Henry VIII Characters

The play is named for him, so you know he's important. In fact, King Henry VIII  is one of those English kings that most of us have already heard of even before we come across Shakespeare's pl...

At the beginning of the play, Cardinal Wolsey is Henry's right-hand man. He's involved in all Henry's political and personal stuff, and he advises the king on major decisions. We learn from Bucking...

Poor Katherine. It's not her fault that Henry wants to marry some hot young thing, or that Wolsey is out to get her. It hardly matters, though: where there's a will, there's a way. Wolsey concocts...

This Archbishop of Canterbury is Henry's "learnèd and well-belovèd servant" (2.4.263). Too bad not everyone agrees: the council members won't even let the guy in the door when he's accused of som...

One dance with Anne, and Henry is a smitten kitten. Who can blame him? The gents all tell us that she's "the sweetest face I ever looked on" (4.1.53); "saint-like" (4.1.100); and "an angel" (4.1.54...

If only everyone would have listened to Buckingham. From the very beginning, the this dude sees right through Wolsey. He boldly proclaims, "No man's pie is freed / from his ambitious finger"—and...

Cardinal Campeius is sent by the Pope to England to see what's up with the whole divorce thing. He's supposed to figure out whether Henry's divorce should be legal from the Church's point of view;...

Good friends are hard to find, and Thomas Cromwell might be Wolsey's only real friend. Sure, Wolsey has a bunch of buddies when he's high and mighty, but Cromwell is the only one who sticks around...

First a secretary, then a council member, Gardiner makes quite an impact for a minor character. We think he'd be better off known as 007, because Gardiner is one sneaky little spy. When Wolsey assi...

Did someone call for some comic relief? The Old Lady is at your service. The Old Lady tells it like it is. She ribs Anne when Anne swears doesn't want to be queen. Then, when Anne gets a promotion...

These lords of the court are mostly around for—you guessed it—the court scenes. They help read charges and hear evidence in a case; they also give us some insight into what people think of the...

You might think these gents aren't important because they don't even receive names, but think again: the gentlemen's peanut gallery gives us a lot of crucial commentary in this play. These dudes sh...

The baby princess is only in the play for one scene, but Cranmer sure knows how to talk about her: "Those about her / from her shall read the perfect ways of honor" (5.4.44-45), he says—and yikes...

These two dudes aren't in the play very long. Griffith is Katherine's usher (her servant), and Capuchius is an ambassador from her father, the King of Spain. Both men help Katherine out by staying...

The Prologue opens the play with the line: "I come no more to make you laugh," but we beg to differ (Prologue.1). In fact, the Prologue and the Epilogue have a sly sense of humor that makes us chuc...