Exeter Conspiracy

Last updated December 05, 2023

The Exeter Conspiracy in 1538 was a supposed attempt to overthrow Henry VIII, who had taken control of the Church of England away from the Pope, and replace him with Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, who was a first cousin of the King.

Conspiracy

An Act of Attainder was brought against the Marquess of Exeter and he was found guilty of treason by his peers in Westminster Hall, along with other supposed conspirators.^[1] Some sources suggest the conspiracy was largely exaggerated by Thomas Cromwell, at this point Vice-Regent, Lord Privy Seal, Principal Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, the protege of Thomas Audley.^[2] Victorian historian J. A. Froude, however, writes that the Courtenays were 'petty sovereigns in Devonshire and Cornwall',^[3] which may go some way to explaining the true nature of the conspiracy. Yet there is evidence to suggest that Courtenay had the means and intended to muster a rebellion against the King. The charges brought against him were based on the illegal correspondence he had with Reginald Pole, who was both a Catholic Cardinal and a possible Yorkist claimant to the English throne, and the confession and testimony of Geoffrey Pole, Reginald's brother.

Aftermath

The king, with Reginald Pole himself out of his reach, took revenge on Pole's family for engaging in treason by word against the king. The leading family members and even Pole's mother, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, were executed, and all their properties seized. The action destroyed the Pole family.^[4] Sir Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald, and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter (Henry VIII's first cousin and Reginald Pole's second cousin) had turned up his name; he had appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Sir Geoffrey said that Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu (his eldest brother), and Exeter had been parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, Sir Edward Neville and Lady Salisbury were arrested in November 1538, together with Henry Pole and other family members, on charges of treason, although Cromwell had previously written that they had "little offended save that he [Reginald Pole] is of their kin". They were committed to the Tower of London.

Convictions

In November 1538, Sir Edward Neville was executed for treason. In January 1539, Sir Geoffrey was pardoned, and Montagu and Exeter were tried and executed for treason, while Reginald Pole was attainted in absentia. In May 1539, Montagu, Exeter, Lady Salisbury, and others were also attainted, as her father had been; this meant that they lost their lands – mostly in the South of England, conveniently located to assist any invasion – and titles, and those still alive in the Tower were also sentenced to death, so could be executed at the King's will. As part of the evidence given in support of the Bill of Attainder, Cromwell produced a tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, symbolising Lady Salisbury's support of Roman Catholicism and the rule of Reginald and Mary; the supposed discovery, six months after her house and effects had been searched when she was arrested, is likely to be a fabrication.^{[ citation needed ]}

In 1539, Sir Nicholas Carew, formerly something of a favourite of the king, fell out with him and was arrested and executed. At his trial it was alleged he had conspired for Exeter.

Margaret Pole, as the Countess of Salisbury was now called, was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years under severe conditions; she, her grandson (Montagu's son), and Exeter's son were held together and supported by the King. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favour and was himself executed and attainted for his support of Anne of Cleves. Margaret Pole was finally executed in 1541 (her execution was dreadfully botched and horrifying even for those brutal times), protesting her innocence until the last – a highly publicised case which was considered a grave miscarriage of justice both at the time and later. Reginald Pole is known to have said that he would "...never fear to call himself the son of a martyr". Some 350 years later, in 1886, Margaret was beatified by Pope Leo XIII.^{[ citation needed ]}

Theatrical Depictions

The events of the 'Exeter Conspiracy' were dramatised for the stage in a play called Our Father/Pater Noster (2009). It took place in May 2009 at St Nicholas' Priory in Exeter.
The arrest and execution of the Pole family members were depicted in Season 3 of the television miniseries The Tudors.
The events of the Exeter Conspiracy will be depicted in Series 2 of Wolf Hall.

Related Research Articles

Reginald Pole was an English cardinal and the last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1556 to 1558, during the Counter-Reformation.

Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, was the only surviving daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, a brother of Kings Edward IV and Richard III, by his wife Isabel Neville. As a result of her marriage to Richard Pole, she was also known as Margaret Pole. One of the few members of the House of Plantagenet to have survived the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of King Henry VIII, the second monarch of the House of Tudor, who was the son of her first cousin, Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on 29 December 1886. One of her sons, Reginald Pole was the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury.

Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden KG, PC, KS, JP, was an English barrister and judge who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1533 to 1544.

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Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, was an English nobleman, the only holder of the title Baron Montagu under its 1514 creation, and one of the relatives whom King Henry VIII of England had executed for treason.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter</span> English nobleman and politician

Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, 2nd Earl of Devon, KG, PC, feudal baron of Okehampton, feudal baron of Plympton, of Tiverton Castle, Okehampton Castle and Colcombe Castle all in Devon, was a grandson of King Edward IV, nephew of the queen consort, Elizabeth of York and a first cousin of King Henry VIII. Henry Courtenay was a close friend of Henry VIII, having "been brought up of a child with his grace in his chamber".

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Sir Nicholas Carew KG, of Beddington in Surrey, was an English courtier and diplomat during the reign of King Henry VIII. He was executed for his alleged part in the Exeter Conspiracy.

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Sir Edward Neville was an English courtier. He was born at Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. He was the son of George Neville, 4th Baron Bergavenny and his wife Margaret, daughter of Hugh Fenn. He married Eleanor Windsor, daughter of Andrew Windsor, 1st Baron Windsor and Elizabeth Blount, before 6 April 1529. He was the brother of George Nevill, 5th Baron Bergavenny and the two of them became close to King Henry VIII and the Queen, Catherine of Aragon.

Ursula Pole, Baroness Stafford was an English noblewoman; the wife of Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford; a wealthy heiress and the only daughter of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury. Her mother was the last surviving member of the Plantagenet dynasty and was executed for treason at the age of 67 in 1541 by the command of King Henry VIII.

Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, KG was an English nobleman. He was a member of the ancient Courtenay family.

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Katherine Stourton, Baroness Grey of Codnor was an English noblewoman. Her life reflects the turbulence of English political life in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; her first husband was attainted for treason, and her third husband holds the record for the longest period of imprisonment in the Tower of London.

The King's Curse is a 2014 historical novel by Philippa Gregory, part of her series The Cousins' War. A direct sequel to The White Princess, it follows the adult life of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Isabel Neville.

References

↑ J. P. D. Cooper, 'Courtenay, Henry, marquess of Exeter (1498/9-1538)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004
↑ Dodds, M. H., and R. Dodds. The Pilgrimage of Grace and the Exeter Conspiracy (Cambridge UP, 1915)
↑ Froude, James Anthony (1893). "The Exeter Conspiracy". History of England. Vol. 3. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. p. 131. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
↑ Ronald Fritze, ed., ''Historical Dictionary of Tudor England, 1485-1603 (1991) pp. 191-92.