Geoffrey Pole

Sir Geoffrey Pole of Lordington, Sussex (c. 1501 or 1502 – November 1558) was an English knight who supported the Catholic Church in England and Wales when Henry VIII of England was establishing the alternative Church of England with himself as leader. Early life He was fourth son of Sir Richard Pole (d. 1505), by his wife Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, and the younger brother of Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu and of Cardinal Reginald Pole. He was one of the knights made by Henry VIII at York Place in 1529. Soon afterwards, or before 9 July 1528, he married Constance Pakenham, the elder of the two daughters and co-heirs of Sir Edmund Pakenham, Gentleman Usher to Catherine of Aragon. Sir Edmund Pakenham died in 1528 and Geoffrey became possessed of the Manors of Eastcourt and Lordington at Racton in West Sussex, Sussex. From 1531, his name is met with in commissions of various kinds, including Justice of the Peace for both for Hampshire and for Sussex, and member of Parliament for Wilton beginning in 1529. Like the rest of his family, he greatly disliked Henry VIII's proceedings for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. In 1532, when the king went over to Calais with Anne Boleyn to meet Francis I of France, he crossed the sea in disguise, and keeping himself unseen in the apartments of his brother, Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, who had gone over with the king, stole out at night to collect news. Montagu sent him back to England to inform Queen Catherine that Henry had not succeeded in persuading Francis to countenance his proposed marriage with Anne Boleyn. Next year, however, his name appears set down, not with his own good will, among the knights appointed 'to be servitors' at Anne Boleyn's coronation on 1 June 1533. He was paid £40 for that service. A week after, on Thursday 5 June, he dined with Henry's daughter Mary. When Anne Boleyn was queen, he frequently visited the Spanish imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, to assure him that the emperor would find the hearts of the English people with him if he invaded England to redress the wrong done to the former queen, Catherine of Aragon. He added that he himself wished to go to the emperor in Spain, which Chapuys wisely dissuaded him from doing. Geoffrey was also in the confidence of French ambassador and the bishop of London, John Stokesley. As T.F.