Saraband (1948) - full transcript
Young Sophie Dorothea marries Prince George Louis but it's far from a love match. Then she falls for Swedish Count Philip Christoph von Königsmark.
(magical music)
(grand orchestral music)
(pensive music)
(knocking on door)
- Come.
Is she dead?
- She wishes to write
a letter to the Prince.
Your permission for pen and paper.
- Give her what she asks.
- You'll give permission?
In London, we were told
there must be communication
with no one, no one.
- This is a dying woman.
She asks to write to her son.
Am I to forbid her that?
- You are to see that
she writes the no one,
above all, not to the Prince.
He is already caught
living with his father.
Half England's been set against
the King in this matter.
- Patience, patience.
What harm is done?
Let her write what she likes.
Afterward, we will read the letter
and form our own judgement.
(man sighs)
- [Dorothea Voiceover] My beloved son,
in these last hours of my life,
there is one indulgence
that I would ask of you.
It is not that you should
forgive what is in the past.
I do not expect that.
But only that you should read these words
and learn from them the truth.
You have grown to manhood, I know,
in the belief that your
mother brought dishonour
on the house of Hanover.
(ominous music)
Hanover, the capital of the
ambitious and powerful state
that bordered on my
childhood home of Celle.
Politics and intrigues
dominated the court there.
And without warning,
they were to alter the
whole course of my life.
(adventurous music)
(tense music)
(knocking on door)
- [Count Platen] Has my wife gone to bed?
- [Butler] I'm not sure, sir.
Come this way, I might help you.
(knocking on door)
- [Clara] Come.
What is it, Maria?
- Can't Platen, madam.
- What?
Your husband, at this time of night?/
Hasn't he any sense of what's fitting?
What does he want?
- I'll see to it.
- Don't be all night, Clara, I'm tired.
I'm sorry to disturb you
Clara, but this is urgent.
Durer here has just come from Celle,
with news of a betrothal.
- Sophie Dorothea?
- To Prince Antony Ulrich of Wolfenbuttel.
- You say the contract is not yet signed?
- Not yet.
It'll be part of the
birthday celebrations.
The Princess is 16 tomorrow.
- Tomorrow?
We're indebted to you.
I'll see the elector is informed.
- Come, Lieutenant, I'll
find you rooms for the night.
You've had a hard ride.
- I take it the news will not be long
in reaching the elector?
- You're a lucky man come to have a wife
who takes so much weight
off your shoulders.
- Signing tomorrow.
What can I do?
- What can you do?
You can go to your brother.
It's no more than a few
hours journey to Celle.
Go now, tonight.
- Tonight?
- Offer him alliance with Hanover,
and he'll soon have sense enough
to put these Wolfenbuttel's to the door.
- I have not spoken to
Judge William for 17 years.
- No time for snobbery now.
Maria!
We're not so rich we can
afford to snap our fingers
at that girl's dowry.
- [Man] But Clara.
- How can you sit back
and let these lands slip
through you fingers?
You with unmarried sons of your own.
- Judge Louis.
- Are you to support him indefinitely?
Another drive braver to have
the same old pair of bays.
Well, nothing but last year's dresses.
It looks badly.
It does the state no good.
The elector's mistress down at here
like a butcher's housekeeper.
- But Clara, I tell you it's impossible.
My wife would never agree.
- Put it to her the right way
and she'll welcome the match.
- Show me how,
and I give you commission
on the marriage settlement.
- How much?
- 5%.
- It's a bargain.
- Madam.
- His highness' coach.
- Tonight?
- At once.
- We are wasting our time.
Sophie, she'd as soon ban her family tree.
- I will not have that girl
from Celle in my house.
To bathe our Royal arms with hers?
We might as well mix our grade with pigs.
- Come now, Sophie, I
know it's a lot to ask,
but the girl is well spoken of.
She's my brother's daughter.
- And the mother?
What breeding is she?
A commoner.
Charles, my uncle, went
to the scaffold in England
rather than bait one jut of his kingship.
- Judge Lewis in debt, 200,000 taller.
A rich wife would take
that load off our hands.
- A girl with that upbringing?
No.
I've kept them out of my
Queendom these 17 years.
and I have no mind to
take them to my bosom now.
- There is another thing.
With Celle in my pocket
I carry more weight with
your cousins in London.
- Don't deceive yourself.
The English have no more liking
for these clots of dirt than I have.
- One thing they have a liking for,
a good compact state and
ally that's of use to them.
I tell you, four regimens
of guards against the French
will count for more in Westminster
than all your steward
blood and Royal breeding.
Think to the future.
You want to see your son
upon the English throne.
How many years have we worked for that?
Always the same thing.
Always another step nearer.
Here is the chance to make it more secure.
Weigh that against a little plot of dirt.
- Tonight at last, I
shall know the answer.
- To what, Charles?
- A problem in one of my
mother's books in there.
What happens when an irresistible force
comes up against an immovable object?
- There's no such thing.
- As which?
- But Sophie, I didn't ask this of you.
It's no journey for a woman.
30 miles of bad road, and I, too.
- If anyone is to go and
succeed, I'm the best fitted.
You only waste time in argument.
- You need a gift of some sort.
It's the child's birthday.
- We're offering these
people our son and alliance.
Do you suggest that trinkets
would lend them lustre?
- A girl, she'll expect
some trifle or other.
- Besides, it might take
her mind off George Louis.
- Charles.
- Well mother, would you relish
him as a birthday present?
- Make yourself useful for once.
Have them seal this in a packet.
Stamp our cor on it, large on
the wax and then go to bed.
- Yes, mother.
- Countess Platen, you're well, I hope.
- Thank you, Serene Highness.
- I trust you'll remain so.
You're valuable to Hanover.
(serene music)
- [Dorothea Voiceover]
But Hanover's politics,
and my own father's greed and weakness
had not yet disturbed the
tranquillity of my life at Celle.
On that morning of my 16th birthday,
I was looking forward excitedly
to the arrival of Prince Antony Ulrich
and the formal signing
of the marriage contract.
It was to mean for me, as I thought,
a happy and contented future.
(whimsical music)
- Now he's here!
- They can't be, it's an hour too early.
- I tell you, he's here!
Papa, Papa!
He's here, I saw him-
(ominous music)
- Dorothea, Dorothea, come here.
Fraulein, close the door.
- Dorothea, we are highly honoured,
a guest from Hanover for your birthday.
Where's your curtsy?
- Only a child yet.
We see a few visitors here.
Dorothea, your compliment.
- I thank your Serene Highness.
I'm very grateful.
I'm happy to pay my respectful duty.
- Come here, child.
I have something for you.
- A ring!
Look, mama.
It's beautiful.
- I had that ring from the
elector when I was to marry him.
I give it to you now on behalf
of my son, George Louis.
- No, no.
All the world knows what
he is, how he lives.
- Enough!
- She's only a child.
She knows nothing of life.
Think what such a marriage would mean.
- Alliance with Hanover
means friendship everywhere.
Recognition of house.
- I care nothing for that.
- I care for it.
- I won't take it, I won't.
- Dorothea.
- I tell you, I won't.
- [Father] Dorothea, you'll do as I say.
- No, don't let them make me.
- [Father] Silence, will you?
What kind of manners are these?
- And yours?
What kind of manners?
Antony Ulrich on his way
here, depending on your word,
and Dorothea so happy, so ready to obey.
