The Devil's Whore...

When at home at Raca I watched this movie...:

official wallpaper, google images

which shocked me deeply. It is the story of young Angelica Fanshaw, a close person to the court of an England-an England goin full speed for Reformation, especially of the Monarchy. It is the time of Earnest John Lilburne, a "free man" speaking for the poor and needy, not being afraid of punishment from  the rich, criticizing the monarchy and all of noble birth.
            As main character, Angelica depicts the innocent, but strong kind of woman, whom by some wicked twist of fate looses all priviledges and most off all, looses what everyone holds dearest: Love. It first starts with the loss of her mother, whom she loses in favour of God. When the English monarchy imposes Reformation over the Church, her mother, a fervent catholic, decides to go to France and lock herself in a monastery there, leaving Angela behind. In that moment Angelica began to hate God, and when she shouts to the sea that there is no God there she sees the Devil on a branch laughing at her.

google images

            When she marries her childhood friend- Harry - for her passion unleashed he admonishes her and asks her to "be a lady" in bed.But still, they are happy until Oliver Cromwell and his army decide to bring down the king.

google images

His army goes from palace to palace across the land and asks their surrender or they will be executed. When it comes to Angelica's husband turn, he would fight against Cromwell, but since Angelica decides to stay by his side, he has no other option but to surrender the castle. As they flee to the King, the latter is disapointed with Harry and decides to execute him. As Harry is being shot, as Angelica thinks it is her fault, since she disobeied him by not leaving the castle, she once more sees the devil laughing.
           Sent away from court, she strays on the streets of London, cold and hungry, and two rich men find her and argue who should bring her in his room, but Master Jolliffe saw her first, so he has the "honour " to invite her to dine with him. After she eats, Jolliffe wants his "reward", but as she tries to escape kills him by accident. She steals his clothes and runs away.
          Now I forgot to mention the most important character in the story! It is Sexby, ex-mercenary, ex-soldier, whom sees Angelica for the first time during her wedding, and utterly falls in love with her. He is the most important character in the story for me for he is the incarnation of the wandering chevalier, whom always comes to the rescue of the lady he loves, even though he knows she will never love him.

google images

I loved the scene where, after the wedding the bride throws her garter, one of the noblemen catch it, but when he gets into the yard Sexby holds him at knifepoint and takes the garter from him. From that moment on he will always carry it with him. He ends up this time saving Angelica from Jolliffe's revenge seeking friend, and he will keep this habit from now on, appearing everytime she is in need. They even get married, but only with the name, since each one goes his own way.

google images

            Before marring Sexby, Angelica remarries at some point Cromwell's right hand- Thomas Rainsborough-but he gets killed by some men of Cromwell, since the latter at some point decides to keep the monarchy

google images

(this is in the movie, I really do not remember what history really tells about this part...I should really re-read ":The history of England" by Andre Maurois)

official Romanian bok cover

      The next time Sexby saves her is when she falls in love with a young man, paid by Jolliffe's friend to lure her and disgrace her in open public, by drugging her and wanting to rape her in front of all people, and thus also confirming what was said about the obscurity of the company Angelica was in -the "preachers"- a group of anarchists trying to live together in peace, having no possesions of their own, but all in common. Like everytime something like this occurs, the rich didn't see such a society with good eyes, so they wanted this "band"'s reputation distroyed. Sexby arrives just in time to kill the young traitor and save Angelica. Even now she can't realize she loves him.
       But, as in all stories romantic, she finally understands that she is in love with the one man that always stood by her, no matter how big her mistakes, and she stays brave while he goes to London to assasinate the Lord Protector on his coronation day. Such a calm scene, when by the gate of her manshion Sexby asks if she understands what he must be...and she sais "yourself"!

google images

Then he tells her that if she hears the coronation bells  she must flee to France, for he surely will be dead, since he wouldn't let himself be caught; and that is what happened. Not ling afterwords Cromwell dies of some disease and the Monarchy returns to England.

       Their first and last love night with Sexby brings a gift: Elisabeth, whom sees only sky and leaves where once her mother saw the devil, by the sea shores where the latter lost her mother. So the circle closes,  England is purified and the waters settle over it once Anglicanism settles in as a new pure soul is born, whom would see freedom, love and most of all peace, all these under the weakening, older and wiser eyes of a reborn Angelica Fanshaw.

google images

        I am once again convinced that history provides us with th most believable contexts, the most thrilling stories and the best characters ever......and although I must say Angelica is a fictional one, the American producers always know how to squeeze an enchanting story out of a history (and romance)-based film.
     
       And because I think that Angelica is the image of a strong woman, fearless and decided to survive, surrounded by men underestimating her and all women in that age, and also because I think that what her enemies thaught about her is exactly depicted in the next two paragraphs,I added these 2 downhere, only because I think they serve better for the understanding of the hatred Joliffe and others had for this woman.
       Still,  she never was anyone's whore, despite what the low-lives tried to proove, although she always guided herself after Reason, but in that age a woman wasn't supposed to reason, but to obey....

“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom … Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”
[Martin Luther, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148]

And again

But since the devil’s bride, Reason, that pretty whore, comes in and thinks she’s wise, and what she says, what she thinks, is from the Holy Spirit, who can help us, then? Not judges, not doctors, no king or emperor, because [reason] is the Devil’s greatest whore.
[Martin Luther's Last Sermon in Wittenberg ... Second Sunday in Epiphany, 17 January 1546.Dr. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. (Weimar: Herman Boehlaus Nachfolger, 1914), Band 51:126, Line 7ff]

  (p.s. thanks listal.com and periodmoviecaps.blogspot.com for the photos, otherwise scarce on the web)

A movie really worth seeing! But until next time,