The Devil's Mistress aka The Devil's Whore (2008)

The Devil's Mistress aka The Devil's Whore (2008)

Parliament: Sir, we would have your answer.
Charles I: I would know by what lawful authority I am called hither.  Remember, I am your King.
Parliament: We are satisfied of our own authority.
Charles I: It is not your self-satisfaction that should decide the matter.  I know as much law as any one of you.  Show me one precedent in history for these proceedings.
Parliament: It is not for a prisoner to require.
Charles I: Sir, I am not an ordinary prisoner.

Elizabeth Lillburne: I cannot tell him.
John Lilburne: Cannot tell me?  Cannot tell me what, Madame?
Angelica: Though he will call himself Lord Protector, Oliver is to be King.  

Angelica's wedding to Harry Fanshawe.

Like The Princess of Montpensier, The Devil's Mistress centers on a fictional character weaved into history with real historical characters, but it does so a little more successfully, perhaps because Angelica and her story are a bit more compelling.  She is surrounded by major historical events, and as a character she is more willing to admit her mistakes and grow than was the heroine of The Princess of Montpensier.

Charles I and a portrait of the real Charles I of England.

Henrietta Maria and a portrait of the real Queen Henrietta Maria (wife of Charles I).

Angelica and Harry.

Andrea Riseborough plays Angelica, a young noblewoman married to her childhood best friend, Harry Fanshawe, at the beginning of the English Civil War.  She is happy to be married to him, but they have marital problems right from the beginning.  Harry, who is inexperienced and insecure, wants her to be subservient to him.  When she takes an interest in politics. he becomes angry:

Elizabeth Lilburne: His demand is only that the King let the Parliament sit so he may hear the grievances of his people.
Angelica: Husband?  May we not hear...?
Harry Fanshawe: We?  [to Elizabeth Lilburne] I fare you well, Madame.  You may go.  [to Angelica] You must never again interfere in matters you cannot understand.

He also thinks that she must be a whore because she makes noises during intercourse.  When King Charles I of England has Harry executed for abandoning his estate, inadvertently caused by Angelica, she feels extremely guilty  as well as betrayed by her (hitherto beloved) King.

Oliver Cromwell, John Lilburne, Thomas Rainsborough, and Edward Sexby.

Now poor and homeless, Angelica earns the nickname "Devil's Whore" when she kills a man trying to rape her (he felt she owed him sex because he had bought her dinner; she disagreed).  I was a little afraid she was going to become a stereotypical sword-wielding warrior woman, which felt a little far-fetched, but fortunately the movie didn't go that route.  While able to handle a gun, she doesn't head out onto the battlefield, but she does join the cause of Freeborn John Lilburne and Thomas Rainsborough, anti-monarchists.  They are originally working with Oliver Cromwell, but when Cromwell begins to crave more power for himself, and less for the people, their group splits:

Honest John Lilburne: By whose authority will he be tried?
Cromwell: By that of Parliament.
Lilburne: Oliver, this is YOUR Parliament.  Since you purged it.  Is that not the truth?
Cromwell: Aye, Sir.  For you are honest John Lilburne.
Lilburne: Let a new parliament be freely elected.  Let that parliament call for the King
Cromwell: We waste our breath together, Sir.
Lilburne: Then answer me this one thing.  If it happened that Charles Stewart be found innocent of the crime of making war on his people, will you let him be set free.
Cromwell: England will never be at peace, till this matter of the King be settled once and for all.  Fare you well.

Sketch of the real Thomas Rainsborough
and a sketch of the real John Lilburne.

Angelica marries Rainsborough, but he is killed by Cromwell's people, and she is widowed a second time.

Angelica and Thomas Rainsborough.

Angelica and Sexby.

Meanwhile, Parliament has Charles I executed, and Cromwell takes control of the government.

