# Margot Poins — Privy Seal character guide

> Margot Poins in Privy Seal by Ford Madox Ford.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Margot Poins, young Poins, the young Poins, Poins, Margot

**First appearance:** 0004-i

## Snapshot

A blonde tirewoman who serves Katharine Howard but answers to no mistress, she trades her favors for poetry and pushes her scholar-lover toward London and power.

## Who they are

Margot Poins waits on Lady Katharine Howard, yet when Magister Udal calls her his lady's maid she corrects him sharply: she is tirewoman to her own self alone. Warm, mocking, and entirely unsentimental, she lets the magister dote on her hand and her 'oh's' of pleasure while quietly dictating the terms of their marriage. It is she who orders him out of their Paris kitchen and onto the road to London, to make himself a great man or come crawling back to her fire. Her ambition quietly steers a scholar's fate.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/chapters/i)

Mentioned as a fair, large wench in London, maid to Katharine Howard, whom Udal feels incumbent to wed.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/chapters/v)

Reveals the plot to Katharine; torn between loyalty to her mistress and the magister.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/chapters/iv)

Present as Katharine's handmaid; brings an embroidery frame and mentions a printed sheet of rumors against Katharine.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/chapters/v)

Mentioned as the printer's niece and Magister Udal's sweetheart, associated with Katharine Howard.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters/margot_poins
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/privy_seal_se/characters