Geoffrey Pole

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Sir Geoffrey Pole (around 1502 - † November 1558 ) was an English knight and supporter of the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of England against the English Reformation led by King Henry VIII .

Life

He was the fourth son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Plantagenet . He had a sister, Ursula, and three brothers, Henry , Reginald and Arthur . Because his mother came from the House of Plantagenet , he had a subordinate claim to the English throne.

He was educated at Winchester College .

He was a second cousin of King Henry VIII. This proposed him in November 1529 in York Place to Knight Bachelor .

Before July 9, 1528 he married Constance Pakenham († August 12, 1570), daughter of Sir Edmund Pakenham († 1528), a gentleman usher of the Queen Consort Catherine of Aragon . When his father-in-law died, he inherited the Lordington estate in Sussex through his wife .

Like the rest of his family, he was critical of Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the resulting break with the Catholic Church and the establishment of an independent Church of England with Henry VIII as head. He maintained diplomatic contacts with the domestic and foreign opposition to the king. Nevertheless, in the course of the dissolution of the English monasteries in 1536, he bought items from Dureford Abbey in Sussex. At the end of 1536 he commanded a unit under the Duke of Norfolk to suppress the northern rebels involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace in Doncaster , which his brother Reginald supported as a papal legate. Since the rebels were too numerous, there was no attack.

While his brother Reginald escaped persecution by the English king by fleeing to the continent, he was arrested on August 29, 1538 under the pretext of persecuting the so-called Exeter conspiracy and held in the Tower of London . He was charged with high treason and finally pleaded guilty on December 4, 1538. His statements in intense interrogation led to the conviction and execution of his brother Henry, 1st Baron Montagu, in January 1539 and his mother in May 1541. His brother Reginald was ostracized in absentia. Geoffrey himself tried to commit suicide twice while in custody and was pardoned on January 4, 1539.

In 1544 some of his family's confiscated goods were returned to Geoffrey. However, in 1548 he fled from England to Rome to his brother Reginald, who had meanwhile become cardinal. The cardinal took him to absolution to the Pope and provided him with benefices in Flanders from the Prince-Bishop of Liege . There he lived mainly until the end of the reign of Edward VI. However, since his wife and family were still in Lordington, he tried to get permission to return to England from 1550. He was expressly excluded from a general pardon by the English Parliament in 1552. Only after the accession of the Catholic Maria I in 1553 did he return to England.

He died in early November 1558, days before his brother, Cardinal Reginald, and was buried in Stoughton Church in West Sussex .

Marriage and offspring

From his marriage to Constance Pakenham he had at least four sons:

  • Arthur Pole (1531-1570)
  • Thomas Pole (1532 / 1540–1570), ⚭ Mary († 1576), widow of John Lewes
  • Edmund Pole (1541 – after 1570)
  • Geoffrey Pole (1546 – ​​before 1591)

Literature and web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 47.
personal data
SURNAME Pole, Geoffrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pole, Sir Geoffrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English knight
DATE OF BIRTH around 1501
DATE OF DEATH November 1558