Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham

Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, is presented as both Margaret Pole’s kinsman and one of the most powerful men in Henry VIII’s court. A prophecy that the realm might acclaim him king gives political force to suspicion around him; his execution, carried out despite his closeness to the king, becomes for Margaret evidence of a growing hardness in Henry’s rule.

Identity and Standing

Buckingham is Margaret’s cousin and friend, and his rank makes his fall consequential beyond the immediate charge against him. Margaret remembers him as the greatest duke in the realm, a constant companion and supporter of Henry VIII, and a favorite of the king’s grandmother. His confidence and pride mark him, in Margaret’s later account, as a striking contrast to the insecurity she believes lay beneath Henry’s princely assurance.

Prophecy and Accusation

The accusation reaches Margaret through a report that Buckingham had met with members of the Carthusian Order. The alleged evidence is a prophecy kept in the library at Sheen Priory, said to foretell that people would acclaim Buckingham as king and that Parliament would offer him the crown, as it had offered the crown to Henry VII. The report establishes that a prophecy was associated with him; it does not establish that Buckingham made a bid for the throne or endorsed the prediction.

Margaret interprets the case as part of Thomas Wolsey’s campaign against a rival for Henry’s favor and attention. She sees the prophecy charge not in isolation but amid suspicion of a wider faction: the report warns that others are being questioned and that the authorities suspect a plot. In this telling, a prediction about the crown becomes a political danger because it can be treated as evidence of treason.

Execution and Its Meaning

Margaret is told that Buckingham will be beheaded if found guilty. The sentence is ultimately carried out for treason, with Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, pronouncing the death sentence in tears. Those close to the court nevertheless expect Henry to pardon Buckingham, given their kinship and long companionship. The pardon never comes; Henry sends a leading duke and former supporter to his death as though he were an enemy.

Margaret says nothing in Buckingham’s defense, and afterward considers whether her silence makes her partly answerable for what she sees as the change in the king. She imagines Buckingham as an accidental victim of Henry’s growing coldness: his pride and apparent self-assurance, she thinks, struck against the king’s concealed fear that he was not good enough. The execution therefore registers not only the destruction of a kinsman and court favorite, but Margaret’s sense that warmth between king and companion has given way to a more dangerous exercise of royal power.