King Henry VIII
Henry VIII, the play's namesake.
Henry begins the play under the powerful influence of Cardinal Wolsey and is
easily persuaded to do away with Buckingham. Wolsey then convinces him that his
marriage to the queen is illegal, since Katharine was his brother's widow. So,
Henry divorces Katharine, intending to marry the beautiful Anne Bullen (the
historical Anne Boleyn). He finally realizes that Wolsey is manipulating him
when he intercepts letters between Wolsey and the Pope discussing his divorce.
Angered, Henry strips Wolsey of his title and wealth, then marries Anne and
announces it to the kingdom. Henry gains a more active role finally when his
friend Cranmer is threatened by negative rumors. Giving his ring to Cranmer,
the king watches the trial and intervenes to save Cranmer and to scold the
lords of their court for their constant infighting. Father to the child (who
will grow up to become the great Queen Elizabeth), Henry concludes the play at
her baptism, believing that bringing her into the world is the best thing he
has done.
The king's right-hand man, Wolsey is quite a
schemer. He engineers a truce with France before the play begins, then a break
with Spain when the king divorces Katharine, who is the daughter of the king of
Spain. He plants the idea in Henry's mind that his marriage to Katharine is
illegal because he wants Henry to marry the daughter of the king of France,
thus, solidifying the treaty he engineered. But he inadvertently introduces
Anne Bullen to the king at a dinner, and Henry is smitten. In a letter, Wolsey
tries to convince the Pope to deny Henry a divorce until Henry gets over his
infatuation with Anne. But Henry intercepts the letter, along with an inventory
of all the lands and holdings Wolsey has slowly been acquiring from fallen
lords. Henry, enraged at Wolsey's betrayal, fires him, removes his royal
protection, and takes his possessions. Wolsey finally understands that he was
wrong to have so much arrogance and realizes that he was out of his depth to be
plotting the future of the kingdom as he saw fit. Finally understanding
humility and honor to be the correct path, Wolsey sees the truth of his
wrongdoing. Humbly, he leaves the court and dies soon after in a monastery.
Married to King Henry VIII's
brother before marrying Henry, Queen Katharine is present at the trial of
Buckingham, and she is the only one who suspects any wrongdoing in the trial.
When Cardinal Wolsey convinces the king to divorce her, she rails against
Wolsey and accuses him of being her enemy. She refuses to let him judge her,
and she will not submit to the divorce. When Wolsey comes to her, speaking
kindly, she charges him with being a traitor and plotting to bring her down.
She speaks at length of her loyal nature as a wife for more than 20 years, and
she cannot believe she is being punished for it. If anything, she is being cast
out for not giving birth to a male heir, nor to the future Queen Elizabeth.
When Katharine is finally divorced, she is made "Princess Dowager."
After hearing her attendants speak well of Wolsey, she forgives him and has a
vision of her own imminent death.
Buckingham has just returned from France,
where he has developed a grudge against Cardinal Wolsey. He rails against
Wolsey and complains that Wolsey unfairly influences the king. Wolsey orders
him arrested. At his trial, Buckingham is accused of having plotted to gain the
throne (having been informed that he had a tenuous link to it should the king
die without an heir). Buckingham is executed.
Anne Bullen is an unmarried
lady when the king meets her at Cardinal Wolsey's dinner party. He is much
impressed with her and apparently has her in mind throughout his divorce
proceedings. Anne, speaking with one of her attendants about Katharine's misery
during the divorce, declares that she would never want to be the queen. Yet she
marries Henry, though the Pope has not consented to Henry and Katherine's
divorce. Later, she gives birth to the child Elizabeth, but remains offstage for
the remainder of the play, having hardly anything to do after her marriage but
to join in official processions and impress people with her beauty.
Archbishop of Canterbury, Cranmer spends the
first acts of the play offstage, traveling to colleges to ask scholars about
the legality of the king's divorce. As he travels, Gardiner spreads rumors
about him and plots his demise. The king discovers this and gives Cranmer the
king's own ring, so that he can appeal to the king in his trial. Cranmer is
innocent of any wrongdoing and seems not to understand why others would have it
in for him. When the king saves him from the Council, Cranmer forgives Gardiner
for plotting against him. He baptizes the child Elizabeth.
