May 27 – Cardinal Pole makes an enemy and his mother, Margaret Pole, suffers a botched execution

On 27th May 1536, Cardinal Reginald Pole, who was in Venice, wrote to King Henry VIII. It was a very polite letter but what he sent with it brought Pole and his family trouble. He made the mistake of making an enemy of King Henry VIII.

And five years later, on 27th May 1541, his frail sixty-seven-year-old mother, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, was executed at the Tower of London.

The former governess of Princess Mary had an awful end because the usual executioner was away from London, and one account has led to stories of her tormented ghost reliving her final moments at the Tower.

Find out why Margaret Pole was executed and what happened...