What is the name of Mr. Collins's wealthy patroness?

Mr. Collins’s wealthy patroness is Lady Catherine de Bourgh. She is the formidable owner of Rosings Park in Kent and the aunt of Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Lady Catherine supports Mr. Collins because he is the rector of Hunsford, a parish connected with her estate. Collins repeatedly praises her judgment and authority, while she treats him as a useful but socially inferior dependent. His obsequious devotion provides some of the novel’s sharpest comedy.

Lady Catherine is the widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh and the mother of Anne de Bourgh. She is also the sister of Lady Anne Darcy, Darcy’s late mother. Her wealth, rank, and forceful personality make her one of the clearest representatives of aristocratic privilege in the novel.

Readers sometimes confuse Lady Catherine with Lady Anne Darcy because both are connected to Darcy’s family. Lady Anne Darcy is Darcy’s mother; Lady Catherine de Bourgh is his aunt and Mr. Collins’s patroness.