Trauma And Memory: Inquisitional Echoes In Philippa Gregory’s The Queen’s Fool

Abstract

Philippa Gregory’s The Queen’s Fool brings a complex narrative environment where history, trauma, and memory converge. Focusing on the protagonist, Hannah Green, the paper analyses how the traumatic memories of the Spanish Inquisition shape her perceptions, decisions, and interactions within England's tumultuous political and religious landscape. The analysis highlights the inquisitional practices and ideologies in the novel, placing the narrative within the larger historical memories of religious persecutions in Spain and England. Through Hannah’s masquerading as a Christian fool in the English court, Gregory reimagines the transnational inquisitional trauma and its psychological lasting mark on the survivors. By emphasising Hannah’s internal conflicts and her traumatic memories, Gregory’s narrative reflects intolerance, forced conversions, and survival.