Henry Pole the Younger, a figure often overshadowed by more famous tales of the era. Let’s explore the intrigue surrounding his vanishing act within the Tower of London, uncovering clues and raising questions about his fate.
This is episode 216. I’m having a lot of fun with the Pole family which is not a sentence that you say every day but recently, we talked to Nathen Amin bout the Princes in the Tower, and it got me thinking about another royal who went missing in the Tower and and that is Henry Pole, who is bringing together then my recent infatuation with the Pole family and missing people in the Tower. That could be like a series in and of itself –missing people in the Tower.
In the annals of history, there are moments that capture our imagination, stories that echo through the ages, and mysteries that defy explanation. One enigma unfolds within the walls of the Tower of London, a place known for secret whispers and hidden chapters of intrigue throughout history.
Today we’re going to continue our discussion of a time when royal blood was both a blessing and a curse and when children were caught up in the tapestry of political machinations. We’re going to talk about a boy who’s about 13, a teenager bearing the unmistakable legacy of the Plantagenets.
This young boy was alone. He was frozen with fear, he was filled with dread and he was led into the innermost recesses of the Tower of London. He was no longer surrounded by his servants, he was left to navigate the dark corridors of the Tower, a place where ghosts of countless prisoners linger, a place that has witnessed the rise and the fall of kings and queens.
But this is not one of the Princes in the Tower, no this story revolves around another figure, a lesser-known character whose name has been overshadowed by history’s more famous intrigues, but Henry wasn’t just any regular normal boy. He was the grandson of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, a woman who was herself the daughter of the Duke of Clarence which made Henry directly related to the Plantagenet royal family.
The Plantagenets whose loyalty to the Tudor monarchy would be tested in unimaginable ways. His family story is one of endurance, of loyalty, of resilience, of questionable loyalty amidst the ever-shifting tides of Tudor England. While the Princes in the Tower have long captured our collective fascination, Henry Pole the Younger’s story has remained for the most part, concealed in the shadows of history just like he himself is.
Today we are going to unveil the mysteries surrounding this forgotten figure, delve into the narrative that challenges our understanding of the Tudor period, exploring the twists and turns of Henry’s life within the Tower confines and his story that has largely remained untold, and overshadowed by some of the other more high-profile ones.
So let’s get into it. First, we’re going to talk about his family – the Pole family which we’ve been talking about a lot on this podcast recently, not as commonly known as the Tudors or the Plantagenets but they held a very prominent place in the intricate web of English nobility.
At its heart stood Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, a remarkable figure who wooed her destiny amidst the changing currents of Tudor England. Her family tree bore the unmistakable marks of Plantagenet royalty. Her father was George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, a man whose life ended tragically. He was plotting against his own brother Edward IV and probably died in a barrel of malmsey wine, that’s the story, who knows.
Her mother Isabelle Neville was from the famed Neville family known to history as the kingmakers clan so Margaret Pole was born into a lineage of privilege and peril, a family with a knack for being in close proximity to the throne and it associated intrigues. We’re going to talk about Margaret’s early years just very briefly, if you want to learn more about her I have several episodes about her which I will link below.
Her early years were marked by adversity and upheaval. She was orphaned when her father met his untimely demise. She and her younger brother Edward were entrusted to the care of their uncles Edward IV and Richard III but when the Plantagenets fell from grace at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Margaret found herself in the protective custody of Lady Margaret Beaufort and the new Tudor clan.
Margaret of Salisbury was married off to Sir Richard Pole, a loyal Tudor supporter. This union was a strategic match. It was also a reflection of Margaret’s position within the shifting landscape of Tudor politics. Henry VII’s ascent to the throne brought renewed favor to the Pole family, for the young King restored Margaret’s title as the Countess of Salisbury in her name. So she had this title on her own not dependent on her husband.
