01x06 - Margaret Pole: The Last Plantagenet

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Locked in the Tower of London
without trial.

Margaret Pole, the last Plantagenet

faces the executioner's ax.

She had survived the bloody wars
that brought the Tudors to power...

and navigated a man's world,

becoming one of England's
most powerful individuals.

Now, aged 67,

she is to be k*lled
on the orders of Henry VIII.

I commend my soul to God.

Even in an era known
for its brutality,

this is an act
of extraordinary cruelty.

She meets her death
with characteristic courage.

This is a woman
who dared to defy a king.

I'm Dan Snow.

And I'm Professor Suzannah Lipscomb.

And we're investigating the world
of the Tudors in a whole new way,

by starting at the grizzly end.

In this turbulent time
of shifting allegiances,

volatile politics
and a clash of religions,

many of the key players
end up with their heads on the block.

We'll uncover the critical moments
that led them to the executioner.

We'll discover fresh insights
and examine new evidence.

As far as the people around her
were concerned, she was innocent.

And challenge
how we see these individuals

and this pivotal point
in Europe's history.

-So Cecil was doctoring the evidence?
-Absolutely.

Because understanding why these people
were convicted and k*lled,

is to understand the Tudors.

We're starting our investigation
into Margaret Pole

here, at her family's seat...

the magnificent Warwick Castle.

She was born Margaret Plantagenet.

For more than three centuries,

the Plantagenets had ruled
much of Britain and Ireland

and much of France.

Margaret was the niece of the king.

A princess in all but name.

Look at this!

And this was the world
she was born into.

-My goodness.
-What an incredible space.

Look at all that weaponry.

Margaret was born
into a very warlike family,

who'd seized the throne of England
on the b*ttlefield.

Yes. She's growing up in such wealth.

Her father's got an income
of 6,000 pounds a year,

which is millions today.

They are the richest and most
important family in the kingdom.

But tragedy struck
early in Margaret's life.

Her mother dies
when she's three years old,

and then her father is arrested,
and then charged with treason.

His big brother Edward IV
has him ex*cuted,

the story goes,
drowned in a huge barrel of wine.

-Like something out of The Godfather!
-She loses the castle,

loses her inheritance.

So this girl is... is not yet five

and she's already experienced
everything life can throw at you

and I suppose that does set
the tone for the rest of her life.

I mean, this is a life
that is just a rollercoaster.

The next
and perhaps most dangerous drop

in Margaret's rollercoaster life

came when she was 12.

Her family was overthrown

when Henry Tudor seized the crown
at the Battle of Bosworth.

Her Plantagenet blood
placed her in peril.

I'd like to find out
whether the royal blood in her veins

meant that she had a target
on her back.

It doesn't make sense.

If it had just been
her Plantagenet blood,

she would've been k*lled off early,
but she survives for decades.

She's around
through that whole Tudor turmoil,

and then finally, in her 60s,
goes to the block.

I don't know why.

Well, let's find out how she navigates
those turbulent waters,

but also what does for her in the end.

While Dan heads off
to find out how Margaret survived

the brutal transition
to the Tudor era,

I want to get a sense
of the woman herself.

Is it possible to look into her face?

There's only one portrait

that historians believe
to be Margaret Pole,

and it's normally kept hidden away
in a secret location

in the storehouse
of the National Portrait Gallery,

but today they've given me
a rare opportunity

to see it and examine it.

I want to see if there are clues

that can confirm
if this really is Margaret.

Dr. Charlotte Bolland,
an expert in 16th century art,

is helping me to decode this painting.

What a thing. Look at this.
It's amazing.

It's really impressive in person.

Isn't it just?
This is a woman making a point.

Is there anything about this
as a painting that tells us the date?

One of the tools of technical analysis
that we can use is tree ring dating.

So you date the wooden panel support
on which this is painted,

and this comes out as saying
the painting was early 16th century.

At that time, Margaret would
have been in her 50s or 60s,

and that does seem to fit
the figure in the painting.