- Madam,
will you not let my
daughter have her happiness?
Will you not say a mistake
has been made, and go?
Let us bless you.
- Madam, I don't know that I will.
(dramatic music)
- You, you must forgive my wife.
Child is still young and,
and we've not heard good
reports of George Louis.
- My son is a soldier.
While you have said that,
you've said the best of him.
You'll do your daughter in no service
if you teach her to look
for romance in Hanover.
(majestic music)
- Well, if mother can stomach
the girl in the family,
why is I complain?
How old is she?
- 16, little more than a child.
Remember that.
Come on, get the others out of the way.
- Don't worry, I'll see
the girl makes no mischief.
- Do so, we've had enough of scandal.
- There'll be none.
I hear she doesn't want me for a husband.
Well, I sympathise with her.
I don't want her for her wife.
(majestic music)
(crowd cheering)
(church bells ringing)
- [Priest] Has sent her a
husband, as unto the Lord.
For the husband, his capable wife.
Even as Christ is the head of the church.
(thunder roaring)
(priest chattering)
(rain pouring)
(thunder roaring)
(church bells ringing)
(church bells ringing)
(people cheering)
- [Dorothea Voiceover]
The years that followed
brought much loneliness to me.
I found what happiness I could
in the upbringing of my two children.
George Louis went his own
way, seeking other company.
And I was left much in
the society of his mother,
the Electress.
We had little in common.
- "Acting in the name of the two houses"
"of the Parliament of England,"
"amongst whom there
was not a fourth part,"
"did desire or to prove
such destructive changes"
"in the government of the church."
"Upon the rebellion and
the troubles in Ireland."
- That's enough.
You understand what you read?
- Something Highness.
- Use will accustom you.
We shall read again tomorrow.
Since we are on the subject of England,
there's another matter,
the education of your son.
One day, God willing, he
will sit on that throne.
He must begin to prepare for it.
- But madam, he's a child yet.
- It is time to give him
into other hands than yours.
- Highness, I beg of you.
- No arguments, no display.
- You take even my children from me.
They might have a few years
to be happy in as I have.
- Are you the better for it?
A little discipline sooner and
you might have been more fit
to uphold the honour of this house.
- Is George Louis better
brought up, perhaps?
Does he uphold the honour
of Hanover with his women?
- I know of the Prince's behaviour.
It does him no credit.
- If he can please himself, so can I.
- Must I remind you
that you are a princess?
Your marriage was not my wish,
but it has made you a
member of this family.
Understand your position and
try to live within it decently.
- Yes, Highness.
- [Dorothea Voiceover] Now
as every month went by,
I saw less and less of my two children.
The last consolation in my life was gone.
It was the summer of 1689,
and in that summer, in the Linnestrausen
not far from the palace,
an old house found a new owner.
A newcomer to Hanover,
who so matched the court
itself in his extravagance.
(calming music)
- [George Louis] $9,000.
- 10,000.
- $12,000,
- 20,000.
- I'll match you, 20,000.
(people murmuring)
Only tens, but good enough.
You're a cool player.
I never knew a man go quite
so high with quite so little.
I really nearly through in.
- You'd better change
your seat, Konigsmark.
They say you can sometimes
change your cards with it.
(George Louis yawns)
- I've had enough.
Catherine, don't say I keep
too short of pocket money.
- It is well earned.
I brought you luck.
- Someone did.
Take your revenge,
another time, Konigsmark.
- Of course, your Highness.
- Thank you, Eric.
A very profitable evening, I think.
- Yes, Highness.
- Well I must ask a few
days grace, your Highness.
My bankers, I haven't advised them yet.
- No hurry, tomorrow or the next day.
Good night, Konigsmark.
- Good night, your Highness.
- Good night, Konigsmark.
- Good night, sir.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Konigsmark, better luck next time.
- Good night.
- $43,000.
You were unlucky.
- Yes.
- You've been put to some expense
since you came to Hanover.
House, hospitality, and now this.
- Are you suggesting I can't pay?
- I know you can't.
- You're well informed.
- Perhaps I can help you.
You are a soldier.
A good one, I hear.
There may be some military appointment
we can find for you.
I have certain influence in Hanover,
I'll use it on your behalf.
- I must be very slow,
Countess, I don't understand.
- Understand what?
- Well, I understand how, but why?
And then again,
why should you be so
anxious to help me now?
- For money.
- Yes, that's a very good reason.
- You need a position of some
kind to settle your debts.
I'll arrange it.
In return, you can pay me a
commission on your salary.
15%.
- So it would have to be a large one?
- It will be.
- Defeat or victory is
beside the point here.
We fight England's enemies
to gain a goodwill,
a recognition of our
claims to the succession.
A political gesture, that's all.
- And the English, when they
learn the worth of the gesture?
- The Morea Peninsula's a
thousand miles from England.
- Read Highness, but is
it wise that his Highness
should be associated with such a campaign?
- That's soon answered.
I shan't be.
- The English will judge our force
by the General who commands.
- Planter's right, and they'll
expect one of Royal blood.
- Let Charles go then,
or would his mother
consider it too dangerous?
- The Electress knows nothing
of our military weakness.
She's not aware of the risks.
It is my wish that no
word of it be said to her.
As to Charles, he has not the experience.
- Here's a chance to get it.
We can afford to sacrifice
a few hundred men
to his education.
- A few hundred only?
You lost 8,000 at Menar.
- Enough, enough, enough.
There is no-
(people chattering)
- However much anyone dislike
it, I ame the heir to Hanover.
Discredit my reputation,
to damaged my chance of English throne.
To damaged the one thing
which to fight the campaign.
The answer's quite simple, let Charles go,
But send with him the right
man as second in command.
- Who?
- Konigsmark.
He's a soldier.
One that even English
will know by reputation.
And a foreigner.
- A foreigner, yes, but no fool either.
Are you sure he'd accept?
- Positive. (laughs)
- Tell him I refuse.
- Refuse?
Why?
- I don't like the campaign.
To begin with you send
Charles, who's no soldier,
when you have George
Louis, a fine general.
Your best troops lost half their strength
at Manheim to months ago,
and then you offer the second
in command to me, a foreigner.
Why?
Because you need a scapegoat.
You know this campaign will fail,
and you want someone to blame
in your excuses to England
when the time comes.
Isn't that the truth?
- Near enough.
But why should you be so
concerned for your reputation?
You've had your hands in
dirtier business than this.
- I prefer dirt of my own choosing.
I don't like being pushed into it.
- Why you!
No need to lose our tempers.
I admit that it may not
add to your prestige,
but it's a position that pays well.
Can you afford to refuse it?
- My debts.
- Yes.
- That was nicely managed.
But as I'm a man of no honour,
I can always run for it.
To England.
- The English wouldn't listen to you.
Even if you did get there
alive, which is unlikely.
- Those are both risks
I'm prepared to take.
- On the whole, I'd rather you stayed.
I'll find other duties for you.
Something in Hanover
which would pay your
debts and a little over,
Would that satisfy you?
- For the moment.
- That's how you live,
just for the moment?
- Certainly.
A hard soldier knocked
down to the highest bidder.
No roots, no ties.
He's nothing permanent.
- The palace guards, a
household appointment.
I thought you were soldier
count, not a flunky.
- It's an honour to serve
Hanover in any capacity,
your Highness, however small.
- Small, with a prince's
ransom for salary?
- I'm greatly indebted to your Highness.
