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The Wars of the Roses

Chronology of Events

1399

  • Richard II is deposed by his cousin, Henry of Lancaster (Henry IV).

1415

  • Richard, Earl of Cambridge (brother to the Duke of York) is executed for plotting to replace Henry V with Edmund Mortimer in the Southampton Plot. Henry V reignites the Hundred Years’ War and, in October, wins the Battle of Agincourt.
  • Edward, Duke of York is killed at the Battle of Agincourt. The dukedom of York passes to his nephew Richard, the son of the recently executed Richard, Earl of Cambridge.

1420

  • Henry V is recognised as heir to the French king, Charles VI, through the Treaty of Troyes.

1422

  • In August, Henry V dies whilst on campaign in France. His son becomes Henry VI, King of England at the age of 9 months.
  • In October, Charles VI of France dies, meaning Henry VI becomes King of England and France. Decades of fighting in France follow.

1441

  • Richard, Duke of York begins a four and a half year term as Lieutenant Governor of Normandy.

1442

  • On 28th April 1442, the future Edward IV is born at Rouen.

1449

  • The French reconquer Normandy. Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, surrenders Rouen to the French on 29th October, prompting discontent across England.

1450

  • In January, Adam Moleyns, the Keeper of the Privy Seal, is lynched for his support of the King’s principal councillor, William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk.
  • Suffolk is ambushed on his way to Calais and killed, his body is found on the sands at Dover in May.
  • In May, amid fears of royal reprisals, rebellion breaks out in Kent, led by Jack Cade (calling himself John Mortimer). The rebels demand that the King’s ‘true lords’, including Richard, Duke of York, should become members of the Royal Council. After several days of violence and more lynchings in London, the insurrection was quelled in early July.
  • Although there is no evidence that Richard, Duke of York was involved in Cade’s Rebellion, it caused Henry VI to lose trust in him.
  • Attempts are made to arrest York as he returned from Ireland in August. He issues public letters of loyalty to Henry VI and leading to a rapprochement.
  • In November, Parliament opened and the Commons elect York’s Chamberlain as speaker. They demand that the Duke of Somerset and 30 others be banished from Court.

1451

  • In the May session of Parliament, Thomas Young petitions for Richard, Duke of York to be recognised as Henry VI’s heir presumptive. The King dissolves Parliament and imprisons Young in the Tower.

1452

  • The Duke of York takes up arms, and demands that Somerset should be brought to trial for his misdeeds. York is tricked into laying down his arms, placed under house arrest, and required to swear loyalty to the King.
  • Shortly afterwards York is released and retires to Ludlow.
  • On 2nd October, the future Richard III, youngest son of the Duke of York, is born at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire.

1453

  • Following the news of the loss of Bordeaux, Henry VI falls mentally ill and is totally incapacitated.
  • Henry VI’s only son, Edward of Lancaster, is born in October.
  • The Great Council summon the Duke of York to join their meetings. His ally, John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, demands the Duke of Somerset’s arrest for treason. Somerset is imprisoned in November.

1454

  • On 27th March, York is appointed Protector and Governor of the Realm.

1455

  • The King recovers his health and revokes the Duke of York’s commission as Protector in January. Somerset is released from the Tower.
  • The Dukes of York and Somerset enter into bonds to submit their disputes to arbitration on 4th March. Two days later, the Duke of York is deprived of the Captaincy of Calais which was bestowed on Somerset. The following day York’s brother in law, Richard Neville Earl of Salisbury, resigns the Great Seal.
  • The Great Council is summoned to meet at Leicester but York, Salisbury and Salisbury’s son, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, are not invited. They bring an army to meet the King, still demanding Somerset’s submission.
  • At the first Battle of St Albans, on 22nd May, Somerset and two of the Neville’s principal opponents in the north are killed. The Duke of York gains a complete victory and takes control of the King.
  • The Captaincy of Calais is given to the Earl of Warwick, nephew of the Duke of York. The King probably falls ill for a second time, and the Duke of York is again made Protector, on 19th November.

