CHARACTER
A Discovery of Witchesby Deborah Harkness

Peter Knox

Peter Knox

Quick Facts

  • Role: High-ranking witch, member of the Congregation, and primary antagonist
  • First appearance: Chapter 4, Bodleian Library
  • Public persona: Author and occult expert; private reality: ruthless political operator
  • Key relationships: Adversary to Diana Bishop, mortal enemy of Matthew Clairmont, power broker within the Congregation, manipulator of Gillian Chamberlain

Who He Is

A quintessential old-guard enforcer, Peter Knox believes witches should dominate creature politics and knowledge—and that the covenant’s segregation must be absolute. He presents himself as a mild, tweedy academic even as he deploys intimidation, psychic violation, and institutional muscle to keep power in witch hands and Ashmole 782 out of everyone else’s. When Diana Bishop first meets him, the mismatch between appearance and menace is immediate:

He was dressed in familiar academic garb—brown tweed jacket with suede elbow patches, corduroy pants in a slightly jarring tone of green, and a cotton shirt with a button-down collar and ink stains on the pocket—and I was ready to dismiss him as just another Oxford scholar before my skin tingled to tell me that he was a witch.

— Chapter 4

His benign mask lets him glide through human and creature worlds while concealing a zealot’s resolve: to control knowledge, police bloodlines, and crush dissent.

Personality & Traits

Knox is a strategist who prefers soft power—reputation, secrecy, and bureaucratic force—until he doesn’t. When challenged, he escalates into psychic coercion and public shaming. His worldview makes him both predictable and dangerous: if a choice lies between freedom and witch supremacy, he will always choose supremacy.

  • Manipulative and deceptive: He cultivates authority as an “occult expert” for humans (see the London “vampire murders” coverage in Chapter 6) and uses his Congregation seat to intimidate creatures. He probes Diana’s mind without consent and tries to wedge her from Matthew Clairmont by deploying partial truths.
  • Power-hungry: Convinced Ashmole 782 safeguards witch origins and power, he treats the manuscript—and Diana—as assets to be seized. His fixation reveals a zero-sum philosophy: any gain for others is a loss for witches.
  • Prejudiced and intolerant: A walking embodiment of Prejudice, Segregation, and Intolerance, Knox calls vampires “animals” and treats inter-species relationships as treason against witchhood.
  • Ruthless and cruel: He weaponizes grief by arranging for Diana to receive a graphic photograph of her murdered parents, demonstrating a willingness to traumatize to get compliance.
  • Authoritative and condescending: As a senior witch, he speaks ex cathedra—lecturing on “proper” magic and politics—and expects immediate obedience.

Character Journey

Knox’s arc is the hardening of a mask. He begins as an unsettling academic presence in Oxford, operating through whispers, credentials, and psychic pressure. As Diana resists, claiming her agency and refusing to surrender Ashmole 782, his tactics escalate: ambushes, mind-invasions, and public denunciations. At the Warden’s Lodgings, he recasts history to isolate Diana, using half-truths about her parents and Matthew to detonate her trust; later, in the Bodleian quadrangle, he abandons discretion altogether, branding her a “traitor.” Rather than change, he doubles down—becoming a static but sharpening embodiment of fanaticism, an antagonist whose rigidity throws Diana’s growth into relief.

Key Relationships

  • Diana Bishop: To Knox, Diana is a key to a vault, not a person. He knew her parents and declares her father “detested” him, a line he wields to fracture her sense of safety and history. Once Diana aligns with Matthew, Knox recasts her as a species-traitor, moving from covert pressure to open persecution.
  • Matthew Clairmont: Knox reduces Matthew to “the vampire,” a symbol of everything he reviles—hybrid loyalties, rival access to knowledge, and threats to witch primacy. Their clashes are less personal than ideological, but Knox’s language (“animal,” “killer”) reveals fear masquerading as moral certainty.
  • The Congregation: Knox’s power base. He treats its mandate as carte blanche, stretching law into license. He embodies its most conservative faction, using rules as weapons and secrecy as cover.
  • Gillian Chamberlain: A useful pawn. Knox plays on Gillian’s envy and insecurity to monitor Diana and has her deliver the horrific photo of Diana’s parents—proof he will outsource cruelty and discard allies after use.

Defining Moments

Knox’s veneer slips in staged confrontations that expose his methods—first insinuation, then coercion, finally public condemnation.

  • The first encounter — Chapter 4: In the Bodleian, Knox tries to force his way into Diana’s mind. The scene fuses his bland exterior with invasive magic, establishing him as a quiet predator whose power thrives on proximity and surprise.
  • Ambush at the Warden’s Lodgings — Chapter 10: He corners Diana, reframes her parents’ legacy, and frames Ashmole 782 as witches’ birthright while insinuating Matthew’s violence. The ambush shows Knox’s preferred arsenal: history spun as leverage, fear as glue.
  • The Bodleian quadrangle confrontation — after Chapter 15: Calling Diana a “traitor,” he shifts from shadow politics to spectacle, weaponizing community judgment to isolate her and justify future crackdowns.

Symbolism & Thematic Role

Knox personifies institutional rot: power justified by secrecy, purity myths, and historical gatekeeping. As an avatar of the old order, he embodies the corrosive allure of Secrets and Deception—knowledge hoarded to maintain hierarchy—and a possessive reading of The Power of History and Memory, where the past is edited to serve witch supremacy. His rigidity throws the novel’s counter-vision into focus: that survival requires interdependence, not segregation.

Essential Quotes

"The vampire has wanted that book for more than a century," Knox said, his voice vicious. "He mustn’t be allowed to have it."

— Chapter 10
Knox erases Matthew’s personhood in favor of a category—“the vampire”—exposing both prejudice and a siege mentality. The line frames Ashmole 782 as a battleground over who gets to define origins and power.

"That manuscript belongs to us," Knox said fiercely. "We’re the only creatures who can understand its secrets and the only creatures who can be trusted to keep them... It’s the source of all our power, past and present. It cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of daemons or vampires—or humans."

— Chapter 10
A mission statement for gatekeeping: knowledge as property, history as monopoly. The absolutism (“only,” “cannot”) reveals why he will violate ethics—if witches “own” truth, any tactic becomes permissible to protect it.

Be careful with Matthew Clairmont. Knox’s voice rang in my head. He’s a killer.

— Chapter 10
This is classic Knox: a psychic intrusion carrying a partial truth aimed to isolate Diana. He weaponizes Matthew’s violent past while omitting context, turning caution into control.

"You’ve caught the attention of more than humans this morning, Dr. Bishop. Before nightfall every witch in Oxford will know you’re a traitor."

— Chapter 15
Public shaming as enforcement. Knox shifts from backroom pressure to community spectacle, revealing how social policing and rumor serve as tools of regime control.