- See that the debt's paid.
- There should be no difficulty now.
- Well, what is it?
- Your pardon, Highness.
Her Highness, the
Princess, and Prince John.
- I'm sorry, your
Highness, I didn't realise.
Are we interrupting a council of state?
- No.
All righty, Count Konigsmark,
the new Colonel of Guards.
Well, what is it?
- Your birthday, Highness.
The children have learned
a poem of greeting,
especially for the occasion.
Sophie, George.
- Not Rome, in all her happiest pomp
could show a greater
Caesar than we honour now.
God like his bounty both to kin and state,
in warfare, as in council, great.
Uh.
- Domestic bliss.
- Domestic bliss, um, um.
- The child seems to have scant
knowledge or domestic bliss.
Ask your mother to
instruct on that subject.
She has a vast experience.
- I'm sorry, mother.
- Your, your father's very busy,
we shouldn't have intruded.
I heard you'd come to Hanover, Count.
I'm happy to hear of your appointment.
- [Prince] Are your a soldier?
- Yes, your Highness.
- So am I.
I've got new pony, six years old.
- How old are you?
- Sophie, your manners.
The Count comes from Sweden.
You don't want him to think badly of us.
- Sweden, is he on our side?
- Yes, your Highness.
(dramatic music)
(whimsical music)
- All right.
- I've not had the chance,
Colonel, to congratulate you.
I'm glad that Hanover
so quickly appreciates a man of talent.
Countess, you'll excuse me.
- Certainly.
- Friend of yours?
- I find him useful.
- Don't like his manners.
- Men hate to see others
succeed where they've failed.
- You're a woman greatly admired.
- Durer, he wants my good favour
only because he knows that
I'm powerful in Hanover.
I'm used that sort of attention.
I hope you are a little
more disinterested, Philip.
- Why do you suppose?
- What do I mean to you?
- Pleasant evenings after some dull days.
A woman's company without
having to watch my tongue.
A head for drink as strong as my own.
What more do you want?
- A great deal more.
- You're sentimental to today, Clara.
- Yes.
- Now's not the time for it.
- That young man, I'm not
all together satisfied.
- Konigsmark.
- The Morea campaign.
Are you sure he can be
trusted not to talk?
- I'm keeping my eye on him.
- Charles' tastes have changed.
- His mother gave it to him.
She thinks him idle,
is trying to cure him.
- Daily dose of prose.
The remedy seems a little drastic.
- I'm afraid he doesn't take it.
- Take what?
- Nothing, Charles.
- Charles is a philosopher.
- [Dorothea] Dear Charles.
- If life fails to go the way he wants it,
he has one infallible
answer, he goes to sleep.
- Sleep, the needs of
the rebel sleep of care.
- You learn poetry as
well as your children.
- English poetry.
I have to discover all I can of England
since it seems I might
have to go there one day.
- You're not looking forward to it.
- One place or another,
the court is much the same.
- Not in England, not if it's
the same as when I was there.
- What was it like?
- Merry, but a little mad.
The whole nation's mad,
but the sanest lunatics in the world.
- What kind of madness?
- Peculiar sense of what matters.
do you know what's really
changed England's history
in the last 50 years?
Civil war, bill of rights,
habeas corpus, not a bit of it.
It was now grim,
the first cup of tea and the
water Oliver Cromwell's known.
- Your Highness, they're waiting for you.
- You must continue the lesson, Count,
on some other occasion.
(dramatic music)
- It's a long time since
I've seen you so happy.
What is it?
- Nothing.
- Make sure it doesn't run away with you.
You're not the only one.
- I don't know what you mean.
- I mean, Countess Platen.
(ominous music)
- [Konigsmark] Konigsmark, your Highness.
- I give your reception here.
We study our English history.
- Highness.
- Some weeks ago you
were offered a commission
with Prince Charles in the Morea.
You refused it.
I ask you now to reconsider.
- I'm sorry.
- [Highness] Why will you not go?
- Your, Highness.
- I want the truth.
- It's difficult to
speak it without offence.
- Speak as you like.
- Prince Charles of the
Royal family, Madam.
If the state requires him
to go on such a campaign,
he can't question the order.
I'm a foreigner, I'm hardly
under the same obligation.
- They told me your family
had a name for courage.
- Courage is one thing,
madams, stupidity another.
I'll accept danger readily enough,
but why should I go on my way
to invite discredit as well.
- Discredit, to fight for Hanover?
- With what kind of an army?
Tired, ill-equipped
men and untrained boys?
I know as well as you
do, why they have to go,
but they're not fit to fight.
They haven't a chance, and you know it.
You couldn't keep that secret
from the English perhaps,
but not from your own officers,
and certainly not from the man
who has to lead the poor
fool to their slaughter.
Your son goes because he must,
but don't expect me to
join him in this massacre.
- I understand, Count Konigsmark.
I'm obliged to you.
- Forgive me, your Highness,
but you asked for the truth.
- I'm glad to learn it.
You have our permission to
leave, Count Konigsmark.
- She didn't know, nor you?
- No.
- I had no suspicion.
- There's no need to blame yourself.
- Or what will she do?
- Nothing.
- You mean she'll let Charles go?
- The English Throne is involved.
Beside that, her son is nothing.
Haven't you seen enough yet of Hanover
to know that we're all of a kind here?
That we live our lives for politics.
Marry for politics, bare
children for politics,
and lose them to-
I'm sorry, I shouldn't speak like that.
(dramatic music)
- I've seen how it is for you here.
- Please forget what I said, I was upset.
- There's something I want to say to you,
will you listen?
- You're holding me.
(dramatic music)
What was it you wanted to say?
- It's said.
(intense music)
- You're the first man,
Philip, who ever cost me money.
My commission, if you'd accepted
the command in the Morea,
but I don't regret it.
Everyone knows I expect,
apart from the Elector,
but no one will whisper any scandal.
No one willingly makes an enemy of me.
When I came to this court, I had nothing.
No friends, no money, just my wits.
Some women have only to show their faces
to make a way in the world.
I wasn't created such
a woman, I know that.
But I've succeeded in spite of them,
even at the game the others play.
The old woman at the palace.
She was a great beauty, but
what she had out of life?
That pretty little
simpleton of a princess.
She'll be Queen of England one day.
I go to the court and I
curtsy low in front of them.
But I don't envy them.
I have what I want.
I've got you, Philip.
Philip, what are you thinking of?
- You.
(singing in foreign language)
(whimsical music)
- Dorothea.
- Why must you make it harder?
To be so easy now.
It's so much what I
want to, say everything.
But once I did, once I
admitted it, even to myself.
- But I'm in love with
you, and you with me.
Is that something to be frightened of?
- Yes.
- Listen to me.
I've seen something in
the world, more than you.
If you want anything badly, take it.
Take it and don't be
afraid of the consequences.
Look around you, in Hanover.
- So we should be like them?
Lying and cheating?
Snatch at our pleasures when
there's no one by to see.
That's not what I want.
That's not how I think of you.
And I thought that you,
as you say, you've seen more of the world.
- Philip.
(intense music)
- There's only one mother tonight!
The King must rule and here they are!
(people cheering)
(drums banging)
- The whole town's of the fair tonight.
Crowd sweating and pushing,
singing, dancing, drinking.
- Leave it.
- Not for me.
We're not so young as we were.
- Leave it.
- Either of us.
- Get the dress.
- Which one, madam?
