Once I Was A Clever Boy: Queen Mary I and Cardinal Pole

Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.

Friday, 17 November 2023

Queen Mary I and Cardinal Pole

Today is the 465th anniversary of the deaths of both Queen Mary I and of her third cousin Cardinal Pole.

When I was writing the other week about the Cardinal I checked the Wikipedia account of his life and found it now includes a portrait of him by Perino del Vaga dated to 1539. The young Cardinal is depicted in conversation with Pope Paul III.

Image: Wikipedia

I had not seen the portrait reproduced previously and it shows a figure quite distinct from the well known images of the Cardinal with a patriarchal flowing beard which became ever more common amongst Popes and.members of the Sacred College in these decades.

What is especially striking is Pole’s close facial resemblance to his second cousin King Henry VIII.