An emissary from the Pope, Campeius has come
to assess the situation of Henry's divorce and give his decision about its
legality. He carries papers from Rome that apparently grant the divorce, since
Henry plans to carry it out. He and Cardinal Wolsey speak to Katharine to
convince her to take part in the divorce proceedings, and they tell her that
Henry still loves her and plans to protect her. She curses them both. Later,
Campeius flees to Rome after Wolsey's correspondence with the Pope urging
against granting the divorce is discovered. It is not clear whether Campeius
supports or opposes the divorce or whether he was a pawn of the Pope or of
Wolsey.
A lord of the court. At
first, he does not believe Buckingham's criticism of Cardinal Wolsey and urges
Buckingham to hold his tongue. After Buckingham's fall, Norfolk and other lords
meet to scheme against Wolsey. When Wolsey falls into disgrace, Norfolk takes
part in reading charges against Wolsey. After Wolsey's demise, Norfolk is
promoted. He takes part in a trial to bring down Cranmer, but the king saves
Cranmer. Norfolk is in attendance at the baptism at the end of the play.
A lord of the court, Suffolk is present at
many court scenes. After the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, Suffolk gets a promotion.
He is a member of the Council that tries Cranmer.
A lord of the court, Lord
Chamberlain is present at many court scenes. He is a member of the Council that
tries Cranmer.
A lord of the court, Lord Chancellor
is present in many court scenes and presides over the Council that tries
Cranmer.
Friend of Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell is
devastated by Wolsey's demise. Yet Wolsey encourages him to go back to the king
and continue serving the state. Wolsey tells Cromwell to be honorable and
humble, to not have ambition or do what Wolsey has done. Cromwell follows
through soon thereafter, as one of Cranmer's only supporters.
A lord of the court, Sands is present in many
court scenes. Sands flirts with Anne Bullen at Wolsey's dinner party before the
king meets and marries her.
A lord of the court, Lovell is present in many
court scenes.
Formerly Cardinal
Wolsey's secretary, Wolsey assigns Gardiner to the king with the understanding
that he will remain loyal to Wolsey. When Wolsey falls from grace, Gardiner is
given a promotion and becomes a member of the Council. Gardiner has particular
hatred for Cranmer, and, out of lingering loyalty to Wolsey, tries to bring
Cranmer down. Yet the king intervenes and tells Gardiner to embrace Cranmer and
be friends.
A lord of the court, Guildford announces the
beginning of Wolsey's dinner party.
A lord of the court, Vaux escorts Buckingham
to his death.
Son-in-law of Buckingham, Surrey is
a lord of the court. Because of Buckingham's demise, Surrey is angry at
Cardinal Wolsey and wants to engineer his fall.
Buckingham's friend, taken to the
Tower at the same time Buckingham is arrested.
Sergeant at arms, Brandon is
sent to arrest Buckingham.
A lord of the court, Denny
brings Cranmer to speak to the king.
The king's doctor, Butts sees the
Council is up to no good when they refuse Cranmer entrance to the Council of
which he is a member. He watches the trial of Cranmer unobserved from above
with the king.
The Surveyor is brought in by
Cardinal Wolsey to speak against Buckingham at Buckingham's trial. The Surveyor
managed Buckingham's lands but was recently fired by Buckingham because of
complaints against him from tenants. Hence, the Surveyor holds a grudge against
Buckingham.
Anne Bullen's attendant. When Anne
speaks about how much she doesn't want to be the queen, the Old Lady tells her
she's wrong--any woman should want to be the queen.
Queen Katharine's attendant, Griffith speaks
kindly of Cardinal Wolsey, thus, convincing Katharine to cease hating him.
Griffith's kind elegy is filled with the kind of forgiveness and pity
encouraged in this play.
An ambassador from the king of Spain in the
English court, the king sends Capucius to talk to Katharine, the daughter of
the king of Spain. Katharine gives Capucius a letter asking the king to care
for their child and her servants.
The offspring of Henry and
Anne, christened Elizabeth, who will later become Queen Elizabeth.
This allegorical figure enters the scene at
the beginning of the play to make a short introduction to the play to the
audience.
This allegorical figure enters the scene at
the end of the play to make a short conclusion to the play, commenting on
whether or not the audience liked what it saw.
One of many regular people in the
street who eagerly attended every significant event in the play, from
Buckingham's sentencing to the coronation of Anne and the baptism of the child.
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