The De La Pole Family

 

Arms of the De La Pole Claimants

Background: The De La Pole family came into the royal spotlight when Edward IV's sister: Elizabeth Plantagenet of York and John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk married and produced a number of future claimants to the English crown and this in turn created frequent attempts to destabilise Henry VII's regime. Henry imprisoned Elizabeth's nephew Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of her brother George, in the Tower of London, but in 148, her other sister Margaret Duchess of Burgundy financed a rebellion led by Lambert Simnel whose true identity remains uncertain, though he himself presented himself as 'Edward VI'. John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln, eldest son and heir of the couple joined the revolt, probably anticipating that it would further his own ambitions to the throne, but he was killed in the suppression of the uprising at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487. Warwick was implicated by two further failed invasions supported by Margaret by the so called Perkin Warbeck claiming to be Edward IV's son Richard of Shrewsbury, and supposedly Warbeck's later planned escape for them both; Warwick was executed in 1499; with his death the House of Plantagenet went extinct in the legitimate male line. Edward's execution may simply have been a precondition for the marriage of Arthur, Prince of Wales to Katherine of Aragon in 1501. 

John de la Pole's attainder meant that his brother Edmund inherited their father's titles, but much of the wealth of the duchy of Suffolk was forfeit. After the death of his older brother, Edmund became the leading Yorkist claimant to the throne, and succeeded to the title Duke of Suffolk in 1492. Edmund took part in the Siege of Boulogne in October 1492. However, he is said to have subsequently agreed with King Henry VII, by Indenture dated 26 February 1492/3, to surrender the dukedom (with, apparently, the marquessate) of Suffolk, and to be known henceforth as the Earl of Suffolk only, this being ratified by Act of Parliament in 1495. In consideration of this surrender and "of the true and diligent service done to his Highness by the said Edmund" the King granted to him, for £5,000, a portion of the lands forfeited by his elder brother John, Earl of Lincoln, in 1487. Edmund did not possess sufficient finances to maintain his status as a duke, so as a compromise he accepted the title of earl of Suffolk. Financial difficulties led to frequent legal conflicts and Edmund's indictment for murder in 1501. He fled with his brother Richard, while their remaining brother, William, was imprisoned in the Tower—where he would remain until his death 37 years later—as part of a general suppression of Edmund's associates. Philip the Fair had been holding Edmund and in 1506 he returned him to Henry. Edmund was imprisoned in the Tower. In 1513, he was executed after Richard de la Pole, whom Louis XII of France had recognised as king of England the previous year, claimed the kingship in his own right.

He was excluded from the general pardon proclaimed at the accession of Henry VIII, and when Louis XII of France went to war with the Kingdom of England in 1512, he recognised Edmund's pretensions to the English crown and gave Richard a command in the French army. In 1513, after the execution of Edmund, he assumed the title of Earl of Suffolk. In 1514 he was given 12,000 German mercenaries, ostensibly for the defence of Brittany, but really for an invasion of England. These he led to St. Malo, but the conclusion of peace with England prevented their embarcation. Richard was required to leave France, and he established himself at Metz, in Lorraine, and built a palace at La Haute Pierre, near St. Simphorien.

While at Metz, he was visited by Pierre Alamire, the German-Netherlandish composer and music copyist, who was a spy for Henry VIII. However, Richard employed Alamire as a counter-spy against Henry, and Alamire, on being suspected of unreliability by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and Henry VIII, never returned to England. Richard de la Pole had numerous interviews with King Francis I of France, and in 1523 he was permitted, in concert with John Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, the Scottish regent, to arrange an invasion of England, which was never carried out. Richard, known as the White Rose, plotted an invasion of England for years but was killed in 1525 at the Battle of Pavia while fighting as the captain of the French landsknechts during François I of France's invasion of Italy. He was with Francis I at the Battle of Pavia on 24 February 1525, where he was killed and was buried in the basilica San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro. In a picture of the battle, preserved at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, his lifeless body is represented in the thick of the combat with the inscription Le Duc de Susfoc dit Blance Rose (The Duke of Suffolk, known as White Rose). 

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Source For All Above: Wikipedia