Edmund de la Pole’s flight and attempted rebellion

Edmund de la Pole’s flight and attempted rebellion shatter the carefully maintained image of Plantagenet kin serving peacefully at Henry VII’s court. When Margaret Pole learns that her cousin has fled to Maximilian I to raise an army against the king, private family ties become a source of political danger: she insists she knew nothing of the plan, while fearing that the king’s spies will trace Edmund’s connections back through their extended family.

Background: A Plantagenet in the King’s Favor

Edmund is Margaret’s cousin, the son of her aunt and Duke of Suffolk. His position at court makes his departure especially alarming. Unlike his brother, who led rebels against Henry VII and died at the battle of Stoke, Edmund has been fiercely loyal to the Tudor king. He has served as Henry’s right-hand man and friend, and is described as a handsome, brave, brilliant duke and leader of the jousters. His presence at court has seemed to embody the possibility that Plantagenet and Tudor can coexist within one royal family.

That public role gives Edmund’s flight its force. He had appeared not merely tolerated but welcomed into the innermost royal circle: a Plantagenet serving a Tudor, and a visible sign that the old dynastic divide might be bridged. His departure reverses that meaning. The trusted courtier is now reported to be seeking an army against the very king whose favor had made him a prominent emblem of reconciliation.

The News and Margaret’s Denial

Elizabeth of York tells Margaret that Edmund has run away. Margaret’s knees weaken at the news, and Elizabeth seats her before opening a window to bring in cool air. Margaret’s first fear is that Edmund has been arrested; when she learns instead that he has fled, she is horrified and asks where he has gone. Elizabeth explains that he has gone to Maximilian I, the Holy Roman Emperor, to raise an army against Henry VII.

Elizabeth then asks whether Margaret knew of the plan. Margaret shakes her head, takes Elizabeth’s hand, meets her eyes, and swears that Edmund told her nothing. The scene makes the denial more than a formal response: Margaret understands that any knowledge of a cousin’s rebellion could expose her to suspicion. Her answer distinguishes family closeness from political complicity, while the need to swear emphasizes how little protection kinship offers when the king’s trust is at stake.

Kinship, Suspicion, and Surveillance

In the silence that follows, Margaret and Elizabeth think of the relatives and associates to whom Edmund might ordinarily have confided. The account presents the Plantagenets as a far-reaching network, bound together by marriage and blood and spread across England. Margaret contrasts that extensive kinship web with the much smaller Tudor family: an older woman, her anxious son, and his heirs, Arthur and Harry. The contrast is not a claim that every cousin took part in Edmund’s plan; it explains why the news immediately raises the possibility of suspicion spreading beyond the fugitive himself.

Elizabeth fears that Edmund can never return and that the king’s spies will eventually find him. She describes a regime employing hundreds of watchers, positioned wherever he might be. Margaret extends the danger from the fugitive to his contacts: if the watchers find Edmund, they may also find everyone with whom he has spoken. The narrative establishes this as a prediction and a fear, not as confirmation that every relative was arrested or that Margaret was proved to have assisted him.

Political Significance

Edmund’s flight converts the court’s language of reconciliation into an unstable performance. His loyalty had made him a striking example of a Plantagenet serving Henry VII; once he seeks foreign military support, the same lineage that lent him symbolic value can make his actions seem threatening to the Tudor crown. The attempted rebellion therefore places personal allegiance, dynastic identity, and service to the king in direct conflict.

The episode also shows how the threat of surveillance reaches into intimate relationships. Margaret and Elizabeth embrace as they once did while waiting anxiously for news from Bosworth, recalling an earlier moment of dynastic uncertainty. Now the fear is more immediate: the king’s watchers may turn a cousin’s flight into an inquiry extending through a network of relatives and acquaintances. The scene ends without establishing Edmund’s eventual fate. Its decisive consequence within the account is the exposure of how quickly a trusted courtier’s departure can make an entire family feel vulnerable to suspicion.