The Devil's Whore

I just felt I had to note the fantastic drama, broadcast on Channel 4 that was The Devil’s Whore. A fresh take on dramas on the English Civil War it presented the story of the fictional Angelica Fanshawe and her many adventures. Married three times, once to a close cousin, friend and aristocrat, then to a Leveller and then to a reformed mercenary soldier with a heart-of-gold. It all seems rather far-fetched but was highly successful, not only being acted well but also I feel for readdressing commonly held ideas about the Civil War and that arch-hypocrite Oliver Cromwell. Too often Oliver Cromwell is remembered as some sort of classic English liberator, an all too simplistic, if not wholly untrue, depiction of the man. Cromwell was a religious radical and fought for freedom of worship and the rights of Parliament only as far as they suited him. This is well demonstrated in the drama where Cromwell betrays all those who had supported him and became King in all but name making a mockery of all those who sacrificed themselves for freedom from suppression and tyranny. Don’t get me wrong I’m not about to portray Charles I as some sort of saint (although I believe he has been canonised by the Anglican Church for defending its marriage of catholic and reformed principles against rabid puritanical Protestantism – no I’m not convinced either) but at least he – as shown in The Devil’s Whore – is a man of his principles, no mater how repugnant they may have been, unlike Cromwell who sold his down the river at the first opportunity to exert full power and authoritarianism. It is of course folly to make moral judgements about the past, we can never wholly understand those people we study, but Oliver Cromwell’s popular reputation is undeservingly good for a man who was essentially the English Early Modern equivalent of Colonel Gaddafi or President Musharraf. For those of you who are turned off by such affected debates on dead white men, the drama had little of this and married love stories and great battle sequences well so I can recommend you 4OD it!