"All this while King Henry had play'd with the French, but now he seems to be in earnest, and therefore sends over the Duke of Suffolk with an army, the four and twentieth of August, attended with the Lord Montacute and his brother, Sir Arthur Pool, with many other knights and gentlemen."
On the knighthood of this Sir Arthur I find, farther on,—
"On Allholland (Query, All-hallows) day, in the chief church of Roy," (the Duke) "made knights, Lord Herbert (son of the Earl of Worcester), the Lord Powis, Oliver Manners, Arthur Pool, &c.
And now—
The 3rd Nov. (1538) Henry Courtney, Marquess of Exeter and Earl of Devonshire, Henry Pool, Lord Montacute, Sir Nicholas Carew, of Bedington, Knight of the Garter and Master of the Horse, and Sir Edward Nevill, brother to the Lord Aburgenny, were sent to the Tower, being accused by Sir Geoffry Pool, the Lord Montacute's brother, of high treason. They were indicted for devising to promote and advance one Reinald (Qy. Reginald) Pool to the crown, and put down K. Henry. This Pool was a near kinsman of the king's (being the son of the Lady Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter and heir to George, Duke of Clarence). He had been brought up by the king in learning, and made Dean of Exeter; but being after sent to learn experience by travel, he grew so great a friend of the Pope's that he became an enemy to King Henry, and for his enmity to the king was by Pope Julius III. made cardinal. For this man's cause the lords aforesaid being condemned were all executed; the Lord Marquess, the Lord Montacute, and Sir Edward Nevill, beheaded on the Tower Hill the ninth of January; Sir Nicholas Carew the third of March; two priests condemned with them were hanged at Tyburn: Sir Geoffry Pool, though condemned also, yet had his pardon."
I give this last quotation entire (hoping to be pardoned for its length), as it affords a curious insight into the eventful history of the period; for, two years later, I find it on record that—
"Reynold Pool, Cardinal, brother to the Lord Montacute, was with divers others attainted of high treason; of whom Foskeue and Dingley the tenth of July were beheaded, the Countess of Salisbury two years after."
But I forbear quoting further the account of this same cardinal's pompous "absolution of these realms," and "reconciliation to the church of Rome," all which are given in "marvellous" detail by our worthy historian. I pass on to observe, in conclusion, that, from the fact (as recorded in the first of the foregoing historic extracts) that "Sir Richard Pool, chamberlain" to Prince Arthur, was sent by him into Wales, I gather your correspondent I. J. H. H. has been led to suppose him a Welsh knight. That he is called a kinsman of the prince is also some confirmation of the statement afforded by J. G. N., that he became so by his mother's near connexion with the Countess of Richmond, but his own alliance with the house of Plantagenet must have taken place about the close of the fifteenth century (and I own this offers some objection to my theory of his descent); it could not have occurred in 1513, as your correspondent states, since Cardinal Pole was, as I have stated, born in 1500, and was therefore fifty-four years old at the commencement of Mary's reign, viz. 1553-4, when proposals were made for his marriage with the queen; for, says Sir Richard, once more, in speaking, of "the marriages propounded for Queen Mary:"
"One was Cardinal Pool, of a dignity not much inferior to kings, and by his mother descended from kings; but there was an exception against him also, because four and fifty years old (as old a batchelor as Queen Mary was a maid)," &c. &c.