Margaret Pole and Harry Pole

Margaret Pole and Harry Pole are grandmother and grandson whose relationship comes sharply into view when both are imprisoned in the Tower of London. Harry greets Margaret with the happiness of a child expecting rescue; she must tell him that she, too, is confined. Their brief companionship becomes an act of care under surveillance, while Margaret’s last thoughts turn to whether he will ever be released.

Kinship in a Politically Vulnerable Family

Harry is the son of Margaret’s son Montague, and his Plantagenet inheritance places him within the extended family whose connections Margaret understands as both a source of solidarity and a political danger. The family’s marriages joined relatives, lands, and influence; Margaret observes that the same close-knit structure could be interpreted by suspicious observers as evidence of a faction or conspiracy. Harry’s relation to her is therefore intimate and dynastic at once: he is a beloved young relative, but also a member of the family exposed to suspicion because of his birth.

Earlier, Margaret’s fear for her family is bound up with the arrest of a cousin who had served the Tudor king loyally. She thinks of the wider network of cousins and kinsmen and of the Plantagenets’ reach across England. Later, when Montague and Geoffrey discuss resisting the king’s treatment of Queen Katherine and Princess Mary, they appeal to their family’s shared identity and duty. Margaret comes to accept that she cannot stand apart from the obligations of her house. These political pressures form the background to Harry’s imprisonment: the family’s public standing and loyalties shape the danger that eventually reaches him.

Reunion in the Tower

Margaret arrives by an unmarked barge at the Tower, where the Constable, Sir William Kingston, meets her. The person waiting behind him is Harry, identified as Montague’s son. His delight at seeing his grandmother is immediate: he embraces her and dances around her, apparently believing she has come to take him home. Margaret has to explain that she is imprisoned too, and she sees his happiness give way to alarm.

The two are lodged in the garden tower, with Harry in a small room above Margaret’s larger one. Their rooms are separate, and his access to her is controlled: when he visits, the door is locked behind him, and he can leave only when a guard releases him. Harry is also surprised to learn that Margaret cannot go to visit his cousin Edward Courtenay, who is held nearby with his mother, Gertrude Courtenay. His questions about going home show how difficult it is for him to understand the conditions of their confinement. Margaret, meanwhile, measures his situation against the family’s history of imprisonment and fears that Plantagenet descent alone may put him at risk.

Care and Companionship in Confinement

Although the rooms remain cold, the boys are permitted to play on the Tower green as spring arrives. They are given bows and arrows and a set of bowls. Harry’s companionship with Edward gives him some relief from isolation, and Margaret is glad that he is not entirely alone. These small allowances do not remove the uncertainty of their position: Margaret cannot visit him freely, and the boys’ lives remain subject to decisions made by their captors.

When Gertrude is unexpectedly released, Margaret asks whether she and Harry will be allowed to leave as well. She places her hand on Harry’s thin shoulder and feels him react to the possibility of freedom. The answer is that there are no orders for their release. Margaret notices Harry’s disappointment, while the warder tries to reassure him that he will not lose his playmate. The episode reveals the limits of Margaret’s protection: she can comfort Harry and share his hope, but she cannot determine whether he will be freed.

Margaret’s Final Concern for Harry

On the morning Margaret is told that she has little time left to live, she asks the chaplain to go to the boys with her blessing and love. She also wants them kept away from the windows facing the green, where preparations are being made for her execution. Her concern reaches beyond that immediate farewell. She wonders who will care for Harry, whether he will ever be released, and whether he too will die in the Tower because he was born a Plantagenet.

Margaret has made provision in her will for her debts and for prayers for her soul, and she hopes to be buried at her old priory. Yet even these arrangements prompt her to consider the possibility that her body may not be taken there and to think instead of lying in the Tower chapel with Montague. Her thoughts return from her own burial to Harry’s fate. The relationship ends not with a settled reunion or a promised return home, but with Margaret’s final act of care: sending him her love and blessing while she remains unable to secure his freedom.