Edward Sexby, a soldier who has loved her since he first laid eyes on her, marries her.  He does this, he says, out of loyalty to Rainsborough, and so she can have the privileges and freedoms of a married woman: "I go to Ireland.  I have an officer’s wages.  They are yours...Be my wife.  I promised the best man in England I would protect you.  Be my wife in outward show only, and my promise is kept...A woman cannot survive alone.  The diggers will not take you in if you be unmarried.  Consider.  I do not ask for love.  I do not ask for a marriage bed.  I ask only that you let me serve you."

Not recognizing that he actually loves her, Angelica says they can never have a real marriage, because he is incapable of love:

Sexby: Truly I have seen my fill of butchery in this vile world.
Angelica: The world is not vile.  And though some are that are in it, even they can be saved by love I think.
Sexby: [Scoffs] Love?
Angelica: Aye, love.  I think you do not know it.  And I pity you for it.

When he rescues her from a man seeking revenge for the guy she killed, she finally realizes her error, and is able to return his love:

Angelica: Will you love a fool?  For that I’ve been.
Sexby: My love began on the day you married Harry Fanshawe.  I did not know I had a heart until that hour.  You filled it with unknown creature, whose names were joy and hope.  Both sharper blades than any that had cut me before.  I have something of yours.  I’ve kept it on me every day.

But Sexby is determined to have it out with Cromwell (believing him to have been involved in Rainsborough's death), who tries to be rid of him:

Angelica: Pray you!  Let me go with him.  He is all I have left now.
Cromwell: Let him go, Madame, from whence he came.  There’s fighting in the Low Countries, he will find wages there.  Edward was never happy except he was cutting throats.  He’s not for you.

Oliver Cromwell and a portrait of the real Oliver Cromwell.

He escapes, and plots to assassinate Cromwell, but dies in the attempt, leaving Angelica widowed for a third time and Cromwell Lord Protector (basically, King):

Cromwell: So have you forgiven me?
Angelica: For what?
Cromwell: I took a husband from you
Angelica: You took two.  When you sent Thomas Rainsborough to Pontefract, it was to cut the head off the Levellers, was it not?
Cromwell: Aye, it was.
Angelica: Did you strike him down, Oliver?
Cromwell: I would’ve faced him in the field.  I would’ve killed him there, with God’s help.  He was murdered by the Cavaliers, Angelica, as God is my witness.
Angelica: And if he’d killed you in the field?  A different England.
Cromwell: If Thomas sat here now, instead of Oliver?  What would be different?  Thomas and freedom, Oliver and tyranny?  Oliver and ORDER.  Thomas and convulsion.  Then if convulsion, then famine.  And if famine, then where is the freedom?
Angelica: Where is freedom for Honest John?

Cromwell: Each new day brings another plot to assassinate me, and bring us closer to anarchy and terror.  In times like this, some of the freedoms we fought for must be sacrificed.  There is nothing that now stands between us and utter destruction but me.  Almighty God chose me!  Not Thomas Rainsborough nor anyone else.  He chose me.  And he chooses the path I must now follow.  I would have your understanding of what I must now give to the nation.
Angelica: Which is what?
Cromwell: They will never be settled until they have a King again.  What is the word King but a bauble.  It’s a feather in the cap.  Well why not in mine?
Angelica: I thought Honest John had lost his senses when he told us this day would come.
Cromwell: So did I, Madame.
Angelica: [Tears running down her face] Well then.  King Oliver I.  And England will have another King chosen by God.  So much blood spilt for so little.

Somehow the series still manages to end on an upbeat note, with Angelica giving birth to a daughter and still finding hope and love in the world.  What's remarkable about her character is that she has an open heart, and continues to find purpose and joy in her life, even after so much loss.  On the other hand, men that marry her seem to die so quickly that one hopes she will stop falling in love.



Andrea Riseborough was very good, as were the other actors, and there were battles to amuse Tyler.  A pretty good movie, if never very cheerful.  I also learned about the English Civil War, allowing for historical inaccuracies, which I knew nothing about.  Other than Angelica and her first husband, the other characters mentioned all existed, which leads me to want to read about them and learn more -always a good thing.