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Katherine of Aragon begins the play as King Henry VIII’s wife and England’s queen. Whereas she is his first wife, he is her second husband. Prior to marrying Henry, Katherine was married to Henry’s brother, Arthur. However, when Arthur died, Henry took Katherine as his wife. The terms of this remarriage are the primary focus of Henry’s move to divorce Katherine in the play. Spurred on by Cardinal Wolsey, Henry has become concerned that it was illegitimate for him to marry his dead brother’s wife. For her part, Katherine strenuously contests the claim to illegitimacy. In numerous eloquent and emotionally powerful speeches, she reminds the king of her twenty years of devotion, and she refuses to allow a schemer like Wolsey pass judgment on her. Yet as she frequently acknowledges, her status as a woman gives her little real power. As a woman of Spanish origin, she is made yet more vulnerable by being a foreigner with no countrymen to advise or support her. In the end, then, she’s forced to accept the divorce, and in the aftermath of the separation, she prepares herself for death.
Katherine suffers the indignity of being divorced and reduced from queen to princess dowager, and in this regard, she numbers among the other political victims in the play. However, from a more symbolic point of view, she is arguably the play’s most triumphant figure. For one thing, from the beginning she demonstrates an intelligence and perceptiveness that outshines everyone. During Buckingham’s trial, for instance, she’s the only one to observe that the former employee who has been brought to testify against the duke holds a grudge and thus likely gives false testimony. She also recognizes that Wolsey is ambitious and deceptive, so when it comes to her own trial, she rejects the court on the grounds that the cardinal’s judgment will inevitably be impartial. In each of these instances, Katherine demonstrates admirable self-possession, and she is careful to protect her spotless honor. She is rewarded with a hopeful dream vision in which masked figures dance around her with garlands of bay that symbolize her spiritual triumph. Katherine therefore faces her death with her head held high.
