The Old Faith

The Old Faith in The King’s Curse is the traditional religious order Margaret Pole remains attached to as Henry VIII asserts control over the English Church. Its stakes are practical as well as devotional: who may rule the Church, judge a marriage, determine succession, and preserve religious houses. The novel places Margaret’s loyalty to inherited belief alongside her efforts to protect her family, revealing how quickly religious conviction becomes entangled with royal power and political danger.

Faith and the authority to judge

The conflict first takes shape around the disputed marriage of Katherine of Aragon and Arthur Tudor. Margaret is pressed to confirm that Arthur and Katherine were brought together each week, as ordered, but that fact alone does not establish what happened between them. The distinction matters: whether the marriage was consummated bears on whether Henry VIII may marry Katherine, his brother’s widow, with a dispensation from the Pope. Margaret’s account is therefore treated not as a private recollection but as evidence in a struggle over marriage, papal jurisdiction, and the future of the royal house.

The accusation against Margaret sharpens the religious and political stakes. Her opponent believes that Katherine’s claim that the marriage was never consummated, if supported by her friends, will enable Henry VIII to pursue the dispensation and bring ruin upon his house. Margaret is urged to affirm that Katherine was married and bedded, even though the account establishes that she cannot confirm more than the weekly visits. In this conflict, the Old Faith is bound to the authority of the Church to judge a marriage; testimony can be turned into a weapon when the king’s succession depends on the verdict.

The Church under royal authority

The change from papal to royal authority becomes explicit when Lord Montague brings news to Princess Mary Tudor. He tells her that the Church has surrendered to the king, that the Pope is to be disregarded in England, and that Henry VIII will rule the Church himself. Thomas More has resigned the office of Lord Chancellor and returned the seal, leaving the king without a trusted counselor who might tell him an unwelcome truth. Mary recognizes that the change concerns not only religious leadership but the Church’s wealth, laws, and courts: the king is drawing the institution into his own possession.

The succession oath makes the clash personal for Margaret and the other peers. The Pope has publicly ruled that Katherine’s marriage to Henry VIII is valid, while the king claims that his own declarations settle the matter in England. Margaret understands the distance between the two authorities, but also that knowing the king is wrong does not automatically authorize defiance. Thomas More refuses the oath as it stands, though he is willing to accept much of its content in a rewritten form; he explains that he cannot sign it for the sake of his own soul. Henry VIII had promised not to put his friend to this test, yet breaks that promise. More’s refusal gives visible form to the cost of conscience under a ruler who has made obedience a test of loyalty.

Religious houses and selective accommodation

Margaret’s attachment to the Old Faith is especially clear in her response to the suppression of monasteries. She recalls that Robert Aske and hundreds of others died trying to save them, and protests the contradiction when Lord Montague reports that Henry VIII wants Bisham Priory restored as a chantry for Jane Seymour. The proposed restoration is striking because the king has been closing religious houses across the country and has said there is no purgatory, and therefore no need for chantries. His wish for prayers for Jane and himself does not undo the policy; it shows how royal religious practice can shift when it serves the king’s immediate purpose.

At Bisham, Margaret answers scrutiny by presenting signs of loyalty that can coexist with some changes in religious practice. She directs Geoffrey Pole to explain that the church has a Bible in English, that the school teaches the New Learning from books licensed by the king, and that children are learning to read prayers in English. He is to stress that the family remains loyal servants of the king. These details do not establish that Margaret has abandoned her inherited faith. Instead, they show her navigating the new order by making the household’s approved practices legible to the authorities.

Conscience, survival, and the Old Faith

Margaret’s predicament is not simply a choice between belief and betrayal. She maintains outward loyalty while privately recognizing the gulf between the Pope’s judgment and the king’s claims. Later, when questioned about family contacts and secret letters, she denies wrongdoing and emphasizes that the household prays in the new way and makes an English Bible available. Her presentation of conformity is a means of answering suspicion, just as her earlier defense of Katherine’s truth placed her at risk. The recurring pressure is to make belief, speech, and allegiance appear consistent with a sovereign who claims authority over all three.

The novel’s accompanying discussion identifies Margaret as devout to the Church and the old ways, and notes that the Catholic Church beatified her as a martyr in 1886, with a feast day on May 28. Within the story, however, the Old Faith is shown less as a protected private refuge than as a contested allegiance, sustained amid the loss of religious houses and the narrowing space for independent judgment. Margaret’s outward accommodation and inward resistance remain in tension: survival requires care in what the family says and demonstrates, while the disputes over Katherine’s marriage, More’s oath, and Bisham Priory expose what royal control demands them to yield.