- There on the bed.
(knocking on door)
Come.
- Good evening, Philip.
- Clara.
- You can go, Maria.
Why do I have to send for you?
Two weeks.
What kept you away?
- Oh, my house, the
regiment, hundred things.
- Why have you been avoiding me?
- I haven't been avoiding you.
- Don't lie to me.
You're not very clever, Philip.
It's suits your vanity
to turn the head of the Crown Princess.
All right, amuse yourself.
Amuse her, too.
She must need some distraction
with her husband who makes
love as a pig makes fat.
The idea of George Louis disturbs you.
- Don't be a fool, Clara,
what's the matter with you?
We're not romantic children.
We don't have to meet every hour.
- I don't expect that.
I don't ask for size or,
or eyes turned up to the moon,
but I expect honesty.
What is there between
you and the Princess?
- Nothing.
- Then what is it, Philip?
Why have you left me alone?
Kiss me.
(tense music)
(Philip grunting)
You won't easily forget that.
Philip!
Listen to me, listen.
I tell you the truth.
No lies, no intrigue.
Truth's a weapon, I put it in your hand.
I'm 44.
I've been a woman 44 years,
I shan't be much long
with you, understand?
I'm getting tired, tired and old.
I cover my face with paint,
but the lines show through.
I feel old, but not with you.
When you touch me, my flesh
comes life, I'm young again.
Without you I'm nothing.
- Clara, please.
- It's true, I swear it!
Would I humble myself if it weren't?
Philip, I helped you
once when you needed me,
help me now, come back to me!
Love me!
Let me be young again!
Philip!
Philip.
(Clara crying)
(lively music)
- Let's go down.
Shall I get your cloak?
- I'm not going there.
- Why not?
- I, I'm tired.
I'd rather stay in.
- That isn't the reason.
You're afraid of meeting him.
You mustn't be like this.
You can't put an end to
something by hiding from it.
- Go down to them now.
Make my excuses.
(light dramatic music)
(crowd roaring)
(crowd cheering)
(dramatic music)
(crowd cheering)
(intense music)
- Come and see the tree man,
all the way from (indistinct).
(people chattering)
(crowd roaring)
(intense music)
(romantic music)
- Philip.
(tense music)
- I'll get some more light.
I never thought I'd see you again,
in my house, in this room.
I want to see you in it.
- I've been here often in my thoughts.
- It's in some disorder.
- I never saw it very clearly.
Only you.
And now I'm are with you.
All these weeks and
months thinking about you.
It's what I've longed for, always.
To say the things I want to say.
Things I haven't the
strength to hide any longer.
Even from myself.
Who is she?
- My sister.
- She's very beautiful.
- Hers is not the only kind of beauty.
Many men have admired her.
Too many.
We are foreigners.
My sisters have been
liberal with their favours
in half the courts of Europe.
My brother was tried
for murder in England.
As for me, I know better than the others.
Something in our blood that
makes us worthless to anyone.
- I know what you are
trying to do, Philip.
It's no use.
I've tried for so long to fight this.
I can't anymore.
- I'm leaving Hanover.
- No.
- All ready this has endangered you.
- Tonight, I know I've done a bad thing,
but I can hide my feelings.
No one need know.
All I wanted to see was
sometime to be near,
better to speak.
- It can't be like that.
Someone who knows already.
- Countess Platen.
- Yes.
- And you want this here,
but you made love to her.
- She means nothing to me.
- No, no woman means anything.
You think we're all the same.
You think that's all we expect.
- Listen to me.
I love you.
I love you.
I've never said just
that to any other woman.
I never will.
Do you believe me?
- Philip.
(melancholy music)
- Take you back.
(ominous music)
(triumphant music)
(people cheering)
- Some fool in the future will
call this campaign a tragedy.
If only he knew the comedy of it.
It's always a woman one way or the other.
(triumphant music)
- Graveside, 9,000 men under earth,
but I've seen enough.
Will you read to me, child?
- Forgive me, madam.
My head aches.
- The heat.
Go to your room.
We shall expect you at dinner.
- I don't understand.
You stay here and read
while your son goes off.
- What else do you look for?
- Some compassion.
Some, some sign of heart, of feeling.
- Your emotion, I take it,
is on behalf of my son.
I'm making no accusation,
but you must remember,
your good name is of value
to others beside yourself.
- How do you think that I should live?
Without friends, my
children taken from me,
my husband and his women,
making a laughing stock of me?
- That is something no
other person can do for us.
We have only ourselves to
thank if we laughed at.
- It's easier for you.
- What is easier?
- To live with books.
To ignore the things around you.
But I'm young and while I eat
and sleep, my life goes by.
- And for that, you complain?
You should thank your God for it.
When the hours drag,
when each day is like a great
stone that you roll uphill.
I know what I speak of.
I'm older than you.
- Highness, I've seen
what you have to suffer.
Receiving Countess
Platen and accepting her,
shutting your eyes to the humiliation.
It's cruel of the Elector.
- Have a goodness, never
again in my hearing
to criticise the Elector.
Your concern is misplaced.
- Please, don't go.
Forgive me, I didn't mean to offend.
- I know my dear, you've
had something to bear,
but you are to remember
that royalty may not look for happiness
such as others enjoy.
We are not to have hearts,
are not to have feelings.
That is not within our province.
We have no more right to
inequalities of temper,
than the town clock has
irregularities of time.
The people set their lives by us.
- [Dorothea Voiceover] I
knew she spoke the truth
out of the bitterness
of her own experience,
and I resolved to take her advice.
To shut all thought of him out of my life
and to accept with patience,
the futility and monotony
of the life at court.
(whimsical music)
I tried to outdo them all.
because my life was even
emptier than theirs.
Emptier than it had ever been.
- It's true, I tell you, it's true.
- Princess has everyone at her feet.
They'll be saying it is
she who neglects you.
(hooves clopping)
- What is it?
- Dispatches sir, from the Morea.
(tense music)
- No need to look as if you
were going to be hanged.
- How should I look, honoured?
- Send my valet to me.
You've change, you know?
Changed a lot.
Your spirit, I like it better
when a woman has spirit.
The romance, pity a good
looking girl like you
has to content herself with reading.
Go to bed.
- Is his Highness here?
- Yes, sir.
- I must see him at once.
- What is it?
- News from the Morea, Highness.
- Can't you wait till morning?
All right, leave us.
- Your Highness.
- Tomorrow.
- But Highness.
- I said tomorrow.
- Major, there's a rumour.
- News from the Morea?
- Yes.
(people chattering)
- [Dorothea] Who was it?
- Eck.
- Is anything wrong?
- Nothing for you to worry about.
- Why did he come?
- I tell you, he's a fool.
In a panic of the first
whisper of bad news.
- From the Morea?
- We were routed, Charles is missing.
- Charles.
And the others?
- [George Louis] Temple
outfit (indistinct).
What's the matter, you'll faint?
What is it?
- What else?
Tell me, what else?
- That's all.
Send dispatch from Konigsmark.
He says that the Turks are,
what is this?
There was nothing between you and Charles.
(dramatic music)
(Dorothea crying)
(tense music)
- He's safe.
(dramatic music)
(sombre music)
- When they heard the Prince was dead,
the men had no stomach to continue.
We fell back as best we could.
Next day, the Turks withdrew,
but before they left,
they sent four men over to us
leading his Highness' horse.
Body was across the saddle.
