“The Clerk’s Prologue and Tale” is story about a king named Walter who pushes his wife’s loyalty and tests her with a series of terrible wishes. It is through Walter’s actions that the reader is able to examine sovereignty within the marriage of the king and his wife, Griselda. Sovereignty is the state in of having supreme authority over something or someone. A power that Walter has over defenseless Griselda. Griselda “if one should speak… fostered in dire poverty was she, no lust luxurious in her heart had run.” (157-160). The fact that Griselda was raised in poverty during that time period makes her believe she must do as the king tells her. This leads her to not know self-empowerment and easy target to control. From the beginning, naïve
