Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu (also written Montague or Montacute; circa 1492 – January 1539), 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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Family
Henry Pole was the eldest son of Sir Richard Pole and Lady Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and his wife Isabel Neville. As his maternal grandfather, the 1st Duke of Clarence was a brother of the York kings Edward IV and Richard III. Henry's maternal grandmother, Isabel, was daughter to one of the most powerful men of his time, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick ("the Kingmaker"). Warwick was cousin to the York brothers by his paternal aunt, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. The 16th Earl and Countess of Warwick were both descendants of King Edward III.
Life
He was invested as a knight by King Henry VIII in 1513 and summoned to Parliament as Baron Montagu in the Peerage of England on 12 October 1514. He was appointed steward of manors belonging to the Tewkesbury Abbey in 1526. From 1530 on he became justice of the peace for Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex. In May 1536, Henry was one of the peers in the trial of Anne Boleyn.