1456

  • The Duke of York is unable to persuade the Lords in Parliament to accept his financial reforms. The King revokes his commission as Protector on 25th February. York and his chief supporters retire to their estates.
  • That summer, the Henry VI joins his queen, Margaret of Anjou, in the Midlands. Coventry becomes the centre of royal government for much of the next couple of years.

1458

  • The Yorkist lords and the heirs of those killed at St Albans are formally reconciled in a Loveday Procession on 25th March.
  • The Court party consolidate control over key roles, leaving the Yorkist lords increasingly isolated. Meanwhile, the Earl of Warwick’s acts of piracy in the Channel are undermining government policy.
  • In November, Warwick is summoned to a Council meeting to answer for his actions but in London a brawl breaks out which may have been an attempt to assassinate him. While Warwick escaped to Calais, his father, the Earl of Salisbury, formally commits to an alliance with the Duke of York.

1459

  • In September, the Earl of Warwick lands with an army from Calais. The Queen sends James, Lord Audley to stop the Yorkist lords from meeting up. At Blore Heath in Staffordshire, on 23rd September, Audley intercepts the Earl of Salisbury. Salisbury’s forces triumphed and Audley is killed.
  • Warwick joins York and Salisbury at Worcester from where they send demands for the reform of government to the King. They assemble their forces outside York’s stronghold at Ludlow.
  • On 12th October, many of the Yorkist army depart to accept a royal pardon that had been offered. That night, the Duke of York and his second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, flee to Ireland. The Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, with York’s eldest son, Edward, Earl of March, escape to Calais.
  • The family of the Duke of York, his wife Cecily, his two youngest sons George and Richard and his daughter Margaret are all taken prisoner and sent to the safe keeping of Anne, Duchess of Buckingham, Cecily’s sister.
  • Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset (son of the duke killed at St Albans) makes an attempt to take Calais from the Yorkists but fails.
  • A parliament is held at Coventry on 20th November in which the Duke of York and his chief supporters are attainted.

1460

  • The Duke of York’s allies leave Calais, landing at Sandwich on 26th June. They enter London with a large army on 2nd July.
  • The King’s army is defeated by the Yorkists at Northampton on 10th July. The Duke of Buckingham is killed and the King taken prisoner. Queen Margaret and her son flee to Wales.
  • Cecily, Duchess of York takes her younger children, including Richard, to London where they reside in a house at Southwark.
  • The Duke of York returns from Ireland in early or mid September, and makes a formal claim to the crown in Parliament on 16th October.
  • On 31st October, the Act of Accord decrees that Henry VI should retain the crown for life and be succeeded by the Duke of York. The proceedings of the parliament at Coventry in 1459 were set aside.
  • Queen Margaret and her son travel to Scotland to negotiate an alliance with the Scottish regent, Mary of Guelders. A marriage is agreed between Prince Edward and a sister of the Scottish king, James III.
  • The Duke of Somerset returns to England in October and joins the Earls of Devon, Northumberland, and Westmorland and other lords loyal to Prince Edward in raising an army at Hull.
  • In early December, the Duke of York leaves London to oppose them. Finding he had misjudged the size of the Lancastrian force, York takes refuge at Sandal Castle near Wakefield awaiting reinforcements.
  • Possibly tricked by men claiming to be allies, York sallies out on 30th December, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Wakefield. His son Edmund, Earl of Rutland, is also killed and the Earl of Salisbury, who was also with him, is executed afterwards.

1461

  • Richard, Duke of York’s eldest son Edward (still styled Earl of March although effectively now Duke of York) defeats the Earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire, at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, near Wigmore, on 2nd or 3rd February. Henry VI’s stepfather, Owen Tudor, and several other prisoners are beheaded on the field of battle.
  • Queen Margaret and her son, with the lords who were victorious at Wakefield, advance southward. On 17th February, they defeat the Earl of Warwick at the second Battle of St Albans and take possession of the King, but Warwick escapes. London closes its gates against the Lancastrians, and they are eventually obliged to retire northwards.
  • Cecily, Duchess of York sends her sons George and Richard to the Burgundian Low Countries for safety.
  • Edward, Earl of March, enters London with Richard, Earl of Warwick, on 27th February.
  • On 1st March, George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, declares Edward’s title to the throne in St John’s Field. Edward then urges his claim before a council of peers, prelates and chief citizens at Baynard’s Castle, who declare him king on 3rd March.
  • Edward IV solemnly installed at Westminster as king on 4th March, immediately marches into the north, and defeats the Lancastrians with great slaughter at the Battle of Towton, near Tadcaster on 29th March. The deposed Henry VI, with his queen and son, escape to Scotland.
  • Edward IV returns to London and is crowned on 28th June. On 29th June he creates his brother George Duke of Clarence. Probably on 1st November he creates his youngest brother Richard Duke of Gloucester.

