Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, 6th Earl of Suffolk – fourth born but now oldest surviving son of John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk and his wife Elizabeth of York, grandson of Richard, 3rd Duke of York and nephews of King Edward IV and King Richard III, and thus the heir to the Yorkist claim to the throne — was executed on the orders of his first cousin, King Henry VIII, on 30 April 1513.
Edmund’s eldest brother, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, had been Richard III’s heir apparent after the death of the king’s son, but had sworn fealty to King Henry VII in exchange for his life after Richard died in the Battle of Bosworth Field. Alas, the earl went back on his word and joined a rebellion against the new king, and Lincoln was killed at the Battle of Stoke in the summer of 1487. Edmund’s next older brother, Geoffrey, had died in infancy, and his third brother, Edward, had gone into the priesthood and had died of natural causes during the reign of Richard III. With all of his older brothers deceased, Edmund de la Pole was the Yorkist claimant for the throne, and a terrible threat to the crown of Henry VII.
Nevertheless, King Henry VII tried to make nice with Edmund for John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suffolk’s sake. Although the Earl of Lincoln had rebelled, his father the duke had not, and had been a Lancastrian loyalist. In turn, Henry VII had given the duke respect and a position in court. When the 2nd Duke of Suffolk died in May of 1492, the young Edmund was even allowed to succeed to his father’s estates, becoming the 3rd Duke of Suffolk.
The king didn’t trust Edmund the way he had trusted his father though. The young man’s ambitions got him knocked down to the 6th Earl of Suffolk – less than a duke but still very powerful. Edmund needed to learn that all largess and titles came from the king, and he’s need to prove himself loyal to regain the dukedom. Moreover, the king now had two sons – Arthur and Henry – and was trying to make their inheritance as secure as possible without more bloodshed.
Henry VII was right to be leery of Edmund. After the king executed Edward Plantagenet, the 17th Earl of Warwick, in 1499 to facilitate Arthur’s upcoming marriage, the earl was the next potential heir to the throne on the Yorkist side. Either afraid for his life or already planning an insurrection, the earl and his younger brother, Richard de la Pole, fled to the Netherlands. (The youngest brother, Sir William de la Pole, was left behind and imprisoned by Henry VII after Edmund and Richard left the country without permission.) The de la Pole brothers made their way to the court of Emperor Maximilian I, where the earl petitioned the emperor to fund and supply a rebellion against the Tudor king for the purpose of putting Suffolk on the throne. Maximillian agreed, but kept putting the matter off because his funds and troops were tied up elsewhere.
While he was waiting, Suffolk became a member of Philip of Burgundy’s entourage, in the hopes that the emperor’s heir would be more eager to invade England than the emperor was. This was a good move, since Philip’s maternal step-grandmother – a powerful dowager duchess who was incredibly influential in the Holy Roman Empire — was Suffolk’s aunt, Margaret of York. Margaret HATED Henry VII with a purple passion, and would have done everything possible to get Philip to back Suffolk’s wanna-be coupe.
Sadly for Edmund de la Pole, in 1506 he became victim of the worst luck possible. He was with Philip of Burgundy when Philip was on his way to claim the inheritance of his wife, Joanna I of Castile, when Philip’s ship was caught in a storm and forced to harbor in England, where they “reluctantly and unexpectedly became a guest of Henry VII.”
Philip and Joanna urgently needed to get back underway to Castile, but Henry VII wouldn’t let them leave until he’d handed over Edmund de la Pole. Philip finally agreed to give Henry the Earl of Suffolk, with “the proviso that Edmund would not be harmed and restricted himself to imprisoning the earl.”
Although Henry VII kept his word, it is alleged that in his will he told his heir, Henry VIII, to kill Suffolk ASAP, since Henry VIII had never made any such promise to spare Suffolk’s life. King Henry VIII, however, was reluctant to kill his cousin … even to protect his throne. It wasn’t until Henry VIII and Louis XII of France went to war in 1512, and France officially recognized Edmund de la Pole as the ‘rightful’ King of England, that Henry finally ordered Suffolk’s execution.
On 30 April 1513 the Earl of Suffolk was taken to the Tower courtyard and summarily beheaded as a traitor. This left his younger brother, Richard de la Pole, as the White Rose – heir to the Yorkist claim to the throne. In 1514 Richard was given 12,000 German mercenaries and was all set to invade England, but those plans were halted when Henry VIII and Louis XII signed a peace agreement that promised Louis the hand of Henry’s sister, Mary Tudor, in marriage.
Richard de la Pole would die at the in the Battle of Pavia in 1525, to Henry VIII’s great relief, and William de la Pole would be continued to be held prisoner in the Tower of London. Poor William would remain in the Tower for a total of for thirty seven years. To this day, no one knows if William’s death in 1539 was a natural one or done under the king’s covert orders.