10 Days of Margaret Pole

Today is the 476th anniversary of Margaret Pole's execution at the Tower of London. To commemorate this great lady, I have been celebrating 10 Days of Margaret Pole on Facebook and Twitter leading up to this day. If you have missed a day, the articles are all here:

Margaret Pole's Wild Ride on Fortune's Wheel

Who Was Richard Pole?

Long Live the King!

The Not-So-Illustrious Marriages of the Pole Children

Another Stillborn Birth for Katherine

Margaret Loses Governess Post

Coat of Arms Tells a Story

Geoffrey Pole is Taken to the Tower

The Execution of Henry Pole

Reginald Pole Learns of His Mother's Death

Tower of London Memorial

On that morning 476 years ago, Margaret was informed that she would be led to the block that day.

She had no warning. She had not had a trial. She was 67 years old and cousin to the king.

Yet, she bravely endured this final injustice as she had the previous trials in her life, with dignity and faith.

An apocryphal story has Margaret running circles around the axeman and attempting to evade her execution. This does not come from eye witnesses - what few there were at the rushed and badly botched execution - and I cannot imagine Margaret behaving in such a way. A final words of protest were found on the wall of her cell within the Tower where she had been imprisoned for over a year before her execution.

For traitors on the block should die;

I am no traitor, no, not I!

My faithfulness stands fast and so,

Towards the block I shall not go!

Nor make one step, as you shall see;

Christ in Thou Mercy, save Thou me!

In King Henry VIII's rush to clear the Tower of traitors, he had not been able to locate a very skilled executioner. Witnesses cringed as Margaret's head, neck, and torso endured many strikes rather than a quick, clean beheading. I only pray that God, in his mercy, had already taken the poor woman to heaven before her body was mangled. There she had many loved ones to reunite with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you enjoyed this 10 Days of Margaret Pole and are interested in more of her story, you might like Faithful Traitor, my novel of her life as a Plantagenet heiress living under the rule of Tudor kings.

Faithful Traitor is available worldwide on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. It is also free with Kindle Unlimited. If you have enjoyed this novel, I would love to read your review!