Margaret Pole's Expulsion from Court

Margaret Pole’s expulsion from court was a rupture in a relationship built on service and affection: in 1521, Henry VIII dismissed her as Princess Mary Tudor’s governess and ordered her away. She spent four years at Bisham, separated from the child she had helped raise and wary of what her family’s connections might signify to the Crown. Her return to royal service did not erase the lesson of exile. In Margaret’s story, favor could thaw, but it could also freeze without warning.

Identity and Political Context

Margaret’s position at court rested on more than her household office. She belonged to the extensive Plantagenet kinship network, whose interwoven marriages tied relatives to one another across the realm. The same network that held lands and influence together could, under a suspicious gaze, resemble a faction. Margaret understood the danger in that double meaning: kinship offered solidarity, but also made each relative’s fortunes a possible threat to the others.

An earlier episode had already shown how easily her loyalty could be tested. During a dispute involving Arthur Tudor and Katherine of Aragon, Margaret Beaufort pressed her to affirm that the young couple had been put together as ordered. Margaret confirmed that Arthur had been taken to Katherine’s room each week, but did not claim that this proved the marriage had been consummated. When urged to declare that Katherine and Arthur had been wedded and bedded, she fell silent. The distinction mattered: what Margaret had observed did not establish what others wanted her to attest. Her refusal to go further marked her as a witness whose words could affect the royal family’s claims.

The arrest of her cousin Edmund de la Pole sharpened her awareness of the family’s vulnerability. Edmund had been a prominent and loyal servant of Henry VII, a Plantagenet at the heart of a Tudor court. Margaret saw him as a sign that York and Tudor might coexist; his arrest made that apparent harmony look far less secure. She knew, too, that the family’s many ties could be interpreted not as a network of ordinary relations but as coordinated political strength.

Dismissal and Separation from Mary

The expulsion became personal when Katherine of Aragon told Margaret that Henry VIII had dismissed her as Mary’s governess. The news came as Katherine returned from prayer at Lauds, pale and distressed. The king had refused to hear her argument and had gone hunting with Anne Boleyn’s circle. Margaret struggled to take in the order: Mary was only five, and she had cared for her from infancy. She had guided the child’s first steps, trimmed her curls, taught her to read Latin, English, Spanish, and French, and steadied her on her first pony. She also sang with Mary and sat beside her during lessons on the virginal.

For Margaret, losing the post meant more than leaving the court. Mary loved her and expected her presence; Margaret feared the child would be left without the person who had helped shape her daily life. She asked who would take her place, then said she would go to Bisham and live quietly in the country. Katherine could give her no reassurance that the separation would be brief. The king’s order overruled the queen’s wishes and Margaret’s bond with the princess alike.

The political danger around the family was visible in the treatment of Margaret’s relatives. Montague, her son, was arrested, as were members of the wider network; George Neville was also questioned. Ursula, Margaret’s daughter, was married to Montague’s son. Margaret’s sons had grown up in George Neville’s household, and Montague himself had married George’s daughter. Other marriages joined their children to the same circle. Such ties sustained family cooperation and kept wealth, lands, and influence close. In the atmosphere of suspicion, however, that closeness could be made to look like conspiracy.

Bisham: Fear, Silence, and Waiting

The consequences of the crackdown were severe but, for Margaret’s immediate family, not permanent. Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, paid with his life; his son lost his fortune and dukedom before being released. Montague was released without charge. Henry VIII had banished Margaret’s family from court in a moment of fear, but did not pursue the accusation against her son into a lasting prosecution. From Bisham Manor, Margaret hoped the king would recover his former warmth and summon her back to his side—and to Mary.

Her retreat was a life of watchfulness rather than open resistance. At Bisham, she wrote to no one and saw only her sons. George Neville sent occasional family letters containing deliberately ordinary news, left unsealed in case a spy intercepted them. The family did not discuss the king, the court, or the princess Margaret was forbidden to serve, even when alone together. Silence became an unspoken household discipline, a way to avoid giving surveillance anything to discover. Margaret’s private world still held family grief and joy: Ursula’s infant son died of a fever, while Montague’s wife gave birth to a daughter named Katherine for the queen.

The years at Bisham also preserved the relationships that made Margaret’s return possible. Arthur lived nearby at Broadhurst with his wife, Jane; Montague was four miles away at Bockmer, and they visited every month or so. Geoffrey remained at home with Margaret through the last years of his boyhood. Meanwhile, small signs of royal favor appeared: the queen sent a gift, and Henry VIII sent game after hunting nearby. After four years of exile, Margaret received the expected letter.

Return to Royal Service and Lasting Significance

Margaret was appointed once more as companion and governess to Mary, now nine, who was to go to Ludlow Castle and govern the principality. She met the princess at Thornbury Castle and brought her daughter-in-law Constance to serve as a lady-in-waiting. The return restored Margaret and her household to the center of court life. At Ludlow, she could draw on her own memories of the castle, once her home, and of Arthur and Katherine’s earlier life there. The restoration was a reversal, but it depended on the king’s changing favor; it did not make Margaret’s position independent of his will.

Later, when Henry VIII’s religious and marital policies brought fresh peril to Katherine and Mary, Margaret’s family again considered its obligations. Montague proposed a plan to send Geoffrey through Calais to meet Reginald in Padua, carry information to the Pope, and take a letter for Katherine to the King of Spain. Margaret recognized the risks, but also believed she could not abandon the queen, the princess, or her sons’ sense of family duty. Montague invoked the white rose as an emblem of their shared Plantagenet identity and argued that their family should help bring the king back to what they considered his proper course. The plan shows that Margaret’s return to court had not dissolved her political commitments; service to the royal household and loyalty to her kin could pull in opposing directions.

The oath demanded of the nobility in 1534 made that conflict still clearer. At Westminster Palace, Margaret was summoned with the peers to hear Thomas Cromwell administer the oath of succession. She knew that the Pope had ruled Henry VIII’s marriage to Katherine valid, while the king claimed authority to redefine the marriage and succession within England. Thomas More refused the oath as written, despite Henry’s prior promise not to force him to choose on the matter. Margaret regretted not standing beside More, then returned to Bisham with what she described as the daily taste of cowardice. Her departure at that point is not presented as another royal dismissal, but it echoes the earlier exile: once again, the court’s demands narrowed the space for loyal service, conscience, and speech to coexist.