Minor characters in the House of Cards trilogy

This article is about characters in the House of Cards trilogy other than Francis Urquhart. The trilogy consists of three separate four part serials, House of Cards, To Play the King and The Final Cut, all based on identically-titled novels by Michael Dobbs.

Elizabeth Urquhart (Diane Fletcher) (created Countess Urquhart after his death), is Francis Urquhart's wife. She appears to have a great deal of power over her husband, and often identifies his powers and abilities, or persuades him to use a given situation to his advantage. When Prime Minister Henry Collingridge overlooks Francis for a Cabinet promotion, it is Elizabeth who encourages Francis to plot to remove Collingridge and take office himself. In series one episode two, she also suggests Francis begin an affair with Mattie Storin so that he may further secure her trust and loyalty, and thus better use his position to feed information to her, thereby influencing her articles.

It is implied in the first installment of the trilogy that it is her idea, not Francis', to murder Roger O'Neill, a colleague whom Francis had been using to his advantage. Unlike her husband, who clearly feels remorse after killing, she is cold and callous, and does not seem to have a problem with arranging murders to suit their purposes. However, she appears to truly love her husband and kills him to spare him the disgrace of exposure, resignation, trial, life imprisonment, and eternal historical damnation.

In the TV version of The Final Cut, she has Francis murdered to secure their legacies and her pension. Before he dies, she, her right eye spattered with his blood, lovingly holds him in her arms and assures him: "Francis... my dear... you're safe now. It was the only way, my darling. You do understand?" Likewise, Urquhart's love for Elizabeth is shown by his last word, a gurgled, deathlike "Elizabeth".

In the first book, she is called Miranda.

Tim Stamper (Colin Jeavons) is one of Francis Urquhart's closest friends and aides. In the first series, he is a Junior Whip to Urquhart as Chief Whip; in the second series, he is Chief Whip and later Chairman of the Conservative Party. Stamper did not appear in the House of Cards novel on which the BBC series was based, though the series' author, Michael Dobbs, introduced him in its sequel, To Play the King (1993).

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