Reginald Cardinal Pole (12 March 1500 – 17 November 1558) was an English Cardinal in the Catholic Church, and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, holding office during the Counter Reformation.

Pole was born in at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, England on 12 March 1500[1][2] to Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. His maternal grandparents were George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Isabella Neville, Duchess of Clarence.

He was a member of Magdalen College, Oxford from about 1512 until about 1519. He was taught by William Latimer and Thomas Linacre, and admitted BA on 27 June 1515. In February 1518 Henry granted him the deanery of Wimborne Minster, Dorset; after which he was Dean of Exeter[3] .

In 1521, Pole went to Padua, where he met such leading Renaissance figures as Pietro Bembo, Gianmatteo Giberti (formerly pope Leo X's datary and chief minister), Jacopo Sadoleto, Gianpietro Carafa (the future Pope Paul IV), Rodolfo Pio, Otto Truchsess, Stanislaus Hosius, Cristoforo Madruzzo, Giovanni Morone, Pier Paolo Vergerio the younger, Pietro Martire Vermigli (Peter Martyr) and Vettor Soranzo. The last three were eventually condemned as heretics by the Catholic Church, with Vermigli - as a well-known Protestant theologian - having a significant share in the Reformation in Pole's native England.

His studies were partly financed by his election as a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 14 February 1523, which allowed him to study abroad for three years.

Pole returned home in July 1526, when he went to France, escorted by Thomas Lupset. Henry VIII offered him the archbishopric of York or the diocese of Winchester if he would support his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Pole withheld his support and went into self-imposed exile in France and Italy in 1532, continuing his studies in Padua and Paris.

The final break between Pole and the King followed upon Thomas Cromwell, Cuthbert Tunstall, Thomas Starkey, and others addressing questions to Pole on behalf of the King. He answered by sending Henry a copy of his published treatise Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione which, besides being a theological reply to the questions, was a strong denunciation of the king's policies.

The incensed King, with Pole himself out of his reach, took a terrible revenge upon Pole's family members. Though Pole's mother and his elder brother had written to him in reproof of his attitude and action, the King did not spare them. In November 1538, Reginald Pole's eldest brother Henry Pole, Baron Montagu, another son (of Margaret Pole) and other relatives were arrested on a charge of treason, though Thomas Cromwell had previously written that they had "little offended save that he [the Cardinal] is of their kin", they were committed to the Tower of London, and in January, with the exception of his brother Geoffrey Pole, they were executed.

Reginald Pole's mother Margaret was also arrested, kept for two years under severe conditions in the Tower, and finally executed in 1541, protesting her innocence until the last - a highly publicised case which was considered a grave miscarriage of justice both at the time and later. Pole is known to have said that he would "...never fear to call himself the son of a martyr". She was beatified many centuries later, in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

Aside from the aforementioned oppositional treatise, King's Henry's harshness towards the Pole family might have derived from Pole's mother, Margaret Pole née Plantagenet, being considered the last member of the House of Plantagenet. Under some circumstances, that fact could have made Reginald - until he definitely entered the clergy - a possible contender for the throne itself. Indeed, in 1535 Pole was considered by Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador to England, as a possible husband for Princess Mary, later Mary I of England.

Pole was made cardinal under Pope Paul III in 1536, over Pole's own objections. In 1542 he was appointed as one of the three papal legates to preside over the Council of Trent, and after the death of Pope Paul III in 1549 Pole at one point had nearly the two-thirds of the vote he needed to become Pope himself [4] at the papal conclave, 1549-1550.

The death of Edward VI Tudor on 6 July 1553 and the accession of Mary I to the throne of England hastened Pole's return from exile, as papal legate. In 1554 Cardinal Pole came to England to receive the kingdom back into the Roman fold. However, Mary and Emperor Charles V deliberately delayed him until 20 November 1554, due to apprehension that Pole might oppose the Queen's forthcoming marriage to Charles' son, Philip II of Spain.[5]

Pole's return was followed by an Act of Parliament, the Revival of the Heresy Acts. This revived three former Acts against heresy; the letters patent of 1382 of King Richard II, an Act of 1401 of King Henry IV, and an Act of 1414 of King Henry V. All three of these laws had been repealed under King Henry VIII and King Edward VI.[6] On 13 November 1555, Cranmer was officially deprived of the See of Canterbury.[7] Under Mary's rule, Pole was finally ordained as a priest on 20 March 1556 and raised to Archbishop of Canterbury, an office he would hold until his death. He was also Chancellor of both Oxford and Cambridge universities.[8] As well as his religious duties, he was in effect the Queen's chief minister and adviser. Many former enemies, including Thomas Cranmer, signed recantations affirming their religious belief in transubstantiation and papal supremacy.[9] Despite this, which should have absolved them under Mary’s own Heresy Act, the Queen could not forget their responsibility for her mother's unhappy divorce.[10]

In 1555, Mary began burning Protestants for heresy, executing 220 men and 60 women before her death in 1558. Pole shares responsibility for these persecutions which - contrary to his intention - contributed to the ultimate victory of the English Reformation.[11] As the reign wore on, an increasing number of people turned against Mary and her government,[12] and some people who had been indifferent to the English Reformation began turning against Catholicism.[13][14] Writings such as John Foxe's 1568 Book of Martyrs, which emphasized the sufferings of the reformers under Mary, helped shape popular opinion against Roman Catholicism in England for generations.[12][14]

Reginald Cardinal Pole died in London on 17 November 1558, at about 7:00pm, nearly twelve hours after Queen Mary's death from illness.[15] He was buried on the north side of the Corona at Canterbury Cathedral.