Claire | August 24, 2016
A warm welcome to Susan Higginbotham who is joining us today as part of the book tour for ler latest book, a biography: Margaret Pole: The Countess in the Tower. Here is an extract from her book and you’ll find details of her book at the bottom of this post. Naturally, Margaret did not confine […]
Claire | May 27, 2012
On the 27th May 1541, the elderly Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, godmother and former governess to Henry VIII’s daughter Mary, was executed at the Tower of London. Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador, recorded the Countess’s execution in a letter to the Queen of Hungary: “About the same time, the very strange and lamentable […]
Claire | November 4, 2011
On this day in history… 1530 – William (some say Walter) Walsh and Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, arrived at Cawood Castle and arrested Cardinal Thomas Wolsey for high treason. 1538 – Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, was arrested for treason along with his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Neville, and Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter, and […]
Claire | October 26, 2011
On this day in history, 26th October… 1529 – Thomas More took his oath as Chancellor 1536 – The rebels of the Pilgrimage of Grace halted at Scawsby Leys, near Doncaster, where they met troops captained by the Duke of Norfolk. The rebels were said to number around 30,000 and Norfolk’s army only a fifth […]
Claire | May 27, 2011
On this day in 1541 the 67 year old Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury and former governess to the Lady Mary (Henry VIII’s eldest daughter) was executed at the Tower of London. You can find out more about Margaret Pole, who was also Mary’s godmother, and her brutal end in my article The Execution […]
Claire | March 28, 2011
Today we have the penultimate part of Nancy Smith’s series on the Tower of London’s ghosts:- Monarchs Who Never Were – Hauntings at the Tower of London Part 3 by Nancy Smith The next two Tower of London hauntings are especially tragic, because of the advanced age of one if the victims, the youth of […]
Claire | May 27, 2010
On this day in history, the 27th May 1541, Margaret Pole, the 8th Countess of Salisbury was executed at the Tower of London. I was fortunate enough last week to see her memorial tile on the floor of the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula near the altar when we paid our respects to Anne […]
Claire | July 27, 2009
If you know Anne Boleyn’s story, you will know that she was found guilty of treason of adultery and treason by a court of 26 noblemen and sentenced to death by burning at the stake or by being beheaded, whatever the King decided. You will also know that her life was cut short on 19th […]