1462

  • On 26th February, the Earl of Oxford is executed for trying to reinstate Henry VI.
  • Men loyal to Edward IV gradually conquer the remaining Lancastrian outposts in Wales and Northumberland. Queen Margaret travels to France to seek support.
  • In October, Margaret returns to Scotland and French forces take Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Alnwick castles for the Lancastrians. These are swiftly retaken by the Earl of Warwick and his brother, Lord Montagu.

1463

  • The Duke of Somerset, Henry Beaufort, and many other Lancastrians abandon Henry VI and made terms with Edward IV.
  • In March, Queen Margaret brings Lancastrian and Scottish forces across the border. Former Lancastrian loyalists switch sides again, surrendering Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Alnwick castles to her.
  • Warwick leads a huge army northwards, and in July Margaret takes her son to France in search of more support while Henry VI retreats back to Edinburgh.
  • Edward IV achieves a truce with France in October and with Scotland in December, forcing Henry VI to flee to Northumberland.

1464

  • In January, the Duke of Somerset and others rejoin the Lancastrians and capture Norham Castle and several Northumberland towns. John, Lord Montagu, brother of the Earl of Warwick, defeat Lancastrian forces at a battle on Hedgeley Moor, near Wooller, Northumberland on 25th April, and another at Hexham, also in Northumberland on 15th May. Henry VI finds refuge in Lancashire. The Duke of Somerset and many other prisoners of these battles are executed. Other Lancastrians join Margaret of Anjou’s court in exile at her father’s castle of Koeur, near St Mihiel-en-Bar.
  • In September, Edward IV reveals his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers and Jacquetta, Duchess of Bedford. She was the widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian supporter. Edward’s lords, especially the Earl of Warwick, are angry that they had not been consulted. Elizabeth’s eldest son from her first marriage, and several of her Woodville siblings, make spectacular marriages into noble families, prompting resentment against the family in some quarters.

1465

  • Henry VI is captured in Lancashire in July, conducted to London and imprisoned in the Tower.
  • It is probably this summer in which Richard, Duke of Gloucester moves into the household of Richard, Earl of Warwick.

1466

  • Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville’s first child together is born on 11th February: a daughter, Elizabeth.

1467

  • On 9th June, Edward IV takes the seals of office from the Chancellor, George Neville, Archbishop of York, a first blow against the power and influence of the Nevilles.
  • In October, negotiations begin for an alliance with Burgundy, despite Warwick’s preference for an alliance with France.

1468

  • In May, Edward IV announces his intention to invade France.
  • In July Edward’s sister, Margaret marries Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy at a spectacular ceremony near Bruges.

1469

  • Edward IV goes on pilgrimage into Norfolk in June, accompanied by his brother Richard.
  • Insurrections against Edward IV’s government are raised by the Earl of Warwick and Edward’s brother George, Duke of Clarence. On 11th July Clarence marries Isabel Neville, eldest daughter of the Earl of Warwick against the King’s wishes.
  • On 24th July, the King’s troops are defeated at Edgcote, near Banbury. The Earls of Pembroke and Devon as well as the Queen’s father, Richard, Earl Rivers, and her brother John Woodville, are captured and executed. King Edward is arrested by Warwick and imprisoned in Warwick Castle. He is later transferred to Middleham Castle.
  • In September, a pro-Lancastrian rising led by Sir Humphrey Neville forces Warwick to free the King in order to raise troops against the rebels.
  • In October, Warwick and Clarence are apparently reconciled with the King.

