MBTI Type: ESTJ

Katharine is highly proactive in political affairs, pushing her husband to build an alliance with Spain through a marriage between their daughter and her nephew, Emperor Charles. Henry becomes angry with her in the first episode, for being too “heavy handed” and trying to tell him how to run his kingdom (she smiles and says, “I am my father’s daughter,” referring to political tactics learned from Ferdinand of Spain). She often later makes remarks about Henry and Wolsey underestimating her due to her being a “poor woman,” inferring mockery for their assumption of her weakness. She bluntly tells her husband what she thinks, right down to her annoyance over his “beard… and what it represents.” She never chastises Henry for his affairs, or his love for Anne; she takes him on as an opponent. She has been a loyal, devoted, and patient wife to a husband who compulsively cheats on, neglects, and humiliates her by being romantic toward other women in her presence. As the first season progresses, we see her determination to cling to and remain in the past – her belief that Henry will treat Anne Boleyn no different from his other used and discarded mistresses (and her shock when this is not the case), her demands that they live as they used to, her expectation that he will treat her with kindness, and her refusal to back down from her position as queen or change her circumstances (she takes the suggestion she step aside and abdicate into a nunnery as an insult). Her biggest mistake is her complete misreading of who is responsible for her current miseries – she places all the blame on Cardinal Wolsey as an instigator, rather than accurately perceiving her husband being the driving force behind it, and this miscalculation worsens her situation. The further proceedings go, the more she self-doubts and questions her former perceptions; and the more fearful she becomes of her uncertain future. At first, she puts on politeness, appealing to her husband using a subservient attitude and tenderness, but the more he pressures her for a divorce, the more her facade slips. She tells off Anne for her ambitions, she reprimands the Cardinal for his immorality, and the more others pressure her to give in, the more she becomes increasingly disinterested in compromise. Katharine walks out of her trial and refuses to return; she insists on being called the queen and in mending her husband’s shirts. When Chapuys councils her to not give in, she assures him she will NEVER back down, but also makes decisions based on pure principles (her refusal to encourage her nephew to invade England on her behalf). Katharine largely suffers in silence.

Enneagram: 1w2 so/sp

Katharine cannot comprehend Henry’s motives in the divorce, because she would never do such things – tell lies about someone she loved in court to obtain a divorce, break away from the Catholic Church, or mistreat her and her daughter as he has done. She holds herself to a much higher standard, though also operates a great deal out of anger and resentment. She judges Wolsey for his mistress and three children and scorns his ambitions. Katharine often urges her husband to do the right thing, but also uses her 2 wing to try and appeal to his emotions, attempting to manipulate him into returning to her. When this fails, she operates on a sense of righteousness, believing herself to be in the right. And when she fears the emperor may invade England on her behalf, Katharine tells him not to – “it would be a sin, against God and my conscience.” When Brandon tries to pressure her into giving in, she says she will answer only to God and her conscience. When Sir Thomas More visits her, alone and near the end of her life, Katharine says she would rather suffer and remember God’s presence than forget him in a life of happiness. Her 2 wing also makes her generous and compassionate (Wolsey says she is be “a far greater and more gracious lady” than Anne Boleyn, and “more likely to forgive”).