Queen Katherine Character Analysis in Wolf Hall

Queen Katherine is King Henry’s first wife. Katherine, a princess from Spain, was initially married to Henry’s older brother, Arthur. Four months into their marriage, Arthur got sick and died. At that time, Henry was determined to marry Katherine himself, but he needed a special papal dispensation from Rome in order to do this. This dispensation essentially said that the relationship was not incestuous or against the Catholic faith. At the time, Henry was very much in love with Katherine, but this gradually changed over the years. Katherine got pregnant seven times, but she has only one surviving daughter, Mary Tudor. Henry is disappointed that none of their other children lived, and that he doesn’t have a son who will be the heir to the throne. Also, 20 years into their marriage, he is no longer attracted to Katherine, who is six years older than he is, and he doesn’t believe she can bear more children since she is over 40. Henry falls in love with Anne Boleyn, who is one of Katherine’s young ladies-in-waiting, and he decides to get an annulment to his first marriage so he can marry Anne. Henry claims that his marriage to Katherine is incestuous and sinful in God’s eyes, and that this—combined with his lack of a male heir—is sufficient grounds for annulment. However, Katherine is a staunch Catholic and is aunt to Emperor Charles V, who has great influence over the Pope in Rome. She refuses to give in to pressure from Henry and acquiesce to the annulment, confident that the Pope will side with her, which he does. Katherine comes across as a strong woman and Cromwell respects her for continuing to fight the king’s decision, even after she knows that her case is hopeless. She is heartbroken when the king separates her from her daughter, Mary, placing them in separate households. After Parliament declares Henry the head of the church in England, he marries Anne Boleyn, who is crowned as queen soon after. Katherine is forced to live out her days at another residence, and she is made to turn over all her jewels to Anne Boleyn.

Queen Katherine Quotes in Wolf Hall

The Wolf Hall quotes below are all either spoken by Queen Katherine or refer to Queen Katherine. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Power, Ambition, and Deception Theme Icon

He never lives in a single reality, but in a shifting shadow-mesh of diplomatic possibilities. While he is doing his best to keep the king married to Queen Katherine and her Spanish-Imperial family, by begging Henry to forget his scruples, he will also plan for an alternative world, in which the king’s scruples must be heeded, and the marriage to Katherine is void. Once that nullity is recognized—and the last eighteen years of sin and suffering wiped from the page—he will readjust the balance of Europe, allying England with France, forming a power bloc to oppose the young Emperor Charles, Katherine’s nephew. And all outcomes are likely, all outcomes can be managed, even massaged into desirability: prayer and pressure, pressure and prayer, everything that comes to pass will pass by God’s design, a design reenvisaged and redrawn, with helpful emendations, by the cardinal.

Related Characters: Cardinal Wolsey , Thomas Cromwell, Emperor Charles, Queen Katherine, King Henry VIII

Page Number and Citation: 25-26

Explanation and Analysis:

There never was a lady who knew better her husband’s needs.

She knows them; for the first time, she doesn’t want to comply with them.

Is a woman bound to wifely obedience, when the result will be to turn her out of the estate of wife? He, Cromwell, admires Katherine: he likes to see her moving about the royal palaces, as wide as she is high, stitched into gowns so bristling with gemstones that they look as if they are designed less for beauty than to withstand blows from a sword. Her auburn hair is faded and streaked with gray, tucked back under her gable hood like the modest wings of a city sparrow. Under her gowns she wears the habit of a Franciscan nun. Try always, Wolsey says, to find out what people wear under their clothes. At an earlier stage in life this would have surprised him; he had thought that under their clothes people wore their skin.

Related Characters: Thomas Cromwell (speaker), Cardinal Wolsey (speaker), Queen Katherine, King Henry VIII

Related Symbols: Clothes, Animals

Page Number and Citation: 77

Explanation and Analysis:

“Look,” she says. She holds up her sleeves. The bright blue with which she has edged them, that kingfisher flash, is cut from the silk in which he wrapped her present of needlework patterns. How do matters stand now at Wolf Hall, he asks, as tactfully as he can: how do you ask after a family, in the wake of incest? She says in her clear little voice, “Sir John is very well. But then Sir John is always very well. […] Why don’t you make some business in Wiltshire and ride down to inspect us? Oh, and if the king gets a new wife, she will need matrons to attend her, and my sister Liz is coming to court. […] I would rather go up-country to the queen, myself. […]”

“If I were your father…no…” he rephrases it, “if I were to advise you, it would be to serve Lady Anne.”

