History and genealogy of Peter Montague, of Nansemond and ...

2 6 INTRODUCTION.
the Cardinals came unto him, being in bed, and sent him word they
came to adore him (which is one special kinde of electing the Pope)
but he being awakened and made acquainted with it was firm in his
refusal."— (Baker's Chronicles). The Cardinals remained with him
all night.
Her son, Henry Pole, was made Baron Montague in 1504 by King-
Henry VII. He married Jane, dau. of Sir George Nevil, lord of
Abergeveney. Being connected with a plot to re-instate his brother,
Reginald, Cardinal Pole, he was beheaded upon Tower hill in 1538,
together with his co-plotters and relatives, Henry Courtney, Marquis
of Exeter, and Sir Edward Nevil. Sir Jeffry Pole was concerned in
the same plot but gained his pardon by becoming informer. Sir
Reginald the Cardinal was chosen to become the husband of Queen
Mary (Bloody Mary) to whom he was much attached. He died the
1 8th November, 1558, on the next day after the death of Queen Mary.
The mother, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, now at the age of
seventy years, was beheaded by Henry VIII. in the year 15 41.
Anne, the other daughter of Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, and
Warwick, married as before stated King Richard III. They had one
only son Edward whom his uncle, King Edward IV., in the 17th year
of his reign created Earl of Salisbury, and Richard his father, usurping
the Kingdom, made Prince of Wales. He died young and his mother
soon after died, not without suspicion of poison. While King Richard
himself perished upon the field of Bosworth.
Thus in darkness and blood, and in a violent manner, upon the
scaffold, perished the descendants of Alice Montague the gentle and
only daughter of General Thomas Montague, fourth and last Earl of
Salisbury of the name of Montague, and this branch so prolific in
great men, who bathed all England in blood during the dissensions
of the Houses of York and Lancaster, became extinct.
Their lineage has thus .been traced to its final ending, not because
it is supposed the American family were lineally descended from any
of these personages who are so well known in history, but because
they all lived previous to the year 1550, at which date the will of
William Montague, from whom it is known that the American family
are descended, was proved, and therefore it would not be out of place
to mention their history as descendants of the Earls of Salisbury.
Attention will now be directed to the immediate branch of Monta-
gues, whose descendants peopled America, and whose names will be
found in the body of this work.