They're, they're a
savage people, the Turks,
but they respect courage.
- I should be glad to know
that he received my letters.
- He carried them with him, always, madam.
- Thank you.
- I'm happy my son had you for a friend.
(light dramatic music)
- And we have dispatched
also as our ambassador,
Sir William Colt,
that he may convey to you
in person deepest sympathy.
Our two houses sharing
already the ties of kinship
are now bound together by
blood shed on the battlefield
against our common enemies.
Colt?
It's not a name that I know.
- The man matters little.
It is the fact that he comes
now in the name of Parliament.
It means that at last,
our claims are admitted.
- Believe me, I know her.
I've known her all her life.
She hasn't skilled to hide her feelings.
I'm afraid for her.
- I want only one thing,
for her to be safe, whatever it means.
Even if we never see each other.
- It means more than that.
One word, one hint to George
Louis and he'll destroy her.
Only you can stop that word being said.
- I, how?
- By going back to Platen.
- Did she say this?
- She doesn't know I'm here.
I'm asking you for her sake.
- No, no I-
- She's in danger.
Nothing else matters,
your feelings or hers.
One of two things must be done,
either you must go back
to Countess Platen,
or she must mend matters
with George Louis.
- We only know one way
to be happy, she and I.
But to be unhappy, to be
in hell a thousand ways.
How does she look?
Does she go out much, ride?
- She's too full of crying.
- Tell her,
tell her that whatever happens,
whatever she may hear-
- She knows.
- You sent for me, Highness?
- There's news from England.
We are to expect the ambassador.
Our claims are last admitted.
- I am happy that your
Highness' hopes are fulfilled.
- The reward would be yours
when you are Queen of England.
- I have no wish for it.
- No wish for it?
Do you think this is a matter
in which to consider private sentiment?
My son gave his life for this
and I've spent a better
part of mine working for it.
An end to such talk.
- I understand my duty,
I've tried to do it.
- Have you?
You have only one son,
and England is joined to our crown.
There must be another.
- Madam.
- There is nothing to be said.
Your separation is to
end, once and for all.
- We're going to Helenhausen
to see the ambassador.
We shall occupy the south
apartment there, together.
Have you any objection?
- I will order the
apartments to be made ready.
- The Countess is ill.
- Ill, what is it?
- Measles.
- That I think I might risk.
- She is seeing nobody.
- [Konigsmark] She'll see me.
(knocking on door)
- [Platen] Who is it?
- Konigsmark.
- Philip.
A moment.
Maria, take this.
The curtains, and let him in.
Hurry.
- Yes, madam.
- Good evening, Maria.
- A fine time to come.
Maria, I find him a chair.
- I heard you were sick.
- It's nothing, a child's complaint.
Maria, you can go.
- What's that stuff she's taking out?
- Cream curdled with saffron.
It gives me a clownish look so
I'll, I'll keep out of sight.
Sit down.
Had a bad time?
- Oh, I managed to save my neck.
The only mark that I got from a friend.
- It was a madness.
That's not the way I go to work,
with shrieks and red hot tongues.
I was possessed.
- Is the devil gone?
- I think so, but don't recon on it.
Wasn't there a man in the Bible,
they drove the devil out of him
and in came seven others
worse than the first.
- I'm still not safe.
- No one's safe in love.
Philip.
- Mm-hm?
- Why have you come?
Things could be as they were between us.
Do you want that?
Speak, say it.
- I, I'm here, isn't that proof enough?
- Where should we go?
Your home, to Sweden?
- You'd leave Hanover?
- Now there's a throne at stake,
his Serene Highness will
have to behave himself.
- It's certain then, the English throne.
- I've made it certain.
Every step.
The marriage with Celle,
support for the English.
I've planned and schemed for the day
when the Elector gives
me my little pension
and we say goodbye.
Only one person might have
stopped that day coming, you.
You and your silly little
romance with the Princess.
But you had the sense
to see the folly of it.
She's having the sense
to do as she's told.
To go back to George Louis.
To give him the family he
needs to make succession sure.
(intense music)
England's welcome to her.
Perhaps they like that pale
kind of prettiness there.
You're cured, aren't you Philip?
(intense music)
Philip.
Philip!
- He's gone, madam.
(intense music)
- Major Eck is here, sir-
- Get rid of him.
- Ah Colonel, I was just
leaving this for your signature.
- Then leave it, leave it and get out.
I'll see to it tomorrow.
- Thank you.
It should go to the Prince tomorrow.
The Prince?
What is it?
- I understood you'd been informed.
His Highness George Louis
leaves for Helenhausen in a week
to meet the English ambassadors.
Acknowledgement of the succession.
The regiment plans a dinner in his honour.
This is the invitation.
- Prince Charles is dead.
This isn't an occasion to celebrate.
- Good night, Colonel.
(people chattering)
- England?
The English have no liking for me.
I suit their purpose
'cause I'll keep them appropriate.
I don't understand their language.
I don't have their manners.
When I go, I shall take
German company with me.
I'll keep me own friends
and drink me own wine.
(people chattering)
(cup banging)
- Serene Highness, gentlemen.
I am a foreigner and not
over subtle in your customs.
That must excuse me.
The honour of speaking tonight
should have fallen to another.
I wish that it had.
Such man as his late
Highness, Prince Charles,
are not often to be found
in places of high rank.
However,
the fortunes of war and
politics have robbed us of him.
I am to pledge our loyalty,
that is the custom.
But loyalty is not everything.
We need other things as well,
equipment and good leadership.
When I was in Dresden,
I had the luck to see
something of Saxonese troops.
No cheese pairing in Saxony.
That's an army that
keeps as an army should.
- They're no good to fight.
Against the French, they ran.
- Right, Major, for what reason?
Because generals don't
fall out of the sky.
You can't make a leader
as you make a marshall,
with the yard of ribbon and guild stick.
(people murmuring)
- If Dresdon gave the Colonel
such paragons to handle,
I'm astonished he ever left there.
- I left Dresdon because disdain
and serving under Prince Augustus,
a man who betrays an adorable
wife for a succession
of loud mouthed, grasping
creatures out of the gutter.
(people chattering)
All right, Major.
A man who sends his own
brother to the Morea
to do the dying for him
can't be expected, I suppose,
to defend his own honour.
- If you gentlemen are finished,
I think we could find
better entertainment.
Sit down, gentlemen, sit down.
A song now.
I'm in the mood for a song.
How about "The Black Brunswickers?"
(people singing indistinctly)
(Dorothea gasping)
- Is he there, Konigsmark?
Yes, I know him.
And now that I know him,
I can deal with him.
I'll have him shot, shot
and no questions asked.
(intense music)
(tense music)
(hooves clopping)
- Anders, Anders!
- Here my Lord.
- How many horses have we
got that can pull a carriage?
- Well, my Lord, they're
riding beasts, mostly.
- I just want a dozen.
- A dozen?
- Yes, and the two carriages.
Paint out the arms on the smaller one
and have new cushions put
in, the best you can find.
And see you keep your mouth shut.
If one word of this gets out,
I'll crucify you against that wall.
- Yes, my Lord.
- All right.
(Philip calling)
- Philip.
He knows, Philip, he knows.
He'll have you killed.
- He won't act if the
court be for Helenhausen.
I know him.
No scandal that way.
We're safe for 24 hours.
- You'll go, you'll leave
Hanover, promise me.
- We're leaving together.
Tomorrow night, it's arranged.
