Summary of the Clerk's Tale

It all started with Walter, the independent marquis, in Mount Viso, Italy. He refused to marry, until  many people begged him to find a wife.

The marquis immediately claimed Griselde, the daughter of a poor man, Janicula, as his wife as soon as he caught sight of her, despite her social class. He asked Janicula for permission to marry her, and he was more than happy to allow him to. When Walter asked Griselde for her hand in marriage, he also told her that she would have to do whatever he told her to at all times, and to never disobey him. Griselde promised to follow his rules.

Walter provided fancy clothes and jewelry for Griselde, so the public could assume she was born as nobility.  She gave birth to a baby girl, yet Walter quickly wanted to put Griselde to the test to see if his wife would keep her word. He told her that he would have to take her away because the rest of the nobility did not approve of her, and she would be put to death. Without question or complaints, Griselde accepted this and gave her baby away, keeping her word. The baby was never really killed though.

They both had a baby boy four years later, and Walter decided to put his wife to the test again, so just as he did with their daughter, he had their child sent away, with Griselde thinking they were being killed. Griselde again made no arguments against her husband, and kissed her two-year old son goodbye. After, people began to think Walter was murdering his children and became suspicious. Walter told Griselde that he was going to marry another woman, and divorce her, putting her yet again to another test, and she accepted his request without any complaints, and returned home back to her poor father. Really, Walter was not going to divorce her, and he was planning to have his kids sent back to them.

When Griselde attended, what she thought was Walter's dinner celebrating his new wife, Walter told her that everything he did was a test, and that they are not getting a divorce. Since she never broke her promise, they would stay married and have their kids. He revealed to her that her kids were never killed, and so she reunited with them that night.