A Prologue introduces the play as a story of real events.

The Duke of Norfolk and Lord Abergavenny tell the Duke of Buckingham about the meeting in France of King Henry and the French King, and of the peace agreement made but now already broken. Buckingham is concerned about the investigation by Cardinal Wolsey, the Lord Chancellor of England, of his servant, a Surveyor when he, Buckingham, and Abergavenny are unexpectedly arrested. At court King Henry agrees to the wisdom of Queen Katharine’s appeals for leniency towards woolen trade workers who are suffering from new taxes on their cloth. When the King agrees to relax the charges, Wolsey claims the credit for Henry’s action. The Queen also speaks, this time unsuccessfully, on Buckingham’s behalf against the word of his Surveyor.

Palace Lords discussing the new fashions brought from France meet Lord Lovell who is on his way to a feast at Wolsey’s palace at Hampton. Sir Henry Guilford welcomes Lady Ann Bullen and other guests at Hampton before Wolsey arrives in state. The feast continues when the King and his friends, disguised as foreign ‘shepherds’ arrive, and the King, who is recognised by Wolsey, chooses Ann as his dance partner.
Back in London Buckingham, condemned by false witnesses, addresses the crowds as he goes to his execution, while at court there is rumour that Wolsey’s power is growing and he is behind a probable separation between the King and Queen Katharine. Wolsey, Cardinal Campeius and Bishop Gardiner talk with the King about the validity of his long marriage to Katharine, while Ann Bullen is persuaded by her companion to welcome the King’s favours.

At her trial Queen Katharine asks to be allowed advisers from her native Spain and when Wolsey refuses she accuses him of being responsible for her loss of Henry’s love. She appeals to the Pope and leaves, while Henry tells the court that it was the French who first questioned the validity of his marriage to his dead brother’s widow.

Katharine seeks solace with her ladies and music, but is interrupted by Wolsey and Campeius who try to persuade her to submit to the King’s wishes. Henry’s secret marriage to Ann Bullen is the talk of the court when Wolsey realises the King resents the Cardinal’s accumulated wealth. Suffolk, Norfolk and other lords demand that Wolsey gives up the great seal as Lord Chancellor as Thomas More has been chosen to succeed him, and Cranmer is to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Wolsey advises his secretary Cromwell to serve the King despite the Cardinal’s fall.

Queen Ann is crowned amid splendour at court while, in retirement, Katharine hears of Wolsey‘s death at Leicester. She dreams of her own death and asks her servants to see that she is buried with due recognition as a Queen.

Court gossip is of changes that include charges against the new Archbishop, and that Queen Ann has born a baby daughter. Cranmer’s enemies on the Privy Council, including Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, condemn the Archbishop to the Tower of London, but he has the King’s support and Winchester is ordered to make his peace with Cranmer who has been chosen to be godfather to the baby Princess Elizabeth. Londoners watch the christening procession, and as he baptises her Archbishop Cranmer prophesies that Elizabeth will become great and bring peace and plenty to England.

An Epilogue briefly requests the approval of the audience for the play that has told the history of their Queen’s birth.

©Marian J. Pringle
Special Collections Librarian
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust