Ursula Pole - the Tragic Unsung Heroine of the Tudor Court

A portrait of a sitter believed to be that of Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford

In recent years, the lives and times of lesser-known figures hidden residing within the walls Tudor court have proceeded to spark attention and interest. In particular, the infamous Pole family and their undeniable connections to royal lineage, and thereafter accusations of treason and plot, have driven new forms of representation through television and academia. However, one figure who stood at the very nucleus of the ever-changing, uncertain Tudor court is a woman, through her royal lineage and numerous tragedies which she was at the core of, is one that has provoked little research. Today we will be investigating the life of Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford.

As a daughter with royal lineage on both her maternal and paternal sides, from the moment she was born in 1504, Ursula Pole would have been marked with suspicion and uncertainty. During this time the Tudor Dynasty was still attempting to assert itself, particularly after the sudden death of King Henry VII’s eldest son in 1502, Prince Arthur. After numerous rebellions and attempted uprisings over the course of their nearly twenty-year rule, any individual who could stake claim to the English throne was perceived as a threat, one that had to be marked with sizable surveillance.

Ursula was the daughter of Lady Margaret Pole, the eldest child of the late George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville, the brother to Yorkist King Edward IV and King Richard III. As for her father, Sir Richard Pole, Ursula could directly trace her linage to the opposing, Lancastrian end of the recently-ended Wars of the Roses: Pole’s mother, Edith St. John, the daughter of Sir Oliver St. John of Bletso, was the half-sister of Lady Margaret Beaufort. Edith and Margaret shared the same mother, Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso, therefore rendering Richard a first cousin of the half-blood to Henry VII. By the time she was born, Ursula Pole’s family already sustained a backlog of challenges to the crown that ended in death. As the famous story follows, in 1478 following an uprising against his elder brother Edward IV, George Duke of Clarence was drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine. Thereafter, Ursula Pole’s mother Margaret and her younger brother Edward, the Earl of Warwick, were orphaned. It was suspected that following the death of his own son Edward of Middleham in 1484, King Richard III sought to name Warwick as his heir before his untimely death at Bosworth. To supress the Yorkist threat that Warwick embodied, early in his reign Henry VII imprisoned him within the confines of the Tower of London where he would be executed for treason, alongside Perkin Warbeck, in 1499.

A number of Ursula Pole’s early years were spent situated in an environment riddled with uncertainty following the untimely death of her father. In October 1504, when Ursula would have been just a baby, Sir Richard Pole passed away at the age of about forty-five. Whilst it would have been an undeniable tragedy within the family, monetary worries plagued the Poles. Richard’s salary from his various duties and lucrative offices he had held within his lifetime ceased to provide funds following his death, as well as an insubstantial amount from Margaret’s jointure to provide for numerous children, amassing to only £170 annually. In the same month, Margaret had to borrow £40 from the crown to fund the funeral, before she took up lodgings in a religious house, Syon Abbey. Whilst staying at Syon, there is evidence to indicate that Ursula and her youngest child, Geoffrey, lodged there alongside their mother. It was here that their royal linage directly benefitted them, with Lady Margaret Beaufort providing numerous payments to the Poles from 1505 to 1509.

Regardless of the tragedies of numerous executions and deaths, Margaret Pole managed to cultivate a secure environment for herself and her children at the royal court. As a distant relative of England’s royal family, the issue of her marriage was one that was hotly debated. At one point, it was suggested that she would wed the Duke of Milan. However, at the behest of Cardinal Wolsey, Ursula finally landed a match with Henry Stafford, the son of the Duke of Buckingham. Stafford himself also came from royal origins, with his paternal relations stemming back to John of Gaunt, and his grandmother being Katherine Woodville, sister of the late Queen Elizabeth Woodville. The marriage took place in 1519 when Ursula was around fifteen years old, and Henry eighteen. Ursula’s dowry consisted of 3,000 marks and was eventually increased to 4,000 after her mother was able to regain a number of lands in Somerset and Devon from the king. In return, her father-in-law provided lands worth £500 in Ursula’s jointure, ensuring her a degree of protection in the event of her husband dying prematurely. Upon setting up their home in the Duke of Buckingham’s household, Ursula and Henry seemed to have enjoyed a harmonious marriage by Tudor standards. Despite being situated at the very nucleus of court life, going so far as to attend the Field of Cloth of Gold together as part of the royal entourage, Ursula and Henry would go on to have fourteen children. The inventory of the court suggests that Ursula participated in somewhat of a lavish lifestyle, as evidenced by her clothing which included gowns of cloth of gold, damask, satin, velvet, shoes of black velvet and leather and a christening gown of blue velvet, furred and powered with ermine.

