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Her grandmother was Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, and she was beheaded.

Her father was Henry Pole, Baron Mont of Salisbury, and she was beheaded. Her father was Henry Pole,

Baron Montague, and he was executed. Her uncle, Cardinal Reginald Paul, was exiled, his name,

a forbidden word in the Tudor court, and yet Catherine Poole not only survived, but she outlived

every one of these people and became the matriarch of a powerful

Tudor dynasty. So why is her story so often forgotten? It's because she didn't become a victim or a martyr.

Instead, she chose a path of remarkable caution and strategic alliance, one that allowed her family line to thrive while the rest of her relatives fell to the Tudor purge.

This is the story of Catherine Pohl, the Tudor Survivor.

Hello, friend, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History podcast. I am your host, Heather. I've been podcasting on Tudor England since 2009 with my show, which makes it the original Tudor History podcast. I am, as always, delighted that you are here with me to talk about a story we don't often talk about, and that is poll families who managed to survive

the Tudor Court. Let's dig in. Born around 1511, Catherine was a member of a family that was,

to put it mildly, a massive problem for Henry VIII. Her lineage was a living, breathing threat to his throne. So let's talk

about it. Her grandmother was Margaret Poole. Margaret Poole was the daughter of the Duke of Clarence.

He was the brother of Edward VIII. He was the brother who had plotted against Edward the fourth

and supposedly been executed in a vat of

wine. This meant that Catherine had Plantagenet blood flowing in her veins. The Duke of Clarence also

had a son, Edward, Edward Plantagenet, he was the 17th Earl of Warc. He was executed in 1499. He had been put in the

tower after Henry Tudor took the throne. Then he was executed. It was apparently part of the

contract with Ferdinand and Isabella that before Catherine of Aragon would come over, they wanted to

make sure that any other potential claimants

were neutralized. And so young Edward, son of the Duke of Clarence, was executed for treason.

That left his daughter, Margaret, and Catherine was the granddaughter of Margaret.

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