Are there other indications
that this could be Margaret?

I'm struck by how much jewelry
she's wearing.

Look at all those rings.

So you have here the bracelet

with this little barrel
hanging from it.

This is perhaps
a really kind of macabre reference.

Her father, the Duke of Clarence,

was famously reported
to have been drowned

in a barrel of Malmsey wine.

You also have here this very unusual W
that's kind of hanging, from a ribbon.

What could that refer to?

So this jewel likely refers
to her brother Edward of Warwick,

who Henry VII had ex*cuted.

Yes, he'd been in the Tower of London.

Edward's Plantagenet blood

meant that when the Tudors
overthrew his family,

the 10-year-old earl
was locked in the Tower,

and finally ex*cuted 14 years later.

All of these clues
point to this being Margaret.

It's incredible
to be able to look into her eyes.

It's right at the beginning
of portraiture's story in the country,

so it's indicative
of the status of the sitter

who's commissioned this portrait,

because it's only taking place
in the highest elite circles.

This woman is an extraordinary woman

because she's been commemorated
in this way.

In its existence it is extraordinary.

I love the portrait of Margaret.

In it, she refuses to erase
the memory of her family,

and I think that tells us something

about how defiant
and provocative she was.

But there is a missing part
of the puzzle for me.

The last we heard of Margaret,

she was orphaned,
had lost her wealth and titles,

and was at the mercy
of the new Tudor regime.

So I don't know how
she got to this level, this status.

To investigate, I'm going back

to that perilous moment
of the Tudor takeover

when Margaret's family
was violently overthrown.

The question
for the 12-year-old Margaret,

was how would the new Tudor king,
Henry VII,

deal with the threat
posed by her Plantagenet blood?

Henry Tudor's claim was weak.
His hold on power was pretty tenuous.

He needed to neutralize his rivals
to firm up his grip on the crown,

and yet, somehow, Margaret survives.

To find out how,
I'm heading to Westminster Abbey.

One of Henry's first moves were to
try to unite the two warring families.

He married Elizabeth of York,
Margaret's Plantagenet cousin.

And she was crowned queen right here.

The sacred site of English coronations
for the past 800 years.

Among the records of who witnessed
the coronation that day,

I found evidence
of another strategic marriage.

Here, in this remarkable document,
I've got a copy...

He says, "There was a goodly sight
of ladies and gentlewomen

first among those were told
my lady Margaret Poole,

the daughter of the Duke of Clarence."

So we can say
that before this event took place,

Margaret had made a marriage,
even though she was only 14 years old.

The question is to who and why?

I'm heading to the Henry VII chapel
to meet Lauren Johnson,

a specialist in the dawn
of the Tudor era.

This has got to be one of the most
spectacular spaces in Britain.

-I love it.
-Completely agree with you.

Commissioned by the first Tudor king,

every inch of it
is a Tudor power statement.

And that power was also consolidated
by brokering marriages.

So, Lauren, who is this man
that Margaret's married off to?

Well, Sir Richard Pole
was 14 years older than Margaret.

Margaret's marrying someone

who is several steps
down the social ladder.

Her father's estates
were worth £6,000 a year.

Richard Pole, his estates
were worth about £50 a year.

Crucially for the Tudors,

Richard Pole is a reliable,
trusted member of their court,

to give someone as dangerous
as Margaret in marriage to.

Strategic marriages were common,

but this one
was especially significant.

The king himself
orchestrated Margaret's match.

It was designed
to rob her of social status,

keep his enemies close,
and neutralize the threat

by absorbing her
into the Tudor regime.

-She's now close to the royal family.
-She couldn't be any closer.

Richard Pole becomes the chamberlain
of the household of Prince Arthur,

the heir to the Tudor dynasty,

and Margaret joins him,
living in the household.

Over the next 17 years,
Richard and Margaret had five children

and what seems
like an affectionate marriage.

She is welcomed at the Tudor court.

But not all Plantagenets
were dealt with in this way.

