The extent of Margaret's involvement is unclear: Jennifer Gourlay suggests that she probably knew about the rebellion plots, although most of the evidence against her came from only a single source, the priest John Watts.
John Bulmer was hanged and beheaded at Tyburn, whilst Margaret was burned at the stake at West Smithfield.
Megan Benson suggests that this disparity stemmed from several causes: she was perceived as being of questionable moral character; she was associated with leading rebels like Robert Aske and Francis Bigod; and (if the reports of her parentage were indeed true) she was a distant relative of the king.
[3] Madeleine and Ruth Dodds argued that the authorities chose to execute Margaret in order to set an example to other rebels and sympathisers: "She committed no overt act of treason; her offences were merely words and silence....
There can be no doubt that many women were ardent supporters of the Pilgrimage.... Lady Bulmer's execution ... was an object-lesson to husbands ... to teach them to distrust their wives.