Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/39

27 B. MARGARET 27 married, in 1491, Sir Richard Pole, a landed gentleman of Bucks and kinsman of Henry YII. Sir Richard had already done good senrice to the king and after his marriage he distinguished himself particularly in the wars against Scotland, for which he was made a Enight of the Garter and chief gentleman of the bed-chamber to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry YII. It was probably at this time that Margaret's friendship with Catherine of Aragon began. Later, he was made Constable of the castles of Harlech and Montgomery and held other important appointments in Wales. He died in 1505, leaving Margaret a widow, with fire children, viz. — (1) Henry, lord Montague in his mother's right, beheaded shortly before her, on a charge of plotting to dethrone Henry VIII. in &your of Reginald Pole ; (2) Geoffrey, convicted at the same time, but pardoned in consideration of his betraying the secrets of his party ; (3) Arthur, con- demned to death for plotting in favour of Queen Mary Stuart, but not executed, on account of his near relationship to Queen Elizabeth Tudor ; (4) Reginald, Cardinal, bom at Stoverton Castle, Staf- fordshire, in 1500, on two occasions he was nearly elected Pope ; twice he came near to being made King of England ; he was Archbishop of Canterbury after Cramner; he died in 1558 on the same day as Queen Mary; he is buried in Canterbury Cathedral ; (5) Ursula, mar- ried, in 1516, Henry, lord Stafford, son of the last Duke of Buckingham of that fiunily. The Duke was beheaded in 1522 but the barony of Stafford was afterwards restored to Henry. Henry VIII. succeeded to the throne in 1509. He held Margaret in great esteem 'and, desiring to atone for the judicial murder of her brother, Prince Edward, and the injustice that had been done to her family, he at once granted her an annuity. In 1513 he reversed the attainder of the prince and made full restitution to her of all the rights of her family, creating her Countess of Salis- bury and giving her all the lands be- longing to the earldom. She now had fine estates in Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshirei and although she had heavy burdens in the way of " benevo- lence " and '< redemption money " to the king, she was rich enough, a good many years later, to buy additional property for herself in Essex and Buckinghamshire. In 1517 Henry's eldest daughter, the only child of Catherine of Aragon, was bom at Greenwich Palace. Henry, who called Lady Salisbury " the most saintly woman in England," appointed her governess to the infant Princess, after- wards Queen Mary. Margaret carried her pupil to the neighbouring church of the Grey Friars to be christened; she appointed a kinswoman of her own to be her wet-nurse and devoted herself with watchful affection to her charge as long as she was suffered to remain at her post. In 1533 the king married Anne Boleyn. The Countess of Salisbury, whose heart was in the cause of the in- jured Queen Catherine and the Catholic religion, withdrew from Court. The king sent a lady to her with orders to bring the Princess Mary's jewels to him. Margaret refused to give them up. The king then deposed her from her office of governess, but the faithful Margaret said she would remain with her beloved pupil at her own expense. Mary re- garded her as a second mother and Catherine fully appreciated her self- sacrificing devotion. The king, how- ever, took means to remc^ve his daughter from her care. After the fall of Anne Boleyn, in 1 536, the Countess of Salis- bury returned to Court and to favour. Meantime, in answer to Henry's declara- tion that he constituted himself Head of the Church, her son Reginald Pole wrote his book Pro Unitate Eccletise and sent it to the king. At the same time an insurrection occurred in the north of England, caused by the dislike of the people to the change of religion and by their loss of respect for the king. The book gave dire offence, and the king knowing that Pole was working against him in foreign Courts and that his whole family were hostile to the new arrange- ments, determined to get rid of them all. The Countess of Salisbury, who was now about seventy years old, was accused of treason. She was imprisoned for a time