As we've already heard,

Margaret's brother Edward,
Earl of Warwick, would be ex*cuted.

He was seen
as a rallying point for rebellion.

Too dangerous to leave alive.

Do you think she escape that fate
because she's a woman?

Yeah. Her gender
is really important here,

because men are dangerous.

Women at this time
are not leading armies.

Margaret is able to be sort of
safely absorbed into the royal court.

Margaret had survived
the dangerous rise of the Tudors.

The threat of her royal blood
seemingly neutralized.

So how did she go from the center
of the royal court to losing her head?

For 17 years, Margaret Pole
found peace in married life.

Then in 1504,
her husband died suddenly.

The 31-year-old Margaret
was left a penniless widow

and was forced to seek charity here,

not in the grand mansion we see today,
Syon House,

but in the Abbey
that once stood in its place.

This undercroft is all that's left
of the original Syon Abbey,

and it was in this building
she faced something of a... a crisis

in her personal affairs.

She just couldn't afford
to support her family.

Margaret faced an agonizing decision.

She sent her child, Reginald,
to the Church so he could be educated,

and he'd be raised in the priesthood.

It was a... a practical solution
to a pressing financial problem.

Little can she have imagined
that this would have enormous,

unforeseen consequences
later in their lives.

Margaret had found protection
at Syon Abbey,

but she wasn't content
to live out her days with the nuns.

I'm in Hampshire,
I'm heading for the south coast

to find Margaret's next move.

Because somehow, within eight years,

she would pull off
a staggering reversal of fortune.

Gosh, look at that.

Today, in the grounds
of a private home,

these are the ruins
of Warblington Castle.

Margaret herself
commissioned the palace,

which once stretched 60 meters
in each direction.

It would have been spectacular.

This fragment gives us a tiny glimpse
of the magnificence of this castle.

To build on this scale,

Margaret had to be
astonishingly wealthy,

and there's further evidence of this.

This is an inventory

that was taken here of Margaret Pole's
possessions in November 1538.

One thing I like
is the amount of Gascogne wine,

that's Bordeaux to you and me,
three tons of it.

And the people include 73 servants
who are looking after her here.

It shows her

at the height of her wealth
and magnificence.

How did Margaret become so rich?

I'm hoping Dr. Elizabeth Norton
can help fill in the gaps.

She had a bit of a stroke of luck,

I mean, she won the sort of,
the Tudor lottery, if you like.

She was struggling under Henry VII,

and then when he dies in April 1509,
and Henry VIII becomes king,

suddenly everything changes.

The new king was far more generous
to his Plantagenet cousins

than his father had been.

Gradually, Margaret
got closer to the court,

and then in 1512, she made her move.

A daring petition to the king

to restore
her family's lands and titles

that had been lost
when her brother Edward was ex*cuted.

Success relied
on persuading Henry VIII

that her brother
had just been a naive teenager.

So, it's a remarkable document.

She has to stress
her brother's lack of guilt

without blaming Henry VII for m*rder,
and she does it brilliantly.

So she says that,
"If any offense were by him done,

it was rather by innocency
than by malicious purpose."

So she's basically saying
if he has committed treason,

he didn't do it on purpose.

It means
she's not condemning Henry VII,

but nor is she agreeing to her brother
being a traitor.

It's a masterclass
and it's hugely successful.

She is granted the earldom,

so she becomes Countess of Salisbury
in her own right.

This is vanishingly rare.
She has the status of a noble man.

She does.

In Tudor England, wives don't have
any independent legal status.

So for Margaret,
she's holding the earldom herself

so she can run her own lands.

She's effectively a multimillionaire,
a billionaire in Tudor terms,

just phenomenally rich.

Margaret was now one of England's
most powerful figures.

What strikes me, is how innovative
and audacious it was.

Margaret was intelligent.

She was a woman who could act
shrewdly, a political operator,

she knew how to maneuver.

And it meant that she ended up
with such independence and wealth.

