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Summary
Many official types enter a hall at Blackfriars, including bishops, dukes, and scribes, then Cardinal Wolsey, Cardinal Campeius, and the king and queen. Wolsey calls for silence while the report from Rome is read, but Henry says it has already been read; there is no need to read it again. Queen Katherine kneels at Henry’s feet and speaks.
She asks him to have pity on her, now that she is a stranger in a foreign kingdom. She asks how she has offended Henry—what has she done to make him want to cast her off? She says she has been a true and loyal wife, always obeying him in every matter for twenty years, and she had many children with him. She says she is willing to accept God’s punishment for anything she might have done to offend Henry. She reminds Henry that his father and hers, the king of Spain, were both wise men who conferred and agreed that their marriage was lawful. She begs the king to allow her time to receive counsel from Spain before submitting to a trial.
Wolsey declares that many learned men are on hand, yet they cannot sway the king from his course, so there is no point in delaying proceedings. Campeius agrees that they should proceed. The queen then addresses Wolsey and says she believes he is her enemy, so she will not allow him to be her judge. She believes that his scheming is the reason for these proceedings. Wolsey says she doesn’t sound like herself; she does him wrong in speaking this way. Claiming to have nothing against her, he notes that the case against her has been discussed by many others beside himself, and he denies having stirred up trouble in the marriage.
Katherine says that she is unable to defend herself against Wolsey’s cunning. She accuses him of being arrogant and proud and of having gone above the power of his office to influence the king. She repeats that she will not be judged by him, and she tries to depart. Campeius and the king call her back, but she insists that she will not stay, and she leaves.
Henry lets her go, saying that no man has had a better wife. He speaks further of her noble and obedient nature. Wolsey asks the king to declare whether he has influenced him unduly regarding Katherine, and the king consents to clear Wolsey’s name, excusing him from Katherine’s accusations.
The king then relates how he came to doubt the legality of his marriage. He tells how an ambassador from France came to negotiate for the hand of the king’s daughter and asked if she was legitimate, which set the king thinking. He thought he must not be doing right in the eyes of heaven, since every child born to Katherine either miscarried, died soon after birth, or else was a girl. Believing this pattern was a sign that Katherine was unfit to be queen, and despite his feelings for her, he initiated the divorce process. The king says he first spoke to some of his nobles about his plans, later asking the opinion of all his men. Therefore, it was not out of dislike for the queen that he chose to divorce her, but out of a widely shared belief that the marriage had been unlawful.
Campeius says they must adjourn until another day, when the queen is present to complete the divorce. Henry notes to himself that he doesn’t like the tricks of these cardinals, and he has no respect for Rome. He looks forward to the return of Cranmer, his trustworthy religious advisor.
Analysis
Just as Buckingham had his day in court, the queen must be tried before she can be cast off. Katherine is undoubtedly the star of this scene. Her speeches are powerful and emotionally resonant, signaling her virtue and evoking pathos in the audience, who can’t help but feel for the injustice of her situation. As compared to Anne Bullen in the previous scene, Katherine is clearly the more experienced and self-assured woman. Indeed, her experience is mentioned several times in the scene. Katherine cites her twenty years of marriage to the king, prior to which she was married to his brother. This reminder of her longstanding relation to the king perhaps unintentionally suggests the real reason for these proceedings. Though Henry doesn’t despise his current—and middle-aged—queen, he is clearly smitten with a much younger woman. Thus, sexual attraction outweighs matrimonial longevity.
With this in mind, the lengthy explanation Henry offers about how he came to consider divorcing Katherine seems little more than a weak excuse. Indeed, the whole “trial” seems a mere formality. Henry is not concerned with the verdict Rome, which, it’s important to note, historically denied him the right to divorce Katherine. (Shakespeare conveniently skips over this detail.) At this point, he’s simply decided to be done with Katherine. She begs him to have pity on her, but he doesn’t reply. Instead, the cardinals respond. So, Katherine speaks of her suspicions about Wolsey, which she first presented when he brought Buckingham’s embittered former employee to testify against him. Wolsey claims that he didn’t influence the king against Katherine, and the king confirms it—but only after Katherine has left the scene. Though Henry speaks confidently and at length in this scene, he seems unable to address his cast-off queen directly. It’s only after she’s left that he waxes poetic about her good nature and fidelity. Once again, his weakness in the face of women stands at odds with his power as a king.
Even so, by the end of the scene it’s clear that Henry is starting to be suspicious of both cardinals. It may be possible to read some suspicion in Henry’s observation that many people have something against Wolsey: “You are not to be taught / That you have many enemies” (2.4.175–76). However, he quickly qualifies this point to indicate that Wolsey’s enemies have nothing on him. By contrast, Henry makes his suspicion of Campeius explicit in his final lines of the scene, where he implies that the cardinal’s desire to delay the trial is merely one of the “tricks of Rome” (2.4.262). In the ensuing action, these suspicions will grow, marking Wolsey as the play’s next victim after Katherine.