(pounding on door)
- [Durer] Would you tell Count Konigsmark
that Captain Durer's here to speak to him?
- Durer, Countess Platen's man.
We must have been seen.
- I had this, he can't have recognised me.
- We'll find out.
Stay here.
- Oh, a late call, Colonel, my apologies.
Can I speak to you privately?
Perhaps in-
- We can speak privately here.
All right.
Well?
- You spoke very bluntly
this evening, Colonel.
It's possible that you
underestimate the consequences.
- I don't think so.
- I came to warn you and to offer my help.
- Help?
- You doubt my intentions?
- You mean do I doubt
your coming to my house
at this hour for that reason?
I do.
- Had I known you were engaged.
- Engaged?
- You're such a great cavalier, Colonel.
One never knows which lady
will be found next under your roof.
- Why don't you go and look?
I doubt if she'll be pleased, or you.
I imagine Countess Platen
pays you to spy for her,
not on her.
- Countess Platen?
- Don't you believe me?
- No Colonel, but I'll give
her the benefit of my doubt.
(tense music)
(hooves clopping)
- Yes?
- No sign, sir.
No one in the house.
- From the town gate, sir.
Count Konigsmark's coach passed
through about one o'clock.
Took the road to Asneboork.
- Asnebrook?
All right.
He'll be into Holland by this time.
No more to be done except
report to the Prince.
- I'm glad you will have the pleasure.
- [Man] What of it?
- Nothing.
- Go on, go on.
- The coat of arms on Konigsmark
coach was painted out.
- Anybody escaping would do the same.
- The coach is still here.
It was in his second
coach that he escaped.
The smaller, faster one he left behind.
And with it, the faster team of horses.
- Well?
- Seem that he expects someone to find.
So perhaps it might be yourself.
- When?
- The court leaves for
Helenhausen tomorrow.
(tense music)
- If she's going, it'll be tonight.
- 90,
80,
210.
500.
The game to me.
Another?
- It's late.
You'd best go to bed, child.
- I'm not tired.
- You look it.
And we have more than
piquet to play tomorrow
with the English ambassador.
You have to make an impression.
- Yes, Highness.
Good night, Highness.
- Good night.
- I think you were wrong.
- I was.
- She's not going then.
- He's come for her.
- He's here.
- Philip?
- He didn't go.
He wasn't in the coach.
Don't listen to him,
he's got some wild plan.
- Leave me with him.
- No, I don't trust you.
I'm afraid you haven't the
strength to send him away.
- Leave me now.
(dramatic music)
Philip, why'd you do this?
Risk your life and-
- To take you away.
- It's not possible.
I can't go.
This morning when I'd heard you gone,
I felt part of my life was emptied,
and I knew I could go on.
Live the rest of it,
because you were safe.
You'd give me the courage.
Don't make me a coward now.
Help me and go, please.
- I won't go without you.
- You knew before, why didn't you tell me?
- I wanted to be certain.
I wanted them caught
without a shadow of doubt.
- They will be.
- Wait.
Open scandal is not the best way.
Keep your own hands clear of it.
- How?
- Trust my discretion, you have before.
Let me make the arrest.
Give me four men of the guard
to obey without question.
Haven't much time.
- We can go through
West Fallen to Holland.
Then we take a ship for Sweden.
Sweden.
I've not told you about my house, have I?
All this time and I haven't
told you about my home.
It's big and rambling.
You'll be mistress of it.
You'll like it, you see.
The people are good.
My grandmother knew them
all for 10 miles around
and doctored them.
There's a great book that had handwriting
that my nurse was frightened
of because it had spells in it.
Stop trembling.
- Oh Philip, Philip.
- I'll be 15 minutes, no longer.
I want nothing from Hanover
except what I owe to you now.
You'll hear the coach
below, then come down.
- I'll be ready.
(tense music)
(clock bell ringing)
(body crashing)
(sword wooshing)
(man grunting)
- Stay where you are.
(metal clanging)
(man screaming)
- Captain, Captain.
- Where's the lantern?
Fetch us some light.
(swords clanging)
(man grunting)
(swords clanging)
(intense music)
(dramatic music)
- Dorothea.
(Clara screams)
(dramatic music)
(church bells ringing)
- You've taken money, maintained spies.
Your excesses have been
the shame of this court.
Now you have blood on your hands.
You have dishonoured our house.
- Your house?
Who do you think built it?
Do you think that now that
the English succession is sure
that it was done by you,
sitting still and looking
like a picture in a gallery?
It was done by me.
And when your son is on that throne,
George, the First of England,
Scotland and the rest of it,
my wits will have set him
there, not your pedigree.
- God's will may be done
by an unworthy instrument.
We owe you no debt.
- Do me this service then.
Dispatch me and let me rest.
I fear nothing but sleep,
that and, and growing old.
- Why are you such a fool
as to suppose that to run out
of life is to escape judgement?
When the axe falls, you
will be in God's hands.
I'll pray for you.
(knocking on door)
- Come.
- From his Serene Highness.
Your Highness has requested
to make ready to go to him
in the council chamber.
- No, where is he?
What have they done?
Have he taken him?
- I don't know.
I didn't speak.
They know.
I don't know how, but they know.
- A statement by her Highness,
the Princess Sophie Dorothea of Hanover.
Before this tribunal and dated this day,
September the 20th 1694.
"I make known my desire to
separate from my husband,"
"his Highness, Prince George Louis,"
"withdrawing from my conjugal duties."
"I request his Serene
Highness, the Elector,"
"that he will return to
me the Castle of Ahlden"
"that was part of my dour,"
"that I may retire there to live"
"under the care and
guard of the Natasaad,"
"whom it shall please his
Serene Highness to a point,"
"and to submit to such conditions"
"as his Serene Highness shall require."
"I undertake in no ways
to communicate by letter"
"or by other with any
person outside the castle."
"Secondly, I will at no
time leave the castle,"
"safe to walk in the garden
between the two moats."
"Thirdly, I hereby
renounce in perpetuity,"
"all those styles and titles to which my-"
(ominous music)
(announcer mumbling)
- He's dead.
- [Announcer] "I further undertake
to accept all conditions"
"that his Serene Highness
may from time to time"
"see fit to impose."
(quill scratching)
- My child, God knows what is within us,
both of strength and of weakness.
There is much happiness in this world.
The secret is to abandon hope of it.
At once all things come to your aid.
Nature is wiser than ourselves.
Little by little, she takes away desire,
and then, with the body at rest,
comes hope of quiet...
(Dorothea sobbing)
(melancholy music)
- [Dorothea Voiceover] That same day,
as they left for Helenhausen,
I came to Ahlden.
That was 30 years ago,
half a lifetime.
I have grown old.
I have nothing to wait for now,
except...
(dramatic music)
(grand orchestral music)
(grand orchestral music)
(pensive music)
(knocking on door)
- Come.
Is she dead?
- She wishes to write
a letter to the Prince.
Your permission for pen and paper.
- Give her what she asks.
- You'll give permission?
In London, we were told
there must be communication
with no one, no one.
- This is a dying woman.
She asks to write to her son.
Am I to forbid her that?
- You are to see that
she writes the no one,
above all, not to the Prince.
He is already caught
living with his father.
Half England's been set against
the King in this matter.
- Patience, patience.
What harm is done?
Let her write what she likes.
Afterward, we will read the letter
and form our own judgement.