But I also wonder
whether that independence and wealth

could, over time, prove
to be something of a threat.

I'm on my way
towards England's border with Wales

to investigate where Margaret Pole's
growing influence led her next.

In 1525, Henry VIII
sent his only child,

nine-year-old Princess Mary,

to the volatile Welsh border
to represent his authority.

One of the places
where Mary set up a court was here,

Ludlow Castle, one of my favorites.

Just look at that dramatic,
imposing keep right there.

And at the center of that household,
presiding over it,

running her day to day life
was Margaret Pole.

By now, Margaret had grown so close
to the king and queen

that she'd been made Princess Mary's
godmother and governess,

responsible
for the young girl's upbringing.

For a Plantagenet,
it was an extraordinary turnaround.

Was Margaret now completely committed
to the Tudor king?

This would've been a hive of activity.

Yes, and that's where Mary
would have been with Margaret.

To find out,
I'm meeting Doctor Hazel Pierce.

So Mary is a young child,

she was separated
from her mom and her dad.

Margaret must have had
a really important impact on her life.

Yes, she relied on Margaret.

Margaret was responsible
for Mary's care,

and Mary is Henry's
only legitimate heir.

So she's precious.

Mary regarded Margaret
as her second mother.

In the absence of her own mother,
Margaret filled that maternal gap.

For a decade,
Margaret raised the princess

as a reflection of herself,

a staunch Catholic and a proud royal.

It's clear she cared deeply
for the young princess.

It seemed that Margaret was dedicated
to the service of her king.

But when Henry moved to reclaim
one of her estates,

expecting her to simply yield,
that's not what happened.

She disputed with Henry VIII
for 15 years,

and that was very dangerous,

because Henry VIII
would see that as ingratitude,

and that is something
he couldn't stand.

By now, Margaret was one
of the greatest landowners in England,

with vast estates
along the south coast,

the most likely landing spot
for any foreign invasion.

Margaret's disobedience
was starting to worry Henry.

Henry had to be absolutely certain
of her loyalty and subservience,

and I don't think he could be.

She was a really forceful,
courageous character,

but she's marking herself out.

And Margaret's loyalty was about
to be called further into question

by some of the most well-known
and seismic events in Tudor history.

In 1527,
Henry had fallen for Anne Boleyn.

In order to marry her,
six years later,

he severed England
from the Catholic Church

and had his first marriage annulled.

When his daughter,
Elizabeth, was born,

he declared his eldest,
Mary, illegitimate.

That gave Margaret a terrible choice.

Should she side with the king
who had shown her such favor,

or the young girl
that she'd come to love?

Her decision would affect
everything that was to come.

Things came to a head
in the summer of 1533,

when the king's agents were sent
to confiscate Mary's royal jewels,

the final symbol of her legitimacy.

We've got
this really extraordinary letter.

The commissioners write
that, "In no wise

will she deliver the jewels
for anything that I can say or do."

Margaret says they're lost

and she refuses to recognize
their authority.

Her loyalties lie with young Mary,

and she'll do anything she can

to protect her from her father,
the king.

It's a breathtaking
moment of defiance.

To Margaret, defending Mary's jewels
was about defending her legitimacy

and the Catholic faith
Henry was trying to dismantle.

You really have to admire
what Margaret's doing here.

In a world of shifting loyalties,

she's decided not to compromise,
not to give up her principles,

even though she knew full well

what the cost
of disobeying Henry VIII could be.

Margaret retreated
to her country estates,

but just three years later,

she'd be back
in the king's crosshairs.

A decision she'd made 30 years earlier

to send her son Reginald
into the Church

was about to resurface.

By 1536, Henry's split
from Rome was official.

He'd been the supreme head
of the Church of England

for two years.

To convince the rest of Europe

that his takeover of the Church
was God's will,

Henry looked to an ally

who was rising through the ranks
of the Catholic hierarchy,

someone whose elite education
Henry himself had funded.

Margaret's son, Reginald Pole.

