Born in 1473, Margaret Pole was the daughter of George, and the only woman, apart from Anne Boleyn, to hold a peerage title in her own right during the sixteenth century. This work presents the life and culture of this propertied titled lady against the social and political background of late Yorkist and early Tudor Britain.

In this first biography of a significant female figure in the male-dominated world of British Tudor politics, Hazel Pierce reconsiders the life and martyrdom of Catholic duchess Margaret Pole against the changing social and political landscape of her times. Pole, niece of both Edward IV and Richard III, was the only woman apart from Anne Boleyn to hold a peerage in her own right during the sixteenth century, and this important contribution to medieval scholarship provides a matchless understanding of aristocratic women during that time period, as well as new interpretations of Henry VIII and his relationship with the nobility.