(man sighs)
- [Dorothea Voiceover] My beloved son,
in these last hours of my life,
there is one indulgence
that I would ask of you.
It is not that you should
forgive what is in the past.
I do not expect that.
But only that you should read these words
and learn from them the truth.
You have grown to manhood, I know,
in the belief that your
mother brought dishonour
on the house of Hanover.
(ominous music)
Hanover, the capital of the
ambitious and powerful state
that bordered on my
childhood home of Celle.
Politics and intrigues
dominated the court there.
And without warning,
they were to alter the
whole course of my life.
(adventurous music)
(tense music)
(knocking on door)
- [Count Platen] Has my wife gone to bed?
- [Butler] I'm not sure, sir.
Come this way, I might help you.
(knocking on door)
- [Clara] Come.
What is it, Maria?
- Can't Platen, madam.
- What?
Your husband, at this time of night?/
Hasn't he any sense of what's fitting?
What does he want?
- I'll see to it.
- Don't be all night, Clara, I'm tired.
I'm sorry to disturb you
Clara, but this is urgent.
Durer here has just come from Celle,
with news of a betrothal.
- Sophie Dorothea?
- To Prince Antony Ulrich of Wolfenbuttel.
- You say the contract is not yet signed?
- Not yet.
It'll be part of the
birthday celebrations.
The Princess is 16 tomorrow.
- Tomorrow?
We're indebted to you.
I'll see the elector is informed.
- Come, Lieutenant, I'll
find you rooms for the night.
You've had a hard ride.
- I take it the news will not be long
in reaching the elector?
- You're a lucky man come to have a wife
who takes so much weight
off your shoulders.
- Signing tomorrow.
What can I do?
- What can you do?
You can go to your brother.
It's no more than a few
hours journey to Celle.
Go now, tonight.
- Tonight?
- Offer him alliance with Hanover,
and he'll soon have sense enough
to put these Wolfenbuttel's to the door.
- I have not spoken to
Judge William for 17 years.
- No time for snobbery now.
Maria!
We're not so rich we can
afford to snap our fingers
at that girl's dowry.
- [Man] But Clara.
- How can you sit back
and let these lands slip
through you fingers?
You with unmarried sons of your own.
- Judge Louis.
- Are you to support him indefinitely?
Another drive braver to have
the same old pair of bays.
Well, nothing but last year's dresses.
It looks badly.
It does the state no good.
The elector's mistress down at here
like a butcher's housekeeper.
- But Clara, I tell you it's impossible.
My wife would never agree.
- Put it to her the right way
and she'll welcome the match.
- Show me how,
and I give you commission
on the marriage settlement.
- How much?
- 5%.
- It's a bargain.
- Madam.
- His highness' coach.
- Tonight?
- At once.
- We are wasting our time.
Sophie, she'd as soon ban her family tree.
- I will not have that girl
from Celle in my house.
To bathe our Royal arms with hers?
We might as well mix our grade with pigs.
- Come now, Sophie, I
know it's a lot to ask,
but the girl is well spoken of.
She's my brother's daughter.
- And the mother?
What breeding is she?
A commoner.
Charles, my uncle, went
to the scaffold in England
rather than bait one jut of his kingship.
- Judge Lewis in debt, 200,000 taller.
A rich wife would take
that load off our hands.
- A girl with that upbringing?
No.
I've kept them out of my
Queendom these 17 years.
and I have no mind to
take them to my bosom now.
- There is another thing.
With Celle in my pocket
I carry more weight with
your cousins in London.
- Don't deceive yourself.
The English have no more liking
for these clots of dirt than I have.
- One thing they have a liking for,
a good compact state and
ally that's of use to them.
I tell you, four regimens
of guards against the French
will count for more in Westminster
than all your steward
blood and Royal breeding.
Think to the future.
You want to see your son
upon the English throne.
How many years have we worked for that?
Always the same thing.
Always another step nearer.
Here is the chance to make it more secure.
Weigh that against a little plot of dirt.
- Tonight at last, I
shall know the answer.
- To what, Charles?
- A problem in one of my
mother's books in there.
What happens when an irresistible force
comes up against an immovable object?
- There's no such thing.
- As which?
- But Sophie, I didn't ask this of you.
It's no journey for a woman.
30 miles of bad road, and I, too.
- If anyone is to go and
succeed, I'm the best fitted.
You only waste time in argument.
- You need a gift of some sort.
It's the child's birthday.
- We're offering these
people our son and alliance.
Do you suggest that trinkets
would lend them lustre?
- A girl, she'll expect
some trifle or other.
- Besides, it might take
her mind off George Louis.
- Charles.
- Well mother, would you relish
him as a birthday present?
- Make yourself useful for once.
Have them seal this in a packet.
Stamp our cor on it, large on
the wax and then go to bed.
- Yes, mother.
- Countess Platen, you're well, I hope.
- Thank you, Serene Highness.
- I trust you'll remain so.
You're valuable to Hanover.
(serene music)
- [Dorothea Voiceover]
But Hanover's politics,
and my own father's greed and weakness
had not yet disturbed the
tranquillity of my life at Celle.
On that morning of my 16th birthday,
I was looking forward excitedly
to the arrival of Prince Antony Ulrich
and the formal signing
of the marriage contract.
It was to mean for me, as I thought,
a happy and contented future.
(whimsical music)
- Now he's here!
- They can't be, it's an hour too early.
- I tell you, he's here!
Papa, Papa!
He's here, I saw him-
(ominous music)
- Dorothea, Dorothea, come here.
Fraulein, close the door.
- Dorothea, we are highly honoured,
a guest from Hanover for your birthday.
Where's your curtsy?
- Only a child yet.
We see a few visitors here.
Dorothea, your compliment.
- I thank your Serene Highness.
I'm very grateful.
I'm happy to pay my respectful duty.
- Come here, child.
I have something for you.
- A ring!
Look, mama.
It's beautiful.
- I had that ring from the
elector when I was to marry him.
I give it to you now on behalf
of my son, George Louis.
- No, no.
All the world knows what
he is, how he lives.
- Enough!
- She's only a child.
She knows nothing of life.
Think what such a marriage would mean.
- Alliance with Hanover
means friendship everywhere.
Recognition of house.
- I care nothing for that.
- I care for it.
- I won't take it, I won't.
- Dorothea.
- I tell you, I won't.
- [Father] Dorothea, you'll do as I say.
- No, don't let them make me.
- [Father] Silence, will you?
What kind of manners are these?
- And yours?
What kind of manners?
Antony Ulrich on his way
here, depending on your word,
and Dorothea so happy, so ready to obey.
- Madam,
will you not let my
daughter have her happiness?
Will you not say a mistake
has been made, and go?
Let us bless you.
- Madam, I don't know that I will.
(dramatic music)
- You, you must forgive my wife.
Child is still young and,
and we've not heard good
reports of George Louis.
- My son is a soldier.
While you have said that,
you've said the best of him.
You'll do your daughter in no service
if you teach her to look
for romance in Hanover.
(majestic music)
- Well, if mother can stomach
the girl in the family,
why is I complain?
How old is she?
- 16, little more than a child.
Remember that.
Come on, get the others out of the way.
- Don't worry, I'll see
the girl makes no mischief.
- Do so, we've had enough of scandal.
- There'll be none.
I hear she doesn't want me for a husband.
Well, I sympathise with her.
I don't want her for her wife.