Related Characters: Jane Seymour (speaker), Thomas Cromwell (speaker), John Seymour, Liz Seymour, Anne Boleyn , King Henry VIII, Queen Katherine

Related Symbols: Clothes, Animals

Page Number and Citation: 359

Explanation and Analysis:

Queen Katherine Character Timeline in Wolf Hall

The timeline below shows where the character Queen Katherine appears in Wolf Hall. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Next, the cardinal tells Cromwell that he would like more spies in Queen Katherine’s court since she will soon be told that the king will marry another woman who... (full context)

Children and Human Connection Theme Icon

...he tried to dissuade the king from getting an annulment, but he failed. Since Queen Katherine had once been married to King Henry’s brother, Arthur, Henry claims that their marriage is... (full context)

...delegation and confront Henry “in a shocked fashion,” and tell him that his relationship with Katherine appears to be unlawful. Wolsey thinks it is possible that Henry, who doesn’t like to... (full context)

Cromwell wonders where Katherine will go after she is cast off, and Wolsey says she will probably end up... (full context)

...and defeated the giants. King Arthur descended from Brutus, and his namesake, Prince Arthur, married Katherine, but died at the age of 15. If he were alive, his brother, Henry, would... (full context)

...son, called Henry Fitzroy, whom he has made a duke. The cardinal asks Cromwell if Katherine knows about the king and Mary Boleyn, and Cromwell says she does. Wolsey says she... (full context)

...the validity of the king’s marriage. It’s supposed to be a secret court, without even Katherine knowing about it, but in reality, the whole of Europe knows. The king produces the... (full context)

Henry and Katherine have had six children, but only one of these children lives—Mary Tudor, who is “small... (full context)

Katherine blames Wolsey for the secret hearing, and she accuses him of conniving for years to... (full context)

Cardinal Wolsey tells the king that even if the documents that permitted him to marry Katherine are found to be defective, Pope Clement might just suggest that it be fixed with... (full context)

...city’s treasures and raping its women. They also take the Pope prisoner. Since Charles is Katherine’s nephew, no one expects the Pope to favor any appeals from England while he is... (full context)

...King Henry’s separation while the Pope is Charles’s prisoner. In June 1527, when Henry tells Katherine that they should separate, she is furious and shouts so much that “the windows are... (full context)

...the Pope is sending Cardinal Campeggio to England to determine whether the king’s marriage to Katherine has valid grounds for annulment. (full context)

...arrives from Rome, the king wants him to focus only on dissolving his marriage with Katherine, so he sends Anne Boleyn out of London with Mary Boleyn. A rumor reaches Cromwell... (full context)

...He arranges for witnesses who knew the king’s brother, Arthur, to testify at court that Katherine wasn’t a virgin when she married Henry. Cromwell thinks it should have never come to... (full context)

...seemed more humble—“[m]ost humility, in his view, is pretense; but the pretense can be winning.” Katherine makes her statement, which is so moving that “a few men have been seen to... (full context)

After Katherine finishes her statement, she leaves the court, leaving her counsel to represent her. Cromwell thinks... (full context)

...December, the king gave a banquet to celebrate Thomas Boleyn’s elevation to Earl of Wiltshire. Katherine was not present, and Anne sat in her seat. But the king has gone back... (full context)

Cromwell thinks that Anne is so small that “two Annes make one Katherine.” She is surrounded by women sitting on low stools who are pretending to sew, among... (full context)

Mary Boleyn tells Cromwell how the king quarreled with Katherine during Christmas and came to Anne Boleyn for comfort, but that Anne scolded him, saying... (full context)

...he hears from Cromwell’s “old master” every week, and that Wolsey has become “solicitous about [Katherine’s] health.” Wolsey asks Katherine to stay hopeful that she will soon “be restored to the... (full context)

Dogmatism vs. Open-Mindedness Theme Icon

...he had no problem with Henry getting what he wanted, but that Suffolk’s wife was Katherine’s friend. Also, his wife couldn’t bear the idea of “Norfolk’s niece” having precedence over her,... (full context)

That summer, Henry hunts often, and he is sometimes accompanied by Katherine. Anne sometimes accompanies Henry when Katherine doesn’t. Henry Norris tells Cromwell that it will soon... (full context)

...at her sideways.” The drawing shows three figures—the king with a crown on his head, Katherine on one side, and a headless Anne on the other. Cranmer offers to destroy it,... (full context)

