Hi I'm Kevin Hicks and welcome to my Youtube channel the History Squad. Uh today is is um,
it's a sad one this is the Henry VIIIs execution of Margaret Pole, um May 27 154. I had to read
it then, actually i've got so many dates in here that they're going to start falling out.
But it's easy to sit here you know and we can have a bit of fun with uh the death,
kind of things the macabre things but these people who were executed in history were real people
and the one period that really kind of gets to me is the period of Henry VIII.
70 000 people were executed in the reign of Henry VIII. 70 000 people this is incredible
and of course two of the most famous are Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard two of his wives.
But who was Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury? Well she was a Plantagenet, in fact a Plantagenet
princess. She was the daughter of the Duke of Clarence, he was executed when she was very young.
She was also the lady in waiting to Catherine of Aragon Henry VII's first wife
and she was also the governess to Henry VIII's daughter Princess Mary.
She was a devout Catholic, and she remained true to her faith
but during the reformation, in the 1530s her son Reginald
refused to acknowledge Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of England and he absconded to Europe.
Now his mother Margaret, she had a go at him for doing this, she remained faithful to Henry VIII.
She had committed no crime no treason now it's interesting because there was
the Pilgrimage of Grace, a rebellion up in the north of England and Reginald her son apparently was one of the leaders
and this may be behind why she was arrested Henry VIII couldn't get at her son Reginald
so he gave permission for Thomas Cromwell to arrest her. This is so sad,
a 65 year old woman is thrown into the Tower of London by Thomas Cromwell she didn't have a trial
she was just thrown in. This is absolutism isn't it? You know this absolute monarch just at his
whim, you can lose your life but she was held in the tower for two years. At the age of 67 this
frail old lady on 27th of May 1541 she is told first thing in the morning you're gonna die. She's led
outside into the courtyard in the Tower of London. Because she is of noble blood she's going to have
a private execution. I bet that means a lot doesn't it. So the royal executioner was up the north of
England cutting other people's heads off from this rebellion so there is nobody to cut off
Margaret Pole's head. So they get a youngster in, some say as young as 16 possibly, never done this
thing before now you imagine this yourself you're a boy you're in the tower of london you've got a
great big axe and you are gonna cut the head off a frail old lady. Now there's a popular myth that uh
Margaret Pole, after the first blow missed her neck actually rose up from the block and ran away from
the executioner crying out that she was innocent, she was no traitor. But this account was written
over 100 years later so it probably never happened. There is another account though, she wouldn't keep
her head still proclaiming that she, you know, she's not been charged ,she'd not had a trial.
Either way she's on the block, this low piece of wood, not a proper block and the boy swings
the axe for the first one and he hits her in the shoulder. He must have been trembling from
head to foot, she must have been gasping. He gets the axe out he tries to hit her again and again,
missing the vital parts each time. In fact it took 11 blows to sever the head of that poor woman.
The official description was he simply hacked her head and shoulder to pieces.
After all said and done it's incredible to think that Margaret Pole may have been executed, killed
for a very simple reason. Not for treason it may have been thisso many people had been arrested
with the rebellion up in the north that every room and every corner of the Tower of London was needed.
So her cell was needed. So to make it empty, simply cut off her head. Isn't that awful?
Well i hope you found that interesting, sad tale yeah? If you did thumbs up, if you're a subscriber thank you so much.
This is going great isn't it? I'm loving the forum, I'm hoping there's going to be some
you know comments about this uh terrible affair. If you're not a subscriber then subscribe,
ding that bell, the subscribe button's down there, but for now thank you very much.