Sir Arthur Pole of Lordington,

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(1531 – between January 1570 and 12 August 1570) was an English conspirator.

Life

He was the eldest son and heir of Sir

Geoffrey Pole Sir Geoffrey Pole of Lordington, Sussex (c. 1501 or 1502 – November 1558) was an English knight who supported the Catholic Church in England and Wales when Henry VIII of England was establishing the alternative Church of England with him ...

and Constance Packenham who had some claim to the English throne as a Plantagenet descendant of George, Duke of Clarence. He was raised at Lordington, and Gentian Hervet of Orléans served as his tutor. After the fall of his uncle, Henry Pole, Baron Montagu and his grandmother, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, Arthur was imprisoned for a time. Upon release (before 1552), he served John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland. The Pole family was in favour during

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's reign, and although Arthur requested to serve at the court of

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, his request was denied in 1561. He was imprisoned that same year for celebrating the mass. In 1562, he was named a potential heir to the throne. Pole attempted to persuade

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and

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to back the family's claims. Advised that the Guise faction would not support his claim, Arthur sought the dukedom of Clarence in exchange for his support of

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

claim to the English throne. He was imprisoned with his brothers, Edmund and Geoffrey, in the

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from October 1562 or 1563 for conspiring to advance his own or

' claims to the throne of England.

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''Arthur Pole'' On 26 February 1563 at the Tower of London, he was found guilty of treason, and imprisoned; he died in 1570.Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, p. 16. Arthur was imprisoned in the Beauchamp Tower, where an inscription can be found that reads: ‘Deo Servire / Penitentiam Inire / Fato Obedire / Regnare Est / A Poole / 1564 / IHS’ (‘To be subject to God, to enter upon penance, to be obedient to fate, is to reign, A Poole, 1564, Jesus’).

Marriage

Between 15 September 1562 and 27 January 1563, he married Mary Holland, who died before 16 November 1570, daughter of Sir Richard Holland of Denton,

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, and wife Eleanor Harbottle, who was the widow of Sir Thomas Percy (attainted and executed in 1537), son of Henry Algernon Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland and Catherine Spencer. The couple had no children.

References

1531 births 1570 deaths 16th-century English knights Prisoners in the Tower of London

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...

People from Chichester District {{UK-noble-stub