Queen Gertrude

Queen Gertrude was born in Austria, the younger sister of Margaret of Habsburg. Sent to Denmark and betrothed to King Hamlet Sr, she remarried his brother, Claudius, upon the king’s untimely death.

Backstory
As a child, Gertrude's father, Emperor Maximilian I, promised her that she would be one of the most powerful women in the world. He fulfilled this oath by marrying her into the royal family of Denmark.

For years, Irma has been Gertrude's closest confidante in Elsinore, having come with her to Denmark from Austria.

Gertrude's marriage to King Hamlet was loveless and political, but through her love for her son, Gertrude has fully acclimatised to life at the Danish court. Gertrude also carried on an affair with her brother-in-law, Claudius, while her husband was still alive, reasoning that she deserved happiness of her own.

She expresses to Horatio that, after all these years, she considers herself Danish. Despite this, she still painfully misses her sister Margaret, who she believes is the only person to have ever known or understood her. During Gertrude's first years in Denmark, Margaret responded to Gertrude's letters telling her to forget Margaret and Austria, and eventually stopping writing Gertrude altogether. This deeply hurt Gertrude, but she seems to have internalised her sister's advice, pouring all the love she had for Margaret into her husband and son. Still, it is one of Gertrude's dearest wishes to see Margaret again.

Prior to the events of the game, Gertrude privately suspects her illicit lover and now-husband Claudius of murdering her husband Hamlet, but cannot bring herself to face these fears fully.