But in the summer of 1536,

he received an unexpected response
from Reginald.

Doctor Euan Roger
from the National Archives

is showing me
this controversial manuscript.

So what we have here is a document
called Pro Ecclesiasticae Unitatis

or De Unitate for short.

So it's a defense
of the unity of the Church

demanding that the king repent

for having broken with
the Roman Catholic Church.

So this whole thing is the document
written by Reginald Pole?

Yes. It's a very strongly worded
and very pointed document.

So here we have Henry being directly
compared with the Emperor Nero.

So the kind of classical tyrants
from the past.

Gosh, that's gonna hurt.

To spare Henry from wading through
thousands of words

of Reginald's vitriol,

his officials created
this English summary.

And we actually have a comparison here
with the Ottoman Empire

comparing Henry to the Great Turk.

My goodness. So he is saying
that Henry is the equivalent

of the greatest enemy of Christianity
at the time?

This is something
that Henry would've been horrified by.

It says here that he's kind of made
all Christian princes his enemies

by his actions,
so really threatening him.

Reginald warned

this religious upheaval
would lead to bloodshed.

The Catholic powers of Europe
were ready to invade

if Henry refused to back down.

Reginald can get away with writing
this because he's safely in Italy,

But what about those around him?
What about his family? His mother?

Yeah, they're definitely at risk

because Henry is not
going to react politely to this.

There's no real consideration
of his family at all

in these documents.

Reginald had put his mother
in terrible danger,

and her fate
would hang on her response.

Here in the archives
is evidence of how she tried

to handle the fallout.

A letter from a mother to her son.

She says to him
that if you are going to follow God,

you need to serve the prince,

you need to serve your king,
his Highness Henry VIII.

I know this letter
was written in full knowledge

that copies would be made
and they would get back to Henry.

So one has to wonder,

is it written to demonstrate
her obedience to Henry VIII?

Or is this what she really feels?

She says, "Trust me, Reginald, there
were never the death of thy father,

nor any child so nigh my heart
as this hath done."

In other words,
the death of her husband,

the death of her children,

none of this has caused her such grief
as Reginald's actions in this moment.

Now that I can see this letter
for the first time,

I have this sense
of Margaret's feelings in it.

It's really heartfelt.

She's not just doing this for show,
I think. She means what she's saying.

She wants Reginald
to choose a different path.

For now, Margaret had distanced
herself from Reginald's actions.

But would he listen
to his mother's pleas?

I'm following Reginald's trail
across the continent.

Newly promoted to Cardinal,

Reginald had thrown his weight
behind the Pilgrimage of Grace,

a 30,000 strong rebellion
in the north of England,

demanding that Henry
reverse his religious reforms.

The furious king dispatched assassins
to Europe with a simple order,

k*ll or kidnap Reginald Pole.

But finding Reginald
would not be easy.

Protected by the Vatican
and its network of Catholic allies,

he moved through France
and into modern-day Belgium,

then part of the Holy Roman Empire.

These are the remains of Aulne Abbey.

I've tracked Reginald down to here

because whilst his enemies
might not have been able to find him,

somebody could.

Here, in May 1537,
a secret meeting took place

between Reginald
and a messenger from England.

So, what was passed between them?

This is the testimony of the messenger
written down about 18 months later.

The messenger told him

that assassins were daily dispatched
to k*ll him.

But the key detail
is who the messenger is.

He's given as one Hugh Holland,

a servant of Margaret's fourth son,
Geoffrey Pole.

In other words, Geoffrey Pole
is Reginald's mole in England.

It's his own brother who's telling him
about the king's assassins.

Suddenly,
with the messenger's confession,

another of Margaret's sons
is implicated

in what now seems like a plot
involving the whole Pole family.

For a paranoid Henry VIII,

this channel of communication
is an existential threat.

The testimony also reveals exactly
where Reginald's priorities lie.

He says, "If I knew
that she were of the opinion

that other, be there,
mother as she is mine,

I would tread upon her with my feet."

