Margaret of York, Blesséd [1473-1541] -- English martyr, Countess Salisbury

Her father was George, Duke of Clarence, whom Shakespeare has drowned in a butt of malmsey wine by Richard III. Under Henry VII, her brother, Edmund of Warwick, paid with his life the penalty of being the last male representative of the Yorkist line (28 Nov 1499). Henry VIII, on his accession, reversed her brother's attainder, created her Countess of Salisbury, and an Act of Restitution was passed by which she came into possession of her ancestral domains: the king considered her the saintliest woman in England, and, after the birth of the Princess Mary, Margaret of Salisbury became her sponsor in baptism and confirmation and was afterwards appointed governess of the princess and her household.

She gradually fell out of favor, however, chiefly because of her outspoken son, Cardinal Reginald Pole, and in 1538 two of her sons and other kin were arrested on charges of treason, and later executed. She herself was executed without trial in a most ghastly manner.

She was the last survivor of the House of York, the final casualty of the War of the Roses.

In 1886, she and other English Martyrs were beatified by Pope Leo XIII.  
 

• Father: ¤George, Duke of Clarence [1449-1478] English noble, Duke of Clarence