Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 46.djvu/32

 dined with the Princess Mary, and he himself dined with her again on the 24th (Cal. Henry VIII, vol. vi. No. 1540, iii.) He received a writ of summons to the prorogued parliament in January 1534, and he seems to have attended regularly, his presence being recorded on 30 March, the seventy-fifth day of parliament. In April 1535 he was on the special commission before whom the Carthusian martyrs were tried; but his position there, like that of other lords, was merely honorary, the practical work being left to the judicial members. He was similarly placed on the trial of Sir Thomas More on 1 July. Immediately afterwards he had a serious illness. In May 1536 he was one of the peers before whom Anne Boleyn was tried. In it he took a more practical part than in the two previous trials, for each of the peers present severally declared her guilty. He may have believed in the verdict, for he had never approved of the king's marriage to her, or loved the antipapal policy to which that marriage had led (cf. ib. vol. xvii. No. 957, x. 243; vol. vii. No. 1040).

He sat in the parliament of July 1536 (ib. vol. x. No. 994, vol. xi. No. 104). He and his mother were seriously distressed that year about the book which his brother Reginald sent to the king, and each wrote to him in reproachful terms, but it was apparently to satisfy the council by whom the letters were read and despatched [see ]. On the outbreak of the Lincolnshire rebellion in the beginning of October 1536, Montague received orders to be ready at a day's warning to serve against the insurgents with two hundred men. But the musters were countermanded on the speedy suppression of the insurrection, and it is doubtful whether he was sent against the Yorkshire rebels afterwards. On 15 Oct. 1537 he took part in the ceremonial at the christening of Prince Edward. On 12 Nov. following he and Lord Clifford attended the Princess Mary, as she rode from Hampton Court to Windsor, as chief mourner at the funeral of Jane Seymour.

All this time, although perfectly loyal, he was deeply grieved at the overthrow of the monasteries and the abrogation of the pope's authority. He often said in private he wished he was over sea with the bishop of Liège, as his brother had been, and that knaves ruled about the king. Early in 1538 his wife died, and his interest in public affairs consequently decreased (Cal. vol. xiii. pt. ii. No. 695 [2]). But Henry VIII was not ignorant of his opinions, and obtained positive evidence of them by the examination of his brother, Sir Geoffrey Pole [q. v.], in the Tower in October and November 1538. Montague was accordingly committed to the Tower on 4 Nov. along with the Marquis of Exeter. They had at times communicated on public affairs. The indictments in each case were to the same effect. They had both expressed approval of Cardinal Pole's proceedings, and Montague had said he expected civil war one day from the course things were taking, especially if the king were to die suddenly. The two lords were tried before Lord-chancellor Audeley, as lord high steward, and a jury of peers, and both were found guilty. Montague received judgment on 2 Dec., and Exeter on the day following. On 9 Dec. both lords were beheaded on Tower Hill. A portrait of Montague by an unknown hand belonged in 1866 to Mr. Reginald Cholmondeley.

Montague left a son whose existence is not mentioned by peerage historians; he was included with his father in the bill of attainder of 1539, and probably died not many years after in prison. Besides Catherine, wife of Francis, lord Hastings, afterwards earl of Huntingdon [q. v.], Montague had a daughter Winifred, who married a brother of her sister's husband. His two daughters became his heirs, and were fully restored in blood and honours in the first year of Philip and Mary.

[Sandford's Genealogical Hist., Dugdale's Baronage and the Calendar of Henry VIII, are the main sources of information. The Chronicle of Henry VIII, translated from the Spanish by M. A. S. Hume (1889), has some details of doubtful authenticity touching Montague's arrest and examination.] 

POLE, JOHN (1464?–1487), born about 1464, was eldest son of John de la Pole, second duke of Suffolk [q. v.], by Elizabeth, sister to Edward IV. He was created Earl of Lincoln on 13 March 1466–7, and knight of the Bath on 18 April 1475, and attended Edward IV's funeral in April 1483. Richard III seems to have secured him firmly to his party. He bore the orb at Richard's coronation, 7 July 1483, and the same month he was made president of the council of the north (cf. Letters and Papers of Richard III and Henry VII, ed. Gairdner, i. 56). Richard's son Edward died on 9 April 1484, and one of his offices, that of lord lieutenant of Ireland, was conferred upon the Earl of Lincoln on the following 21 Aug. He continued to hold this office for the rest of the reign, the duties being performed, or neglected, by the Earl of Kildare. It now became necessary for Richard III to find an heir to the throne. Edward, earl of Warwick (1475–1499) [q. v.], son of the Duke of Cla-