It's a warning. If you don't toe
the line, then I will disown you.

Reginald wasn't just ignoring
his mother's pleas,

he was dragging her in,

forcing her to choose
her family and her faith,

or her survival in Henry VIII's court.

With Reginald evading capture,
attention turned back to England.

For Margaret,
the walls were closing in.

By autumn 1538, Henry VIII
had become an outcast in Europe,

leaving England dangerously isolated
and vulnerable to a Catholic invasion.

Henry VIII ordered the arrest
of several prominent individuals

he believed
were conspiring against him,

including Margaret Pole's sons,
Geoffrey and Henry,

and the matriarch herself was next.

In November 1538,

the king's men raided Margaret's home,
Warblington Castle.

They questioned her,
but she gave them nothing,

and so they dragged her off
for further cross-examination.

They brought Margaret here
to Cowdray House,

and for the next six months,
this once grand mansion

became Margaret's prison.

It must have been a terrifying moment
for Margaret.

I'm meeting historian Adam Pennington

to explore how she dealt
with the interrogation.

This woman was the only peeress
in her own right at the time.

A countess of royal blood,
she's questioned again and again.

And I think there must have been
a real sense of despair.

The interrogators
continue to push Margaret.

If they can get her to admit
she'd spoken ill of the king,

that could be enough to convict her.

She denies all of it

and says that she has not heard
anything traitorous against the king.

Do you think
that's because she was innocent?

She was completely innocent.

She repeatedly calls the name of God,
she swears on her eternal salvation,

and this is a woman
of the 16th century

with fervent conviction
in the old Catholic faith.

She would have not spoken
the word of God

with a lie on her tongue.

She puts up a very sturdy defense
and they can find nothing.

By the end of it, Sir William,
the man questioning Margaret,

wrote in frustration
that in all answers she is so earnest,

vehement and precise,

we may call her rather a strong,
constant man than a woman.

That's high praise
in the 16th century.

Margaret is a statesman,
a power player, but in female form.

Margaret had resisted,
but her son Henry could not.

In the Tower of London,

he had confessed
to mentioning the king's poor health,

and in Henry VIII's court
that was enough to prove treason.

In December 1538, he was ex*cuted.

With Reginald
still stirring up trouble in Europe,

Margaret could be next.

Henry was determined
to get rid of her.

If they couldn't get her to confess,
they would need to find another way.

To follow the king's next move,

I've come to his most lavish
surviving palace, Hampton Court.

Henry knew
that contending with the formidable

and outspoken Margaret
in a public trial could backfire.

So he tasked his chief minister
and fixer, Thomas Cromwell,

to find an alternative.

In order to have Margaret
convicted without trial,

he used something
called an Act of Attainder.

But to ensure Parliament passed it,

Cromwell resorted
to political theater.

In May 1539, he produced a tunic,

saying that his agents had found it
in Margaret's coffers.

He said that it was visual evidence
of treason,

the ultimate smoking g*n.

I want to know what that garment was,
why it was so damning,

and, crucially,
whether it was genuine evidence.

I've come here to meet
fashion historian Doctor Eleri Lynn,

who has a similar tunic to show me.

What is a tunic or a coat armor?

So a coat armor is a padded

and richly decorated
embroidered outer garment

that was worn over armor.

Here in front of us,
we've got a herald's tabard

from the 19th century.

It's glorious. I mean,
it gives you a sense of the size

and drama of such a garment.

For the Tudors,
clothing was incredibly important.

Almost everything had a meaning.

The coat armor featured

the traditional royal symbol
of three lions

and an unusual addition,
embroidered marigolds and pansies.

The p*nsy is a personal cypher
of the House of Pole,

and the marigold is being read into
as a symbol for the Princess Mary,

because of the "Mary-gold."

Cromwell alleged that these symbols

showed Margaret was plotting
to marry her son Reginald,

to Henry's
now illegitimate daughter, Mary,

a union that could galvanize
the old Catholic families

to take Henry's throne.

