trial. In May 1539, Montagu, Lady Salisbury, Exeter and others were attainted, as her father had been; this conviction meant they lost their titles and their lands — mostly in the South of England, conveniently located to assist any invasion; they were sentenced to death, and could be executed at the King's will. As part of the evidence for the Bill of Attainder, Cromwell produced a tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, symbolizing her support for Roman Catholicism and the rule of Reginald and Mary; the supposed discovery, six months after her house and effects were searched at her arrest, is likely to be a fabrication.

Margaret Pole, as she now was, was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years under severe conditions; she, her grandson (Montagu's son), and Exeter's son were held together and supported by the King. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favor and was executed and attainted. She was finally executed (her execution was dreadfully botched and horrifying even for those brutal times) in 1541, protesting her innocence until the last - a highly publicised case which was considered a grave miscarriage of justice both at the time and later. Pole is known to have said that he would "...never fear to call himself the son of a martyr". She was beatified some 350 years later, in 1886, by Pope Leo XIII.

Aside from the aforementioned oppositional treatise, King Henry's harshness towards the Pole family might have derived from Pole's mother, Margaret Pole née Plantagenet, being considered the last member of the House of Plantagenet. Under some circumstances, that fact could have made Reginald - until he definitely entered the clergy - a possible contender for the throne itself. Indeed, in 1535 Pole was considered by Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador to England, as a possible husband for Princess Mary, later Mary I of England.

Pole was made a cardinal by Pope Paul III in 1536, over Pole's own objections. He also became Papal Legate to England in February 1536/1537. In 1542 he was appointed as one of the three Papal Legates to preside over the Council of Trent, in 1549 he was appointed by Pope Paul III Abbot of Gavello or Canalnuovo, and after the death of Pope Paul III in 1549 Pole, at one point, had nearly the two-thirds of the vote he needed to become Pope himself at the papal conclave, 1549-1550. His personal belief in justification by faith over works had caused him problems at Trent and accusations of heresy at the conclave.