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Summary
King Henry VIII enters with Cardinal Wolsey and Sir Thomas Lovell. The king ascends to his throne, thanks Wolsey for stopping the plots against him, and asks for Buckingham’s estate manager to be called in to speak. Just then, Queen Katherine enters with Norfolk and the duke of Suffolk.
Katherine kneels before the king, intending to make a request. She says she has been asked to speak on behalf of the king’s subjects, who are upset about a new tax that has been levied against them. While the people complain mostly about Wolsey, the originator of the taxes, they speak, too, against the king, and she warns that rebellion looms. The king says he has not heard about this tax, but the queen reminds him that whether he created it or not, he is held responsible for it.
The king asks for more information, and the queen explains that the tax is said to help pay for campaigns in France, which angers the people. Wolsey claims he only set it up because the judges told him to, but he urges the king not to make changes just to please those who would say negative things. Wolsey says that what nobles do best is often viewed in the public eye as their worst act, while their worst works come to look like their best. But the king thinks the tax is too burdensome, so he repeals it and then pardons anyone imprisoned for resisting it. Wolsey tells his secretary to comply with the king’s order, but he quietly instructs him to make it seem like the tax was revoked due to the cardinal’s intercession.
Buckingham’s Surveyor, who formerly ran the duke’s estate, enters. Katherine says to the king that she thinks it is a pity that Buckingham is out of favor, and the king agrees, but he thinks that advantageous positions sometimes lead to corruption, even in the seemingly wonderful Buckingham. Wolsey orders the Surveyor to recount what he knows of Buckingham.
The Surveyor says that he heard Buckingham say he intended to arrange for the crown to fall to him should the king die without a male heir. Apparently, a friar had led him to believe that he could be in line to the throne, and Buckingham shared this information with his friends. Katherine notes that Buckingham fired the Surveyor because of complaints from the tenants; thus, the Surveyor’s testimony may be aimed at getting revenge on Buckingham. But the king urges the Surveyor to continue.
The Surveyor says Buckingham declared that if the king died, he would have Wolsey and Lovell killed and take the throne for himself. Further, he quotes Buckingham speaking of the role his father played in Richard III’s struggle for the throne. Where his father could have stabbed Richard III to death, but was restrained by loyalty, Buckingham intends to appear loyal yet kill the king. The king now believes Buckingham is a traitor who intends to assassinate him, and he calls for a trial.
Analysis
Scene 2 continues to develop the conflict between Wolsey and Buckingham. The action presented here provides clear evidence of Buckingham’s claims against Wolsey. The very fact that Wolsey has instigated a new tax in Henry’s name but without his knowledge indicates that he is encroaching on the king’s authority. Wolsey further confirms his status as a self-serving schemer when he whispers to his secretary about taking credit for repealing the tax. Even so, the cardinal occupies a position of power, as indicated by the fact that he is seated immediately below the king, as specified in the stage directions. From this position, he directs the testimony against Buckingham, in which his grudging former employee, the Surveyor, bears witness to the duke’s alleged treason. Although Buckingham isn’t present to defend himself against these allegations, it’s notable that Queen Katherine attempts to intervene on his behalf. She astutely questions the validity of testimony given by someone with clear motives for vengeance. Sadly, no one heeds her observation.
Yet Katherine isn’t entirely without power. After all, she is the one who brings the issue of the tax to the king’s attention. The queen wants Henry to be more generous and to not make the people pay for the campaigns in France. She doesn’t ask merely out of a soft heart, but because she has foreseen unrest and rebellion if the people’s complaints are ignored. The queen’s interventions show her to be the most generous, kind, and wise person in the scene. All the evidence we have so far indicates that she is a generous person, seemingly more aware than the king of the danger presented by his closest counsellors. Yet she will be the next to fall.
Henry, meanwhile, shows himself to be an inattentive leader. We already heard tell that his display of pomp and circumstance in France was bold and expensive, which may give us cause to distrust his sense of economy. Now that he’s back in England, he appears equally unaware of his kingdom’s financial situation, seemingly content to let others handle money matters. To his credit, he is quick to repeal the excessive tax when his wife brings it to his attention. From another perspective, however, he may simply be invested in optics, wanting to seem generous and benevolent by revoking a hated policy. Ultimately, though, his main goal is to thwart the more serious danger of popular rebellion.
Scene 2 also introduces an anxiety related to the king’s crisis of succession. Buckingham’s alleged plan to inherit the throne rests on the fact that Henry doesn’t have any viable heirs, which makes a coup distinctly possible. For this reason, the reference to Buckingham’s father is a genuine cause for concern. As Shakespeare depicted in Richard III, Buckingham’s father, who was also the duke of Buckingham, served as Richard’s right-hand man in his bloody struggle for the throne. After helping Richard dispatch several royal family members who preceded Richard in line to the throne, the elder Buckingham began to doubt Richard. When Richard got the throne, Buckingham asked for the lands that Richard had promised him, but Richard, seeing Buckingham’s doubt, executed him. The Surveyor suggests that the younger Buckingham would himself reverse this situation. Thus, rather than being punished for being loyal like his father, the younger Buckingham would rather strike first, using the pretense of loyalty to get to the king.