As the younger generation began to take control of the reins of court power and politics, Ursula and Henry likely confided in one another of the similar burdens they faced as members of the royal blood situated in the tumultuous transition between Plantagenet and Tudor, in which nobody was safe. This was only further confirmed two years following marriage, when in 1521, the Duke of Buckingham was executed on charges of treason. Following his beheading on Tower Hill, all of his titles and estates were seized by the crown. This would have acted as a stark reminder for Ursula, just as she was beginning to form her own family, that one’s place at court was never secure, and her treason-tainted heritage only served to cause more risk rather than advancement. The remainder of the 1520s would have only been a continuous period of uncertainty for the young couple, moving from house to house and likely relying on the assistance of her mother. Things would only prove worse when Ursula’s brother, Reginald Pole, became renowned as one of the most vocal critics on the continent of King Henry’s annulment from Katherine of Aragon, writing a number of treatises on the matter in defence of the Catholic Church. Whilst he was safe on the continent to freely speak his mind, Ursula and the remainder of the Pole family would have bore the brunt of the consequences.

In 1538 the Pole family would be irrevocably undone. The Exeter Conspiracy, an alleged attempt to overthrow King Henry and replace him with Henry Courtenay, 1^st Marquess of Exeter. As a result of the plot, numerous members of Ursula’s family were implicated, including her brothers Henry and Reginald as well as her own mother, who would be executed viciously in 1541 at the age of sixty-nine. Tragically, it was Ursula’s brother Geoffrey who would implicate much of his own family in exchange for a pardon. Whilst little records remain that indicate that Ursula herself was imprisoned or interrogated, she undoubtedly was not spared the impending fear of disgrace and execution. However, her repeated demonstrated loyalty to the crown seemingly facilitated her clinging onto favour.

Ursula and her husband managed to maintain secure positions inside and out of the court environment. For instance, in 1536 Henry was appointed Justice of the Peace for Staffordshire and Shropshire, working actively in defence of the crown. His career and interests seem to have laid predominantly outside of the court accumulating what would become one of the largest libraries in England. Some of this consisted of his own works, publishing a 1534 translation of Edward Foxe’s tract The True Dyfferens Between the Royall Power and the Ecclesiasticall Power. Later on in 1547, Henry felt comfortable enough in his position to petition Parliament for the restoration of his late father’s lands, and by 1548 he had become a baron; by default, making Ursula a baroness. Despite not always being at court, Ursula enjoyed a close relationship with her sister-in-law Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk, who lovingly called Ursula her ‘sister Stafford.’ In Elizabeth’s will Ursula was left a number of luxurious items, including a French hood and a velvet-covered saddle.

One final tragedy would take precedence over Ursula’s life in her later years. Despite her adherence to the Protestant faith through the reign of King Edward VI, one of her youngest sons Thomas Stafford refused to comply with the Catholic rulership under Queen Mary I. After studying under his brother Reginald Pole in Rome, he returned to England in January 1554 where he joined Wyatt’s Rebellion, an uprising rooted in xenophobic rhetoric which sought to prevent Mary’s marriage to Phillip of Spain. After Wyatt’s Rebellion failed, Stafford was imprisoned in Fleet Prison before fleeing to France. It was during this time that he posed himself as a legitimate candidate for the English throne and sailed to Scarborough in 1557, proclaiming himself the Protector of the Realm. During his attempted revolt Stafford attempted to incite fear through recycled xenophobia to muster hostility, claiming that Phillip was due to receive a number of castles, including Scarborough, which would be stationed with twelve-thousand Spanish soldiers. Stafford’s attempt to provoke a revolt led him to be captured by the Earl of Westmorland, whereby he was beheaded alongside a number of other rebels.

Despite her evident attempt to live a quiet life following the string of tragedies that had claimed her father-in-law, brothers, and elderly mother, it was not enough to prevent her own family from being acquainted with the executioner’s block. It must have been a devastating time both for herself and her husband, and yet further reason for them to confide in one another.

One could argue it was almost a miracle that the life of Ursula Pole did not accumulate in execution. Despite numerous tragedies and scandals within the microcosm of the Tudor court which she was directly involved in, Ursula managed to escape the fate of her family. In 1563, after over forty years of marriage, Henry Stafford passed away with Ursula soon following him in 1570, the last of the Pole siblings to die. Her ability to continuously escape disgrace ensured a smoother transition to the court for her children than the one she had experienced. For instance, her eldest daughter Dorothy Stafford would eventually become Queen Elizabeth I’s Mistress of the Robes, one of the most influential positions at court.

Despite having such minimal information and resources present to us in the modern day to construct a full picture of Ursula Pole’s life, from what we have it is evident that Ursula Pole was an incredibly intelligent and resourceful woman. Despite being situated within the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation and Marian persecutions, all of which directly impacted her, she was able to embody the definition of a survivor. Ursula and her husband were able to navigate a political, social, and religious environment to ensure a safe transition and future for most of her children. And from that alone it can be undoubtedly attested that Ursula Pole remains one of Tudor history’s most brave, yet tragic, unsung heroines.

References:

1. Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford - Friends of Lydiard Park.

2. Higginbotham, Susan, Margaret Pole: The Countess in the Tower, (Amberley, 2017).

3. Ursula Pole: The Unsung Tudor Survivor - Renaissance English History Podcast

4. Pierce, Hazel, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, 1474-1541: Loyalty, Lineage and Leadership, (University of Wales Press, 2013).