Reginald Pole

• 1. Noble Birth And Early Education

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  Reginald Pole entered the world at Stourton Castle in Staffordshire on the 12th of March 1500. He was the third son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, the 8th Countess of Salisbury. His maternal grandparents were George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, and Isabel Neville. This lineage made him a great-nephew of kings Edward IV and Richard III. It also made him a great-grandson of Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick. Accounts vary regarding his early schooling. Some sources suggest Sheen Priory while others point to Christchurch or Canterbury. In 1512 he matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford. William Latimer served as his principal tutor during these formative years. Thomas Linacre taught him between 1518 and 1520. Henry VIII paid Pole a pension of £12 starting in 1512. The King renewed this payment the following year to support his education. Pole graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree on the 27th of June 1515. By February 1518 Henry granted him the deanery of Wimborne Minster in Dorset. He later became Prebendary of Salisbury and Dean of Exeter in 1527. On the 19th of March 1518 he received an appointment as prebend of Ruscombe Southbury. He exchanged that position for Yetminster secunda on the 10th of April 1519. He held several other livings including a canonry in York before ordination.

• 2. The Schism With Henry VIII

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  Pole had likely returned to England by 1527 but political influence remained undocumented until November 1528. By October of the next year he was sent to Paris to liberate university doctors from their opinions on Henry's annulment. It is possible Pole began learning Hebrew from Robert Wakefield after returning home. This suggests Henry might have intended to deploy Pole in the annulment project. Henry offered him the Archbishopric of York or the Diocese of Winchester if he would support the divorce from Catherine of Aragon. In May or June 1531 Pole furnished Henry with an analysis of the political difficulties regarding a divorce. He highlighted dangers this would bring to the succession. Pole withheld his support and went into self-imposed exile in France and Italy in 1532. He continued studies at Padua and Paris during this period. After his return he held the benefice of vicar of Piddletown, Dorset between the 20th of December 1532 and January 1536. In May 1536 Reginald Pole finally and decisively broke with the King. Five years earlier he had warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage. He had returned to Padua in 1532 and received a last English benefice that December. Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador to England, suggested Pole marry Henry's daughter Mary. Chapuys communicated with Reginald through his brother Geoffrey. The final break followed upon Thomas Cromwell, Cuthbert Tunstall, and Thomas Starkey addressing questions to Pole on behalf of Henry. Pole answered by sending the King a copy of his published treatise Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione. This work was a strong denunciation of the King's policies. It refuted Henry's position on marrying his brother Arthur's widow. It also denied royal supremacy. Pole urged European princes to depose Henry immediately.

• 3. Family Executions And Political Retribution

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  The King took revenge on Pole's family for engaging in treason by word against him. This later became known as the Exeter Conspiracy. Leading members were arrested and all their properties seized. This destroyed the Pole family. Sir Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538. He had been corresponding with Reginald. The investigation of Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, turned up his name. Sir Geoffrey appealed to Thomas Cromwell who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation Sir Geoffrey admitted that Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, and Exeter were parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, and Lady Salisbury were arrested in November 1538 together with other family members. They faced charges of treason despite Cromwell having previously written they had little offended save that Reginald is of their kin. They were committed to the Tower of London. Apart from Geoffrey Pole they were all eventually executed. In January 1539 Sir Geoffrey was pardoned. Montagu and Exeter were tried and executed for treason. Reginald Pole was attainted in absentia. In May 1539 Montagu, Exeter, Lady Salisbury, and others were also attainted. This meant they lost their lands mostly in the South of England. Those still alive in the Tower were sentenced to death. As part of the evidence given in support of the Bill of Attainder, Cromwell produced a tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ. It purportedly showed Lady Salisbury's support of traditional Catholicism. Margaret Pole was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years under severe conditions. She, her grandson, and Exeter's son were held together on orders of the King. In 1540 Cromwell himself fell from favour and was executed. Margaret was finally executed in 1541 protesting her innocence until the last. Her execution was gruesome and botched by an inexperienced executioner who delivered nearly a dozen blows before she was killed. Some 350 years later in 1886 Margaret was beatified by Pope Leo XIII.