The Poles who had been so impoverished that they had to borrow money to pay for Sir Richard’s funeral now found themselves back in royal favor, but then things turned a little bit sour for the Poles and for Margaret because the family stayed loyal to Katherine of Aragon and Princess Mary. Margaret was the governess and the godmother of the young princess, cementing her position as a trusted figure within the Tudor court, until Anne Boleyn came along.
She was also devoted to the Catholic faith and so she had a conservative adherence to traditional beliefs which put her on a collision course with Henry VIII. As he pursued his quest for marital and religious change, her son Reginald Pole wrote a book denouncing the King’s marriage to Anne Boleyn and that would set off a chain of events that would deeply impact the Pole family.
So now let’s talk about the heart of the mystery, a mystery that has lingered in the shadow of history’s more prominent enigmas such as the fate of the Princes in the Tower – the Disappearance of Henry Pole the Younger remains shrouded in obscurity with scant details to illuminate a path of his tragic journey within the Tower of London.
First and foremost, even the age of Henry Pole the Younger remains a subject of speculation. He might have been a boy of 13, on the cusp of adolescence or he was an older teenager, maybe even up to 18. The absence of concrete information about his age only adds to the mystery that cloaks his story. However, the fact that he was not executed alongside his father Henry Pole, Lord Montagu suggests that he belonged to the Younger end of the spectrum.
We’ll examine the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. One chilling possibility emerges from the narrative – starvation. It’s been suggested that young Henry may have met his end through the cruel and agonizing process of slowly starving, deprived of sustenance in the confines of the Tower, whether it was a deliberate act or the result of neglect, the outcome remains a dark stain on the history of Tudora.
Here we encounter a striking contrast with the Princes in the Tower whose disappearance captured the imagination of generations. The princes Edward V and Richard Duke of York are remembered with endless debates, theories and fictional retellings. There was just the Channel 4 documentary, their fate has been the subject of intense scrutiny with theories ranging from murder to secret escape.
In contrast, Henry Pole the Younger’s story has been largely relegated to the shadows, receiving only a fraction of the attention given to the royal brothers. What sets these two cases apart and why has Henry’s fate not elicited the same outcry and debate, the answer perhaps lies in the politics of the time.
Richard III often accused of involvement in the Princes’ disappearance has been a contentious figure throughout history. In contrast, Henry VIII the reigning monarch when Henry Pole the Younger vanished is often remembered for other aspects of his tumultuous reign such as his marriages and dissolution of the monasteries.
The narrative surrounding Henry VIII tends to overshadow the lesser-known tragedies that unfolded during his rule. The lack of outcry and denunciation regarding Henry the Younger’s fate raises intriguing questions about historical narratives and the selective memory of the past.
While the Princes in the Tower have been the focus of relentless scrutiny and debate, Henry Pole the Younger’s enigmatic disappearance has remained muted – a story that challenges our understanding of Tudor England. So of course the downfall of the Poles started when Margaret and the family, their loyalty stayed with Katherine of Aragon and her daughter Princess Mary like I said, she had been the governess and godmother of Princess Mary.
Trouble really started to brew when her son Reginald Pole, a Cardinal a learned academic, educated at Henry’s expense, authored a book in 1536 titled Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione. This work denounced Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn and his religious policies.
It should be noted that Reginald wrote that from the safety of the continent. He was not in England when he wrote it and the Pole family was still living in England, his family found themselves suffering the wrath of Henry for the book that their family member wrote. The Pole family found themselves in disfavor.
Their correspondence was read, and they were spied on. Margaret and her family withdrew from court. They tried to keep their heads down and avoid further trouble however in 1538, the so-called Exeter Conspiracy was unveiled. In August, Margaret’s youngest son Geoffrey was arrested and sent to the Tower. Basically, there was a potential rebellion that involved Geoffrey and the Poles.
In November of 1538, Henry Pole along with his wife’s uncle, Edward Neville and other relatives were arrested on a charge of treason by Henry VIII. Although even Thomas Cromwell at the time had previously written that they had “little offended save that he [Reginald Pole] is of their kin.” Reginald was still in exile at this time.