1470

  • On 5th January, George Neville, Warwick’s nephew and male heir, is created Duke of Bedford having been betrothed to Edward’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth. At the time, Elizabeth is first in line for the throne.
  • In March, a dispute between two families in Lincolnshire escalates into rebellion which the Earl of Warwick and Duke of Clarence seek to manipulate, probably aiming to kill Edward IV in battle and replace him with Clarence.
  • On 24th March, Warwick and Clarence are denounced as traitors and flee to Calais. They are refused admission and retire to France, where they were received by Louis XI.
  • On 22nd July, Warwick is reconciled with Queen Margaret and agree to assist in the restoration of King Henry VI, with the agreement that Warwick’s youngest daughter Anne would marry Prince Edward, only son of Henry VI and Queen Margaret.
  • A rebellion in the north of England in August is crushed by the Edward IV in September.
  • Warwick and Clarence land at Dartmouth on 13th September and with the Earls of Oxford and Pembroke raise a far larger army than previously.
  • Edward gathers an army against them but is deserted by Lord Montagu so flees to King’s Lynn, there embarking for Flanders on 2nd October.
  • On 3rd October, Bishop Waynflete releases Henry VI from the Tower and Warwick enters London in triumph on 6th October.
  • Richard, Duke of Gloucester joins Edward IV at The Hague by mid-November.
  • Anne Neville marries Edward of Lancaster in December, still in France.

1471

  • A parliament is held at Westminster which repeals the attainder against the Lancastrians, attaints the Yorkists and settles the crown once again on King Henry and his son Edward.
  • Edward IV and Richard, Duke of Gloucester sail from Zeeland with a small force supplied by the Duke of Burgundy on 10th March. They land at Ravenspur at the mouth of the Humber on 14th March.
  • Circa 3rd April, Clarence is reconciled with his brothers near Warwick and they advance on London. Here Edward retrieves his queen and new baby son from sanctuary at Westminster Abbey.
  • On 11th April, Henry VI is again sent to the Tower.
  • Warwick advances on Edward from Coventry, but is defeated and killed at Barnet on Easter Sunday, 14th April.
  • Queen Margaret lands at Weymouth on 14th April. There she is joined by the Duke of Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, who had refused to support Warwick at Barnet, as well as others who had escaped that battle, and set out to join the Tudors in Wales. Edward’s march against them was victorious at Tewkesbury on 4th May. Henry VI’s son Edward is killed in the battle and the Duke of Somerset seized and executed afterwards. Edward IV takes Margaret of Anjou into his custody while her widowed daughter-in-law, Anne Neville enters the household of her sister Isabel, Duchess of Clarence.
  • Thomas Neville, the Bastard of Fauconberg, besieges London in an attempt to rescue Henry VI between 12th and 15th May but is driven back by Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers.
  • On 21st or 22nd May, Edward IV enters London with his brothers. Henry VI is found dead in the Tower shortly afterwards.

1475

  • Potential Lancastrian claimant, Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, is released from the Tower to accompany Edward IV on his expedition to France. Holland drowns on the journey back to England.

1476

  • Edward IV tries to persuade the Duke of Brittany to surrender Henry and Jasper Tudor (the Earls of Richmond and Pembroke respectively) to him, who had fled England after Edward’s victory at Tewkesbury.

1478

  • George, Duke of Clarence, is tried for treason before Parliament and found guilty on 7th February. He is executed in the Tower on 18th February.

1483

  • In April, Edward IV dies and is succeeded by his son, Edward V.
  • On 16th June, Richard, Duke of York joins his elder brother, Edward V, at the Tower of London to await the latter’s coronation.
  • On 22nd June, Edward V and his siblings are declared illegitimate.
  • On 25th June, Richard, Duke of Gloucester is offered the crown which he officially accepts on 26th June.
  • Richard and his wife, Anne Neville, are crowned king and queen at Westminster Abbey on 6th July.
  • In October, Richard learns of rebellion in the south of England which his erstwhile closest ally, the Duke of Buckingham, has joined. By 1st November, King Richard is in Salisbury, by which time the uprising had collapsed. The following day the Duke of Buckingham is executed.
  • Henry Tudor leaves Brittany in late October but did not make landfall before news of Buckingham’s death reached him on 8th or 9th November.

