KATHARINE

a lady attending on the Princess of France in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Largely a stock courtly character meant to swell the play's romantic procession, she has a emotional moment in Act V when she is reminded of her sister's death. Katharine is paired with Dumaine. also spelled Katherine daughter of King Charles VI of France, later the wife of King Henry in Shakespeare's Henry V. The princess and her dowry of French lands are part of the prize that Henry seeks in his war against France. Although Katharine marries Henry out of political necessity, Shakespeare develops the comedy and earnestness of their wooing so that the need for human trust and genuine affection is evident. Her stumbling attempts to learn English also provide some lighter moments away from the war. wife of the king in Shakespeare's Henry VIII, later divorced. Katharine is one of the few wholly sympathetic characters in the play and provides a consistent moral centre amid the intrigue and corruption of the court. Historically, Katharine of Aragon was the first of Henry VIII's six wives and was the mother of Queen Mary I (who was the first queen to rule England in her own right).