Execution Green
On 27 May 1541, Blessed Margaret Pole was executed in the Tower of London next to the church of St Peter ad Vincula.
After two years of being imprisoned as a traitor in the Tower, the 67 year old Plantagenet heiress was executed for opposing Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy. As a woman of noble birth, Margaret Pole was given a private execution. There are two accounts of her execution – One says that she was executed by an inexperienced axeman who missed her neck the first time, gashing her shoulder, and that it took a further ten blows to finish her off. The second account tells of how she managed to escape from the block and that she was hewn down by the executioner as she ran.
Margaret Pole was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.
Execution Green
On 27 May 1541, Blessed Margaret Pole was executed in the Tower of London next to the church of St Peter ad Vincula.
After two years of being imprisoned as a traitor in the Tower, the 67 year old Plantagenet heiress was executed for opposing Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy. As a woman of noble birth, Margaret Pole was given a private execution. There are two accounts of her execution – One says that she was executed by an inexperienced axeman who missed her neck the first time, gashing her shoulder, and that it took a further ten blows to finish her off. The second account tells of how she managed to escape from the block and that she was hewn down by the executioner as she ran.
Margaret Pole was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.