Margaret Pole and Montague: Mother and Son, and Political Allies

Margaret Pole and Montague: Mother and Son, and Political Allies describes a relationship in which family affection and political responsibility are inseparable. Montague seeks his mother’s judgment and protection, while Margaret’s authority within their family helps shape their response to Henry VIII’s break with the Papacy and his treatment of Princess Mary Tudor. Their alliance grows from shared kinship and loyalty into a dangerous effort to defend the queen, the princess, and the Church; even when they act together, they know that their family ties can be recast as evidence of conspiracy.

Kinship as Bond and Political Network

Margaret and Montague belong to a densely connected Plantagenet family. Margaret understands that their relatives are bound by marriages, shared upbringing, and political association, not merely by a common name. Her daughter Ursula is married to a duke’s son; Margaret’s sons were raised in the household of their cousin George Neville, who is married to the duke’s daughter; and Montague himself is married to George Neville’s daughter. In Margaret’s account, these unions keep wealth within the family, join lands, and concentrate influence. The same closeness that makes the kin network useful to its members can, under a suspicious ruler, make it look like a faction or conspiracy.

The political meaning of this network is already apparent in Margaret’s memory of Edmund de la Pole. She describes him as a Plantagenet in the innermost circle of the Tudor court: a loyal servant of Henry VII, prominent at court, and a public sign that York and Tudor might coexist. His brother had rebelled and died at the battle of Stoke, but Edmund’s loyalty offered a contrasting example. For Margaret, the family’s place in royal service could symbolize reconciliation; it could also make the fate of one relative a warning to the others. She later recognizes the same tension in her own close-knit family: their bonds give them reach, but also expose them to suspicion.

A Shared Response to the Church Crisis

When the Church surrenders to Henry VIII and the king claims authority over it in England, Montague brings the news to Margaret and Princess Mary Tudor. He treats Margaret as the person to whom he must report, but he does not exclude the princess: she insists on hearing what has happened and understands that the king is taking the Church’s wealth, laws, and courts into his own possession. The account also includes the resignation of Thomas More as Lord Chancellor. Montague’s report makes their political disagreement concrete, and Margaret and her son cannot contradict Mary’s assessment of the scale of the change.

Montague then proposes action. He wants to defend Katherine of Aragon and Princess Mary Tudor, and suggests taking Geoffrey Pole in his household to Calais. From there, Geoffrey could meet Reginald Pole, report on their English allies, and carry messages to the Pope and to the king of Spain on Katherine’s behalf. Montague hopes that a strong papal ruling against Henry will compel the king to restore Katherine. Margaret initially responds with alarm at the risk, but her son insists that someone must openly oppose the king. He invokes their shared Plantagenet identity as a reason to act together, not simply as a claim to ancestry: their task, as he sees it, is to bring Henry back from a course that threatens the queen and princess.

Margaret’s decision is shaped by more than dynastic politics. She feels responsible for Princess Mary Tudor, remains loyal to Katherine, and remembers her own affection for Henry VIII as a child she had taught to walk. She sees the king’s repudiation of his daughter’s position and his break with Rome as harms to the inheritance and honor he should protect. Montague’s resolve helps bring her own sense of duty into the open: she can no longer remain apart from decisions affecting the kingdom. Their alliance thus rests on competing obligations—family, friendship, faith, and service to the king—rather than on political ambition alone.

Negotiation, Reversal, and the Threat to the Princess

The pair’s strategy is not limited to opposition. When Montague is invited to dine with Thomas Cromwell, Margaret warns him to approach the meeting cautiously. She learns that Cromwell wants their assurance that Reginald will stop writing against the king and urging the Pope to intervene. Montague explains that Cromwell fears excommunication and wants support should the king turn against Anne Boleyn. Margaret advises him to offer cooperation against Anne only in return for the restoration of Princess Mary Tudor and the abbeys, while keeping the threat of excommunication secret and requiring the king to return to Rome. Their bargaining shows a shared attempt to use access to the court to limit the consequences of royal policy.

That opening closes abruptly. In May 1536, Montague comes to Margaret in alarm after Anne Boleyn is arrested on adultery charges, along with members of her court, including Thomas Wyatt, Henry Norris, and her brother. Montague says he is to sit on the jury. He and the others had agreed to help secure an annulment of the king’s marriage; they had understood this as an inquiry into the marriage’s validity, not as participation in a prosecution for adultery. His distress reveals how quickly an agreement made in one political context can be redirected by the king’s will. Margaret’s role is again to hear and steady her son as he tries to understand what their cooperation has committed them to.

As danger spreads, Montague and Margaret also try to protect Princess Mary Tudor. Geoffrey reports that a boatman at Grays is ready to take a boat when called, and that he remains loyal to the princess. Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle, is prepared to receive goods in Calais, with a message to his steward in London to signal their arrival. Montague brings riding horses to court under the stated pretext of preparing for the hunting season, while Henry Courtenay seeks information through a stable boy at Hunsdon about the princess’s movements. These separate arrangements form a coordinated plan, but the family’s network cannot guarantee safety. After arrests and the disappearance of a man connected to the stables, Montague tells Margaret that they can no longer get the princess out: they have no access to her door and cannot reach a maid who might have helped. The plan has to wait.

Maternal Intimacy and Political Fear

The story makes room for a private tenderness that contrasts with the public calculations. Montague is usually more reserved in physical affection than Geoffrey, but after the attempted rescue is blocked, Margaret leans her forehead against her son’s shoulder and asks him to hold her. She tells him she has been afraid. His reassurance that they are safe so far is carefully qualified: no one has betrayed them, and the king has not yet questioned Margaret’s loyalty. The comfort is real, but it cannot undo the uncertainty surrounding their household and allies.

That danger becomes sharper after the king’s anger at Reginald’s letter. Montague comes to Margaret late at night, upset that Henry has screamed at him and that Reginald’s writing has nearly ruined them. Henry has told Margaret to disown Reginald. Mother and son discuss the distance between speaking truth abroad and surviving at home: Reginald can criticize the king from afar, while those who remain in England face the consequences. Montague tells Margaret that lords and commoners alike are turning toward resistance, but he fears that the king now punishes criticism without mercy. Margaret acknowledges both that Reginald had to speak and that his words have put the family in danger.

A Conditional Resolve

Montague’s final political position is both resolute and fearful. He proposes drawing a line between Reginald and the family in England: they might deny that Reginald speaks for them, urge him to be silent, and ask him not to publish or go to Rome. Yet he does not mistake these measures for safety. If Reginald persuades the Pope to publish an excommunication and order a crusade against England, Montague says he will raise his tenants, join the commons, defend the Church, overthrow the king, and place Princess Mary Tudor on the throne. He presents this as a contingent response to an invasion, not as an action already taken. When Margaret asks whether they would truly do it, he answers that they must, while admitting his fear.

Their relationship therefore ends this evidence not with a settled victory or a completed rebellion, but with a shared recognition of the stakes. Margaret’s maternal authority and Montague’s political initiative remain joined: she listens, advises, and supports him, while he brings her plans, warnings, and decisions that cannot be made alone. Their family ties sustain a possible alliance against royal policy, yet those same ties place them under suspicion. The bond is at once their source of strength and the reason that every act of loyalty carries danger.