# Griseldis — The Canterbury Tales character guide

> Griseldis in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** this Griseldis, Griseld, Griselda

**First appearance:** 0023-the-clerk-s-tale

## Snapshot

A poor peasant's daughter raised to a marquis's throne, whose unshakable patience under her husband's cruelties becomes both her glory and her chains.

## Who they are

Griseldis is a low-born maiden whose virtue and humility lift her to marriage with the Marquis Walter, ruler of Saluzzo. Walter tests her with escalating torments — taking her children, seeming to annul their marriage, summoning her to serve his new bride — and she answers each with a calm obedience that unsettles as much as it awes. Her story is the Clerk's answer to the Wife of Bath, an argument about what women truly want and what patience costs.

## Relationships

### [Palamon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/palamon)

_social_

Griseldis appears in the same narrative framework as Palamon, linked by the Clerk's tale and the storytelling context.

### [Palamon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/palamon)

_social_

Griseldis appears in the same narrative framework as Palamon, linked by the Clerk's tale and the storytelling context.

## In the story

### [The Clerk's Tale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/the-clerk-s-tale)

The patient and virtuous wife who endures Walter's cruel tests without complaint.

### [The Clerk's Tale of Griselda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/the-tale)

The patient and virtuous wife who endures extreme tests of loyalty and obedience from her husband.

### [Pars Secunda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/pars-secunda)

The virtuous and poor maiden who becomes the marchioness, swearing total obedience to Walter.

### [Pars Tertia](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/pars-tertia)

Griselda endures the marquis's cruel test with unwavering patience, meekly surrendering her daughter and blessing the child without weeping or complaint.

### [Pars Quarta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/pars-quarta)

Remains utterly patient and obedient, declaring she has no will but her husband's, even when her children are taken.

### [Pars Quinta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/pars-quinta)

The patient wife who humbly accepts her husband's decree, returns to her father's house, and asks only for a smock to cover her womb.

### [Pars Sexta](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/pars-sexta)

The patient and faithful wife who endures Walter's tests and is ultimately reunited with her children.

### [L'Envoy of Chaucer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/l-envoy-of-chaucer)

Referenced as the epitome of patience, now dead and buried in Italy, serving as a cautionary example.

### [The Prologue](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/the-prologue)

The Merchant references Griselda's great patience as a contrast to his wife's cruelty.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters/griseldis
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/characters