1484

  • Parliament is held from 23rd January until 20th February. Richard III’s title to the throne (Titulus Regius) is ratified, confirming that Edward V and his siblings are illegitimate. Henry Tudor is attainted along with the Bishops of Ely, Salisbury, and Exeter for their role in Buckingham’s rebellion. All the property of Tudor’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, is given to her husband Lord Stanley, so that Tudor could not inherit, and Stanley is required to keep Lady Margaret in secure custody.
  • On 1st March, Elizabeth Woodville agrees terms with Richard III to allow her daughters out of sanctuary in return for promises of financial support and appropriate marriages.
  • The Duke of Brittany agrees to hand Henry Tudor over to Richard III, but Tudor escapes to the French court.

1485

  • 7th August, Henry Tudor lands at Milford Haven in Wales with about 400 English exiles as well as French and Scottish troops.
  • On 22nd August, the Battle of Bosworth is joined, and King Richard III is killed. The victorious Henry Tudor is proclaimed King Henry VII.
  • Loyalists in Jersey and at Harlech Castle and the Furness Fells refuse to accept Tudor’s accession.
  • In October, the first insurrections against King Henry in the north are led by men adopting the names Robin of Redesdale, Jack St(raw?), Thomalyn at Lath and Master Mendall.
  • Henry VII is crowned on 30th October at Westminster Abbey.
  • Henry VII’s first Parliament sits from 7th November until 10th December when it was prorogued. In this first session, Richard III’s closest followers are attainted, and Henry promises to marry Edward IV’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York.

1486

  • On 18th January, Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York.
  • On 23rd January, Parliament reconvenes and on that day the annulment of Richard III’s Titulus Regius is discussed. (It was presumably shortly afterwards that it was repealed, thereby confirming the legitimacy of the new queen).
  • In the spring Francis, Viscount Lovell leads an insurrection and tries to capture King Henry at York. Meanwhile Humphrey Stafford of Grafton tries to raise rebellion in the Midlands. Stafford was forcibly removed from sanctuary at Culham and executed on 8th July.
  • Elizabeth of York gives birth to Prince Arthur on 19th September in Winchester.

1487

  • Over the winter a young lad in Dublin is being publicly acknowledged as King Edward. In England, Henry VII claims he is impersonating Edward, Earl of Warwick (son of George, Duke of Clarence). A fog surrounds his supposed identity.
  • In February, a priest named William Symondes confesses to convocation in St Paul’s that he had abducted an organ maker’s son from Oxford and taken him to Ireland, where he was being publicly acknowledged as Edward, Earl of Warwick (Clarence’s son). Afterwards, a boy identified as the Earl of Warwick is exhibited in London. John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, who is the nephew and assumed heir of Richard III, leaves for Flanders to join Francis, Viscount Lovell in supporting King Edward who is amassing a fleet to challenge Henry VII for the throne.
  • The Earl of Lincoln lands in Ireland with an army on 5th May and ‘King Edward’ is crowned in the cathedral at Dublin on Sunday 27th May.
  • The challenger and his forces land in Furness on 4th June, and march to Stoke, near Newark. King Henry advances against them and defeats them on 16th June, in the last battle of the Wars of the Roses. The Earl of Lincoln and most of the leaders are killed and ‘King Edward’ apparently taken prisoner, but Lovell escapes.
  • Elizabeth of York is crowned queen on 25th November.
  • In December, a plot against Henry VII within his own household is foiled.

1489

  • Rebellion rises in Yorkshire after the Earl of Northumberland’s murder on 28th April. The rebels dispersed by the time Henry VII’s army reached York.
  • Later in the year, further plots in favour of the Earl of Warwick are crushed.

1491

  • On 28th June, Henry VII’s and Elizabeth of York’s second son, the future Henry VIII, is born at the Palace of Placentia, Greenwich.
  • In December a young man in Cork, Ireland, is identified as Richard, Duke of York, younger brother of Edward V.

1492

  • In March, this young man sails to France and is then welcomed in Burgundy as Richard of York by Duchess Margaret, sister of Edward IV and Richard III.

1493

  • ‘Perkin Warbeck’ visits the Emperor Maximillian in Vienna. Senior figures in England apparently become convinced of his Plantagenet identity, including William Worsley, Dean of St Paul’s and Sir William Stanley, Chamberlain of the King’s household and brother to King Henry’s stepfather, Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby.