Henry Pole the Elder was committed to the Tower of London, Henry was attainted and his honors were forfeited on the 2nd of December 1538. Henry Pole, the father was executed in January of 1539. Of course, his mother Lady Salisbury stayed in captivity for another 2 years and she was herself executed at age 67 in the Tower in May of 1541.
There was a huge outcry against Lady Salisbury Margaret Pole’s execution. People were disgusted by it and that might have been part of the reason why the King didn’t want to risk even more unfavorable public opinion and didn’t execute Henry Pole the Younger.
So young Henry was committed to the Tower at the same time as his father and it was expected that he would follow his grandmother to the block but like I just said, Henry probably didn’t want to risk negative public opinion after what happened with Lady Margaret, so in 1540 both Margaret and Henry were denied pardons that they had requested. Their confinement continued. The food allowance provided by Henry VIII persisted but Henry was deprived of his Tudor and their fate was sealed.
So one interesting possibility emerged that Henry Pole the Younger was put forward as a potential spouse for Princess Mary, the daughter of Henry and Katherine of Aragon. The proposal isn’t widely known or discussed but it does carry significant political implications.
Henry’s status as a potential husband for Princess Mary would have held substantial weight. Marrying her to a nobleman with Plantagenet blood could have been seen as yet another way to unite the Tudor and Plantagenet line, similar to Henry VIII marrying Elizabeth of York.
Reginald Pole may have been one of the key figures advocating for the marriage. Of course, he was completely against the religious reform. By proposing Henry Pole the Younger as a suitor for Princess Mary, Reginald might have envisioned a scenario in which his family’s influence could be restored and the Tudor monarchy brought back to the Catholic faith.
The prospect of such a union likely had repercussions for Henry’s treatment and his imprisonment. If Henry VIII perceived the marriage proposal as a political threat or an attempt to challenge his authority, it may have contributed to the harsh conditions of Henry Pole’s captivity. The King could have viewed Henry as a potential pawn in a larger game of political maneuvering, prompting him to keep the young nobleman under strict confinement.
So Henry Pole the Younger did not emerge from the Tower, unlike his contemporary Edward Courtenay who managed to survive his imprisonment and was eventually released after Mary Tudor’s ascension to the throne, young Henry’s fate appears much bleaker.
The absence of concrete information about Henry’s age complicates the matter. Most people seem to think he was born in 1521 but Allison Weir has given some pretty convincing evidence that it wasn’t until 1527. The clues suggest though that he was in the lower range of adolescence at the time of his arrest and incarceration.
His uncle Reginald Pole in later writings described him as the “remaining hope of our race” implying that Henry was still quite young when he vanished into the Tower’s depth. What distinguishes Henry’s story from that of Edward Courtenay is the marked difference in their treatment during captivity.
The French Ambassador wrote in July 1540 that Courtenay is more at large than he was and had a preceptor to teach him lessons, a situation that was significantly less restrictive than Henry Pole’s confinement. The French Ambassador also noted that Henry was poorly and strictly kept and not desired to know anything.
The stark contrast in their imprisonment conditions raises the Haunting possibility that Henry Pole the Younger met his end within the Tower’s walls as the food bills just stopped coming for him. So it’s possible it was neglect harsh treatment or even starvation.
Historical records do not definitively confirm his fate but the silence around his case speaks volumes. By the time that Mary was Queen, she would have surely released him if he had been alive, so we can assume that he was dead by that point. His disappearance remains an unsolved Tudor history mystery. Like I said, often overshadowed by the more famous stories of Tudor Intrigue and tragedy. His story is a reminder that the Tower of London with its labyrinthine passages and dark cells, held secrets that were never fully uncovered.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast, one of the longest running indie history podcasts, going since 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. She writes books, created the original Tudor Planner (a yearly diary filled with Tudor history) and in 2019 created the world's first Tudorcon (you can "attend" online this year!). She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.