---
type: Person
title: Lady Catherine de Bourgh
description: Wealthy widow of Rosings Park in Kent, patroness of Mr. Collins and aunt
  of Mr. Darcy.
resource: raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt
tags:
- rosings-park
- kent
- gentry
timestamp: '2026-07-16T18:15:29Z'
citadel_version: 0.3.0
---

Lady Catherine de Bourgh, widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh, owns [Rosings Park](../misc/rosings-park.md)
in Kent and is patroness of the Hunsford living held by [Mr. Collins](../persons/mr-collins.md).[^s1]
She is the sister of the late Lady Anne Darcy, making her [Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md)'s
aunt.[^s2] She has one daughter, Miss de Bourgh, heiress of Rosings and "of very extensive
property"; it is rumoured that she and her cousin Darcy will one day "unite the two estates."[^s3]
Mr. Collins reports that a single drawing-room chimney-piece at Rosings cost eight hundred
pounds.[^s4]

Mr. Collins describes her as gracious and condescending toward him, but
[George Wickham](../persons/george-wickham.md) tells Elizabeth he recalls her manners as
"dictatorial and insolent," and suggests her reputation for sense owes as much to her rank and
fortune as to any real ability — an assessment Elizabeth had already independently suspected from
Collins's own account of her.[^s5]

Hosting [Elizabeth Bennet](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md) at dinner, Lady Catherine questions her
minutely on her family, remarking on the [entail](../concepts/entail.md) of Longbourn onto Collins
("your father's estate is entailed on Mr. Collins, I think?") and expressing astonishment that the
Bennets raised five daughters without a governess: "No governess! How was that possible? ... Your
mother must have been quite a slave to your education."[^s6] She speaks of her nephew
[Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md)'s expected visit "with the greatest
satisfaction" and seems "almost angry" that he had already called on the Collinses and Lucases
before she could arrange it herself, consistent with her expectation that he is destined to marry
her daughter.[^s7] On later learning from Collins's letter of [Lydia Bennet](../persons/lydia-bennet.md)'s
elopement, she is reported to have said that this "false step in one daughter will be injurious to
the fortunes of all the others," asking who "will connect themselves with such a family."[^s8]

## Confrontation at Longbourn

On hearing a report that [Elizabeth Bennet](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md) may marry her nephew
[Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md), Lady Catherine travels unannounced to
[Longbourn](../misc/longbourn.md) to demand it be denied.[^s9] She tells Elizabeth "this match... can
never take place," citing Darcy's supposed lifelong "tacit engagement" to her own daughter, Miss de
Bourgh, and warns that if Elizabeth persists she "will be censured, slighted, and despised, by
everyone connected with him."[^s10] She further invokes Lydia's "infamous elopement" and Wickham's
being "the son of his late father's steward," demanding to know, "Are the shades of Pemberley to be
thus polluted?"[^s11] Elizabeth refuses either to deny an engagement or to promise never to enter
one; Lady Catherine departs "highly incensed," telling Elizabeth, "I take no leave of you, Miss
Bennet. I send no compliments to your mother."[^s12] She writes to Darcy repeating her objections in
even more forceful terms, unaware that — contrary to her purpose — the visit convinces Darcy that
Elizabeth's feelings toward him have changed, since she refused to disavow him outright.[^s13]

On learning that Darcy and Elizabeth are in fact engaged, Lady Catherine is "extremely indignant"
and sends him an abusive letter, especially of Elizabeth, breaking off contact for a time; she is
eventually persuaded, by Elizabeth's own efforts, to reconcile and later condescends to visit them
at [Pemberley](../misc/pemberley.md).[^s14]

## See also

- [Rosings Park](../misc/rosings-park.md)
- [Mr. Collins](../persons/mr-collins.md)
- [Fitzwilliam Darcy](../persons/fitzwilliam-darcy.md)
- [Elizabeth Bennet](../persons/elizabeth-bennet.md)
- [Colonel Fitzwilliam](../persons/colonel-fitzwilliam.md)
- [Longbourn](../misc/longbourn.md)
- [Pemberley](../misc/pemberley.md)

## Sources

[^s1]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3009-3013 — Lady Catherine as Collins's patroness (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s2]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3762-3765 — Lady Catherine as Darcy's aunt (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s3]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3168-3169; 3770-3771 — Miss de Bourgh's inheritance and rumoured match with Darcy (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s4]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3457-3460 — the Rosings chimney-piece, per Collins's account (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s5]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 3778-3788 — Elizabeth's and Wickham's assessment of Lady Catherine, attributed (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s6]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 6607-6608; 6640-6642 — Lady Catherine's dinner interrogation of Elizabeth (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s7]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 6815-6817 — Lady Catherine's anticipation of Darcy's visit (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s8]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 11109-11115 — Lady Catherine's reaction, per Collins, to Lydia's elopement (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s9]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 13123-13135; 13233-13241 — Lady Catherine's unannounced arrival at Longbourn (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s10]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 13283-13285; 13298-13301; 13311-13316 — Lady Catherine's demand and warning (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s11]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 13390-13395 — Lady Catherine invokes Lydia's elopement and Wickham's parentage (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s12]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 13401-13402; 13436-13437 — Lady Catherine's departure (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s13]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 13720-13733 — the visit's unintended effect on Darcy (ingested 2026-07-16)
[^s14]: [raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt](../../raw/pride-and-prejudice.txt), lines 14501-14512 — Lady Catherine's anger and eventual reconciliation (ingested 2026-07-16)
