Pole, Reginald, 1500–1558, English churchman, archbishop of Canterbury (1556–58), cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a cousin of the Tudors, being the son of Sir Richard Pole and of Margaret, countess of Salisbury, who was the daughter of George, duke of Clarence, and the niece of kings Edward IV and Richard III. Although he did not take priestly orders until late in life, he was devout from the first and received many church benefices from Henry VIII. When his benefactor broke with the pope, Pole went abroad. In 1536 he made a formal statement of his views on the king's divorce, attacking the doctrine of royal supremacy. In the same year he accepted Pope Paul III's summons to sit on the commission to reform the pontifical administration and was created cardinal. In 1537 and again in 1538–39, Pole was active in trying to organize a league against Henry, who now was setting out to destroy the Pole family. However, Pole was unsuccessful in this endeavor, and he returned to Rome and received the legatine governorship of Viterbo. He was one of the legates appointed to open the Council of Trent (1545). In 1553, on Edward VI's death, Pope Julius III made him legate to England, and he and Mary I Mary I (Mary Tudor), 1516–58, queen of England (1553–58), daughter of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragón .

Early Life

While Mary was a child, various husbands were proposed for her—the eldest son of Francis I of France
..... Click the link for more information. set about restoring the Roman Catholic Church. However, he ran afoul of Mary's husband, Philip II of Spain, and then of Pope Paul IV, and his difficulties were multiplied. He was always a mild man and would have nothing to do with the burning of heretics. In 1556 he was ordained priest and consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. He died the same day as Mary.

Pole, Reginald

(born March 3, 1500, Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, Eng.—died Nov. 17, 1558, London) English Catholic prelate. A cousin of Henry VII, Pole was sent by Henry VIII to study in Italy (1521–27) and given minor offices in the church. Critical of Henry's antipapal policies, he wrote In Defense of Ecclesiastical Unity (1536) to defend the pope's spiritual authority. As cardinal, he was sent by Pope Paul III on missions to persuade Catholic monarchs to depose Henry. These efforts angered Henry, who executed Pole's brother, Lord Montague (1538), and his mother, Margaret, countess of Salisbury (1541). Pole was named papal governor of the Patrimony of St. Peter and later was presiding legate at the Council of Trent. When the Catholic Mary Tudor became queen as Mary I in 1553, he was appointed legate for England; there he instituted church reforms and was a strong influence on the queen. He was appointed archbishop of Canterbury (1556), but a conflict between the papacy and England's ally Spain caused the pope to cancel Pole's authority and declare him a heretic. Demoralized, he died 12 hours after the death of Queen Mary.