The Pope’s elevation of John Fisher to cardinal turned the bishop’s imprisonment into a public test of authority. Intended as a sign of protection and respect, the appointment instead drew an explicit threat from Henry VIII, while the English royal court’s silence exposed how little practical restraint remained on the king.

A Church under royal control

The appointment came amid Henry VIII’s break with the Pope’s authority. Margaret Pole reports that the Church had surrendered to the king: he would rule it himself, and the Pope was to be disregarded in England. Thomas More had resigned as Lord Chancellor and returned the seal of office, removing from the king’s service a man Margaret regarded as one of the few willing to tell him the truth.

The struggle over authority also shaped the oath of succession administered to the nobility by Thomas Cromwell. The Pope had ruled that the marriage of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon was valid, while the king claimed power to determine the status of his marriage and the succession. Margaret understood the conflict as a choice each person had to make, even when the king’s position and the Pope’s ruling could not both be obeyed.

The appointment and Henry’s response

The new Pope made John Fisher a cardinal while Fisher was in the Tower of London, in failing health and held as a traitor. Margaret presents the appointment as an unmistakable message: the bishop was to be treated with respect, and, as a cardinal of the universal Church, stood under the Pope’s explicit protection. The honor was therefore both recognition of Fisher and a challenge to Henry VIII’s claim to govern the Church in England.

Henry responded before the court by declaring that if the Pope sent Fisher a cardinal’s hat, Fisher would be unable to wear it because he would have no head. Margaret describes the remark as a brutal joke. Its force lay not only in the threat but in the response it received: none of the gentlemen present rebuked the king or called for restraint. Margaret’s sons were among those who remained silent.

Protection, silence, and execution

In June, the court allowed Henry VIII to execute Fisher. The contrast between the Pope’s explicit protection and the king’s ability to proceed gives the appointment its grim significance: ecclesiastical recognition could declare Fisher’s standing, but could not secure his safety against royal power. Margaret remembers Fisher as a kind and loving friend who had offered her refuge when she was young and in need of one. She also recalls his importance to the royal family as the chosen confessor of Henry VIII’s grandmother and the spiritual adviser of his wife.

Margaret does not present herself as having resisted the outcome. She acknowledges that she said nothing in Fisher’s defence, then contrasts her own attachment to life with the account of Fisher meeting his death without trying to escape the fate prepared for him. His elevation thus marks both a confrontation between papal and royal authority and a personal measure of Margaret’s fear, grief, and silence.