And the tunic also apparently featured
the five wounds of Christ,

a Catholic symbol taken up

by the rebels
of the Pilgrimage of Grace,

linking Margaret to the uprising

that her son had supported
from abroad.

This would have been
instantly recognizable

to anyone looking at it
as a subversive symbol.

But the timing of this discovery
is suspicious.

When Margaret was arrested,
Warblington Castle was scoured,

so why didn't the tunic come to light
until six months later?

I think it's plausible that
Cromwell's men found a coat armor,

and then Cromwell saw an opportunity
to make it even more damning.

It's very possible that, you know,

that that gap was used
to remove motifs, add motifs,

and doctor this object in such a way
that it became a smoking g*n.


concocted evidence.

Margaret was far too smart to leave
such a dangerous item lying around.

But for the king, it worked.
The Act of Attainder was passed.

Sixty-five year old Margaret Pole
was condemned to death

and moved to the Tower of London.

She would never step foot
beyond its walls again.

For two years, Margaret was imprisoned
here at the Tower of London,

probably somewhere like this,
the Bell Tower,

where high status prisoners were kept.

It would have been an agonizing
psychological ordeal for her,

because it was shrouded in confusion,
there was never a trial.

And while Margaret was here,

events outside these walls
were going to seal her fate.

In Europe, encouraged by Reginald,

Henry's Catholic enemies
looked increasingly likely to invade,

and Margaret remained
a potent figurehead for rebellion.

Then, in 1541, came the last straw.

There was another uprising
in the north.

This triggered the paranoid Henry.

With Reginald causing trouble abroad,
the north in uproar,

Margaret was now just too dangerous
to leave alive.

With Henry heading north
to deal with the rebellion,

he ordered that the tower
be cleared of prisoners.

Margaret was finally facing her death.

I'm meeting Suzi,
to catch up on what we've discovered.

I don't think Margaret's death
was just inevitable.

Yes, she had royal blood, but she
showed she was able to play the game.

She was absorbed
into the Tudor regime.

That's right. Margaret's death is
caused by forces beyond her control.

I mean, she is collateral damage

in the battle
between Henry VIII and the Pope.

You've got Reginald
with all his zeal on the continent,

and then in Henry,
he's an increasingly neurotic,

he's paranoid,
and she's ensnared between the two.

If you think about it,
there's a terrible irony.

The highest and lowest points
of her life lead her to the block.

The poverty of her widowhood
that forces her

to send Reginald into the Church,

and then it's the fact
that she amasses

that immense wealth and power
that makes her seem so dangerous.

She's treated like a great lord,
and she's liable to lose her head.

With everything we've unearthed,

it's time to revisit
Margaret Pole's final moments.

After two years locked in the Tower
without trial,

Margaret Pole is given just two hours'
notice of her execution.

It has been hastily arranged,
with few people there to bear witness.

Margaret remains as stoic as ever.

I commend my soul to God

and beseech you

to pray for the king,
the queen, the prince,

and especially for Lady Mary,
my goddaughter.

I send her my blessing.

Margaret's final words
are an act of defiance,

singling out the girl
Henry had cast aside

and declared illegitimate.

Even at the block,

her loyalty and her Catholic faith
remain unwavering.

The king's headsman is dealing
with the rebellion in the north.

His stand-in
is an inexperienced youth.

It would take 11 blows of the ax.

Margaret had faced
unimaginable challenges,

defied a king
and wielded enormous influence

as a woman in a man's world.

She never backed down,

and in Henry's court,
that meant she had to die.

With Margaret's death,

the old Plantagenet world
was finally extinguished.

When the news reached Reginald,

he declared himself
the proud son of a martyr.

Henry VIII, and then his son Edward
ruled for another 12 years.

But in 1553,
Margaret's goddaughter, Mary,

the girl she'd helped raise
and risked everything to defend,

became the first undisputed
queen of England.

Margaret had helped pave the way
for every queen to come.