The Family of Geoffrey Pole
by William Addams Reitwiesner
wargs@wargs.com
Geoffrey Pole, of Medmenham, Buckinghamshire (d. 1479), a Welshman in the
service of Henry VI, married, firstly, Edith St. John, a daughter
of Oliver St. John of Bletsoe, by his wife Margaret Beauchamp,
later Duchess of Somerset. Geoffrey Pole was thus, by marriage,
an uncle of Henry VII. The only surviving son of Geoffrey and
Edith (St. John) Pole was Sir Richard Pole, who was married to
Margaret Plantaganet, Countess of Salisbury (only surviving child
of George, Duke of Clarence and niece of Edward IV and Richard III),
by whom Sir Richard had four children, the youngest of which was
Reginald Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the eldest of
which was Henry Pole, created Lord Montagu. The descendants of
Margaret and Sir Richard are traced in the "Clarence" volume of
The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal by "The Marquis
of Ruvigny and Raineval" [1905].
Geoffrey Pole appears in WG2 at Gwenwys 2 (B). Other
places where Geoffrey's ancestry is given, such as Arthur H. Plaisted,
The Manor and Parish Records of Medmenham, Buckinghamshire
[London: Longmans, Green, 1925], pp. 67-69, and Roger S. Thomas,
"Geoffrey Pole: A Lancastrian Servant in Wales", in Cylchgrawn
Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Library of
Wales Journal), XVII (1972), pp. 277-286, at p. 277, have the
descent somewhat wrong.
William Addams Reitwiesner
wargs@wargs.com
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