• 4. Cardinalship And The Council Of Trent

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  On the 22nd of December 1536 Pole was created a cardinal over his own objections. He was already a deacon at this time. He became the fourth of five English cardinals of the first half of the sixteenth century. He also became papal legate to England in February 1536 or 1537. Pope Paul III put him in charge of organizing assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace. This effort aimed to organize a march on London to demand Henry replace reformist advisers with more traditional Catholic minds. Neither Francis I of France nor the Emperor supported this effort. The English government tried to have Pole assassinated. In 1539 Pole was sent to the Emperor to organize an embargo against England. This was the sort of countermeasure he had warned Henry was possible. In 1542 Reginald Pole was appointed as one of three papal legates to preside over the Council of Trent. During the 1549, 1550 papal conclave following the death of Pope Paul III, Pole had 26 out of 28 votes needed to become pope himself. His personal belief in justification by faith alone caused problems at Trent and accusations of heretical crypto-Lutheranism at the conclave. Thomas Hoby visiting Rome recorded that Pole failed to be elected due to the means of the Cardinal of Ferrara. Many French cardinals were persuaded that Cardinall Pole was both Imperiall and also a verie Lutheran.

• 5. Restoration Under Mary I

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  The death of Edward VI on the 6th of July 1553 and the accession of Mary I hastened Pole's return from exile. He returned as a papal legate to England until 1557 with a view to receiving the kingdom back into the Catholic fold. Queen Mary I and Emperor Charles V delayed his arrival until the 20th of November 1554. They feared Pole might oppose Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain. It was only after the marriage was safely out of the way that Parliament set about repealing his attainder on the 22nd of November 1554. Pole opened his papal commission before Philip and Mary and assembled members of Parliament at the Palace of Whitehall on the 27th of November 1554. He delivered a notable oration before them. Among the dignitaries in attendance was Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England. As papal legate, Pole negotiated a papal dispensation allowing new owners of confiscated former monastic lands to retain these. In return for this concession Parliament enabled the Revival of the Heresy Acts in January 1555. This revived measures against heresy including letters patent of 1382 of Richard II. The Suppression of Heresy Act 1400 of Henry IV and the Suppression of Heresy Act 1414 of Henry V were also restored. All had been repealed under Henry VIII and Edward VI. On the 13th of November 1555 Thomas Cranmer was officially deprived of the See of Canterbury. The Pope promoted Pole to cardinal-priest and made him administrator of the See of Canterbury on the 11th of December 1555. Pole was finally ordained a priest on the 20th of March 1556 and consecrated a bishop two days later. He became archbishop of Canterbury an office he held until his death.

• 6. Marian Persecutions And Controversy

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  In 1555 Queen Mary began permitting the burning of Protestants for heresy. Some 220 men and 60 women were executed before her death in 1558. In the view of some historians these Marian persecutions contributed to the ultimate victory of the English Reformation. Pole's involvement in these heresy trials is disputed. Pole was in failing health during the worst period of persecution. There is evidence that he favored a more lenient approach. Three condemned heretics from Bonner's diocese were pardoned on an appeal to him. He merely enjoined a penance and gave them absolution. As the reign wore on increasing numbers of people turned against Mary and her government. People who had been indifferent to the English Reformation began turning against Catholicism. Writings such as John Foxe's 1568 Book of Martyrs helped shape popular opinion against Catholicism in England for generations. Despite being a lifelong devout Catholic, Pole had a long-running dispute with Pope Paul IV dating from before the latter's election. Elected in 1555, Paul IV had a distaste for Catholic humanism and men like Pole who pushed a softer version of Catholicism. Paul IV was also fiercely anti-Spanish and against Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain. Because of this disagreement Paul first cancelled Pole's legatine authority. Then he sought to recall Pole to Rome to face investigation for heresy in his early writings. Mary refused to send Pole to Rome yet accepted his suspension from office.

• 7. Death And Literary Legacy

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  Pole died in London during an influenza epidemic on the 17th of November 1558 at about 7:00 pm. This occurred nearly 12 hours after Queen Mary's death. He was buried on the north side of the Corona at Canterbury Cathedral. Pole was the author of De Concilio and a treatise on the authority of the pope. He introduced measures to restore Catholic practice in England. He wrote many important letters edited by Angelo Maria Quirini in five volumes published between 1744 and 1757. Pole is known for his strong condemnation of Machiavelli's book The Prince which he read in Italy. He commented that he found this type of book written by an enemy of the human race. It explains every means whereby religion, justice and any inclination toward virtue could be destroyed. Cardinal Pole appears as a major character in the 1863 novel by William Harrison Ainsworth. He features in Hilary Mantel's novel The Mirror & the Light. In Season 3 of Showtime's series The Tudors, Cardinal Pole is portrayed by Canadian actor Mark Hildreth. In the mini-series The Virgin Queen he is played by Michael Feast. Reginald Pole along with his brothers, sister, and mother are the central family in Philippa Gregory's historical novel The King's Curse.