...daughter from Wolf Hall. Cromwell is surprised because he thought the Seymour girls were with Katherine. The girl says she goes where she’s sent, but Cromwell says she is “not where... (full context)

...eyes of Christian Europe,” but Cromwell disagrees. He hesitates to tell Henry that he and Katherine still share a roof and a court. Cromwell also thinks that Henry can admit any... (full context)

...“who she marries.” Norfolk says they have to act soon to get the divorce since “Katherine has half the lawyers of Europe pushing paper for her.” (full context)

...before he could rule, and though they acknowledge there was a sin in Henry’s marrying Katherine, “with God there is mercy enough.” Henry disagrees, saying his brother will plead against him... (full context)

Cromwell is speaking with Katherine in her chambers, and he notices that her daughter Mary Tudor seems to be in... (full context)

Katherine tells Mary Tudor in English that Cromwell is the man who “now writes all the... (full context)

Katherine says that Cromwell and Speaker Audley “induce the king to describe himself as head of... (full context)

Katherine says that in order “to soothe the conscience of the bishops,” Cromwell has introduced the... (full context)

...a soothing voice that he will return in a fortnight, and that in the meantime, Katherine is to head to the More, a residence in Hertfordshire. Mary Tudor says that, since... (full context)

Outside, Wriothesely, Rafe, and Gregory are waiting for Cromwell. He tells them that he told Katherine that Henry might separate her from Mary, and Wriothesley is surprised that Cromwell doesn’t know... (full context)

Gregory asks whether Cromwell would work to bring about Katherine’s death. Cromwell stops and “takes his son’s arm” and asks him to “retrace [his] steps... (full context)

...king loudly declared to “all of Christendom” that the king doubted his own marriage to Katherine but has sent “the lowest man in his employ to sweet-talk [Percy]” when Percy doubts... (full context)

...and sharp.” Cromwell is master of the jewels, and he is in charge of procuring Katherine’s jewels and redesigning them to Anne’s specifications. He feels that the “wind is set fair... (full context)

...if the king gets a new wife, but that she herself would prefer to serve Katherine up-country. Cromwell advises her to serve Anne Boleyn, saying she “will soften, when she has... (full context)

...sure that no one reads it. Anne is distraught thinking about all her enemies—the Emperor, Katherine, Katherine’s daughter Mary Tudor, Henry’s cousin Lord Exeter, who has a claim to the throne—and... (full context)

...Chapuys tells Henry he does not agree with the archbishop’s claim that his marriage to Katherine is void, and Henry says the “Pope has no power to make incest licit.” He... (full context)

...a reward, Henry makes Cromwell Chancellor of the Exchequer. Henry tells Cromwell to go see Katherine in order to make sure that she will spring no surprises at the court convened... (full context)

Cromwell goes to Katherine’s manor and she seems to have been expecting him, though no one has been sent... (full context)

Cromwell tells More that he has been to see “[More’s] queen,” Katherine, and More, “unblinking,” says that he isn’t in touch with her. Cromwell says that he... (full context)

...Boleyn void and says he will excommunicate the king if he does not return to Katherine. The Pope says that when Henry dies, “his corpse will be dug with animal bones... (full context)

...his excommunication of Henry. Henry tells Cromwell that he sometimes wishes that Pope Clement and Katherine were both dead. He then tells Cromwell that he may be a father again soon... (full context)

In December, Margaret Pole, aunt to Katherine’s daughter, Mary Tudor, comes to meet Cromwell to say he must not turn Mary out... (full context)

...and the king relents. That same month, the Pope finally gives his verdict on Queen Katherine’s marriage, saying that “the marriage is sound.” The Emperor’s supporters “let off fireworks in the... (full context)

In midsummer, Anne Boleyn has a miscarriage. That night, Henry tells Cromwell he blames Katherine for it since she wishes him ill. He says that when he lies with Anne,... (full context)

...sometimes. He is also anxious that many of his subjects haven’t accepted his divorce from Katherine. When he is out riding, they shout at him to take her back. He worries... (full context)

...says she is glad to have seen the king, and that she understands now why Katherine doesn’t want to let him go—Henry “is a man very apt to be loved.” She... (full context)

Wolf Hall

Queen Katherine Character Analysis

Queen Katherine Quotes in Wolf Hall

Part 1: Chapter 2 Quotes

Part 2: Chapter 2 Quotes

Part 4: Chapter 2 Quotes

Queen Katherine Character Timeline in Wolf Hall