1494

  • On 31st October, Henry VII and Elizabeth of York’s second son, Henry, is created Duke of York.
  • In December, Sir Robert Clifford defects from the cause of Richard of York and betrays many of his supporters.

1495

  • On 16th February, Sir William Stanley and others are executed.
  • Over the summer a fleet assembled by the European supporters of ‘Richard of York’ makes landfall in Kent but his advance party is crushed.
  • He sails onward to Ireland before moving on to Scotland in November.

1496

  • Circa 13th January, he marries Lady Katherine Gordon, kinswoman of the Scottish king, James IV.
  • On 21st September, an army led by James IV and ‘Richard of York’ invades England but Richard swiftly withdraws, with James IV and his troops following soon afterwards.

1497

  • In May, the Cornish rebel against Henry VII’s taxation and are defeated at Blackheath on 17th June.
  • In July, ‘Richard of York’ leaves Scotland with his wife and young family, landing in Cornwall on 7th September.
  • On 17th September, his forces, now amounting to about 8,000 men, besiege Exeter, but leave two days later.
  • At the news that Henry VII’s army is approaching, the rebels disband on 21st September.
  • ‘Richard of York’ takes sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire, but surrenders to King Henry VII on 5th October.

1498

  • Effectively held under house arrest at Henry VII’s court, ‘Richard of York’ attempts to escape from London but is captured and arrested at Sheen on 9th June.

1499

  • In the summer, he and the Earl of Warwick,  in prison together at the Tower of London, are involved in a conspiracy aimed at placing ‘York’ on the throne. They are both executed in November. Richard was executed under the name of Perkin Warbeck.

1501

  • In August, Richard III’s nephews, Edmund, Earl of Suffolk and his brother, Richard de la Pole, flee to the court of Emperor Maximilian and seek support for an invasion.
  • Katherine of Aragon, daughter of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, is welcomed to London on 14th November to marry Prince Arthur. The pageantry accompanying her wedding route celebrates her descent from the legitimate line of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

1502

  • Prince Arthur, eldest son and heir of Henry VII, dies at Ludlow on 2nd April.
  • The Earl of Suffolk’s younger brother, William, and Lord William Courtenay (husband of Edward IV’s daughter, Katherine) with other supporters of Suffolk are imprisoned. In May, Sir James Tyrell is executed for supporting Suffolk.

1503

  • Elizabeth of York dies on 11th February, days after giving birth to a daughter in the royal apartments in the Tower of London.

1504

  • In January, Edmund, Earl of Suffolk, and his brothers Richard and William de la Pole are attainted by Parliament.

1506

  • Henry VII undertakes to spare Suffolk’s life if he returns to England. Suffolk is imprisoned in the Tower on 24th April.

1509

  • On 21st April, Henry VII dies at Richmond Palace.
  • The three de la Pole brothers are excepted from a general pardon issued at the new King Henry VIII’s accession.

1512

  • Louis XII of France, who is at war with Henry VII, supports Richard de la Pole as a claimant to the English throne.

1513

  • Edmund, Earl of Suffolk is executed on 4th May. His brother Richard now assumes the title Duke of Suffolk and openly claims the English crown. His plans for invasion are aborted as a result of the Anglo-French peace treaty in August, but Louis XII refuses to hand him over to Henry VIII.

1515

  • In April, unpaid English soldiers at Tournai threaten to defect to Richard de la Pole.

1516

  • In December, Francis I of France promises to provide Richard de la Pole with forces for an invasion. Although this comes to nothing, he continues to seek support in European courts.

1522

  • Servants of Richard de la Pole attempting to raise support in East Anglia are arrested.

1525

  • Richard de la Pole is killed fighting for Francis I against the Emperor Charles V.

1538

  • In August, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury (daughter of George, Duke of Clarence) is arrested on suspicion of aiding her sons Reginald and Geoffrey Pole in treasonous activity.

1539

  • William de la Pole dies, still a prisoner in the Tower.

1541

  • On 27th May, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, is executed at the Tower of London – she was 68 years old.