(majestic music)
(crowd cheering)
(church bells ringing)
- [Priest] Has sent her a
husband, as unto the Lord.
For the husband, his capable wife.
Even as Christ is the head of the church.
(thunder roaring)
(priest chattering)
(rain pouring)
(thunder roaring)
(church bells ringing)
(church bells ringing)
(people cheering)
- [Dorothea Voiceover]
The years that followed
brought much loneliness to me.
I found what happiness I could
in the upbringing of my two children.
George Louis went his own
way, seeking other company.
And I was left much in
the society of his mother,
the Electress.
We had little in common.
- "Acting in the name of the two houses"
"of the Parliament of England,"
"amongst whom there
was not a fourth part,"
"did desire or to prove
such destructive changes"
"in the government of the church."
"Upon the rebellion and
the troubles in Ireland."
- That's enough.
You understand what you read?
- Something Highness.
- Use will accustom you.
We shall read again tomorrow.
Since we are on the subject of England,
there's another matter,
the education of your son.
One day, God willing, he
will sit on that throne.
He must begin to prepare for it.
- But madam, he's a child yet.
- It is time to give him
into other hands than yours.
- Highness, I beg of you.
- No arguments, no display.
- You take even my children from me.
They might have a few years
to be happy in as I have.
- Are you the better for it?
A little discipline sooner and
you might have been more fit
to uphold the honour of this house.
- Is George Louis better
brought up, perhaps?
Does he uphold the honour
of Hanover with his women?
- I know of the Prince's behaviour.
It does him no credit.
- If he can please himself, so can I.
- Must I remind you
that you are a princess?
Your marriage was not my wish,
but it has made you a
member of this family.
Understand your position and
try to live within it decently.
- Yes, Highness.
- [Dorothea Voiceover] Now
as every month went by,
I saw less and less of my two children.
The last consolation in my life was gone.
It was the summer of 1689,
and in that summer, in the Linnestrausen
not far from the palace,
an old house found a new owner.
A newcomer to Hanover,
who so matched the court
itself in his extravagance.
(calming music)
- [George Louis] $9,000.
- 10,000.
- $12,000,
- 20,000.
- I'll match you, 20,000.
(people murmuring)
Only tens, but good enough.
You're a cool player.
I never knew a man go quite
so high with quite so little.
I really nearly through in.
- You'd better change
your seat, Konigsmark.
They say you can sometimes
change your cards with it.
(George Louis yawns)
- I've had enough.
Catherine, don't say I keep
too short of pocket money.
- It is well earned.
I brought you luck.
- Someone did.
Take your revenge,
another time, Konigsmark.
- Of course, your Highness.
- Thank you, Eric.
A very profitable evening, I think.
- Yes, Highness.
- Well I must ask a few
days grace, your Highness.
My bankers, I haven't advised them yet.
- No hurry, tomorrow or the next day.
Good night, Konigsmark.
- Good night, your Highness.
- Good night, Konigsmark.
- Good night, sir.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Good night.
- Konigsmark, better luck next time.
- Good night.
- $43,000.
You were unlucky.
- Yes.
- You've been put to some expense
since you came to Hanover.
House, hospitality, and now this.
- Are you suggesting I can't pay?
- I know you can't.
- You're well informed.
- Perhaps I can help you.
You are a soldier.
A good one, I hear.
There may be some military appointment
we can find for you.
I have certain influence in Hanover,
I'll use it on your behalf.
- I must be very slow,
Countess, I don't understand.
- Understand what?
- Well, I understand how, but why?
And then again,
why should you be so
anxious to help me now?
- For money.
- Yes, that's a very good reason.
- You need a position of some
kind to settle your debts.
I'll arrange it.
In return, you can pay me a
commission on your salary.
15%.
- So it would have to be a large one?
- It will be.
- Defeat or victory is
beside the point here.
We fight England's enemies
to gain a goodwill,
a recognition of our
claims to the succession.
A political gesture, that's all.
- And the English, when they
learn the worth of the gesture?
- The Morea Peninsula's a
thousand miles from England.
- Read Highness, but is
it wise that his Highness
should be associated with such a campaign?
- That's soon answered.
I shan't be.
- The English will judge our force
by the General who commands.
- Planter's right, and they'll
expect one of Royal blood.
- Let Charles go then,
or would his mother
consider it too dangerous?
- The Electress knows nothing
of our military weakness.
She's not aware of the risks.
It is my wish that no
word of it be said to her.
As to Charles, he has not the experience.
- Here's a chance to get it.
We can afford to sacrifice
a few hundred men
to his education.
- A few hundred only?
You lost 8,000 at Menar.
- Enough, enough, enough.
There is no-
(people chattering)
- However much anyone dislike
it, I ame the heir to Hanover.
Discredit my reputation,
to damaged my chance of English throne.
To damaged the one thing
which to fight the campaign.
The answer's quite simple, let Charles go,
But send with him the right
man as second in command.
- Who?
- Konigsmark.
He's a soldier.
One that even English
will know by reputation.
And a foreigner.
- A foreigner, yes, but no fool either.
Are you sure he'd accept?
- Positive. (laughs)
- Tell him I refuse.
- Refuse?
Why?
- I don't like the campaign.
To begin with you send
Charles, who's no soldier,
when you have George
Louis, a fine general.
Your best troops lost half their strength
at Manheim to months ago,
and then you offer the second
in command to me, a foreigner.
Why?
Because you need a scapegoat.
You know this campaign will fail,
and you want someone to blame
in your excuses to England
when the time comes.
Isn't that the truth?
- Near enough.
But why should you be so
concerned for your reputation?
You've had your hands in
dirtier business than this.
- I prefer dirt of my own choosing.
I don't like being pushed into it.
- Why you!
No need to lose our tempers.
I admit that it may not
add to your prestige,
but it's a position that pays well.
Can you afford to refuse it?
- My debts.
- Yes.
- That was nicely managed.
But as I'm a man of no honour,
I can always run for it.
To England.
- The English wouldn't listen to you.
Even if you did get there
alive, which is unlikely.
- Those are both risks
I'm prepared to take.
- On the whole, I'd rather you stayed.
I'll find other duties for you.
Something in Hanover
which would pay your
debts and a little over,
Would that satisfy you?
- For the moment.
- That's how you live,
just for the moment?
- Certainly.
A hard soldier knocked
down to the highest bidder.
No roots, no ties.
He's nothing permanent.
- The palace guards, a
household appointment.
I thought you were soldier
count, not a flunky.
- It's an honour to serve
Hanover in any capacity,
your Highness, however small.
- Small, with a prince's
ransom for salary?
- I'm greatly indebted to your Highness.
- See that the debt's paid.
- There should be no difficulty now.
- Well, what is it?
- Your pardon, Highness.
Her Highness, the
Princess, and Prince John.
- I'm sorry, your
Highness, I didn't realise.
Are we interrupting a council of state?
- No.
All righty, Count Konigsmark,
the new Colonel of Guards.
Well, what is it?
- Your birthday, Highness.
The children have learned
a poem of greeting,
especially for the occasion.
Sophie, George.
- Not Rome, in all her happiest pomp
could show a greater
Caesar than we honour now.
God like his bounty both to kin and state,
in warfare, as in council, great.
Uh.
- Domestic bliss.
- Domestic bliss, um, um.
- The child seems to have scant
knowledge or domestic bliss.
Ask your mother to
instruct on that subject.
She has a vast experience.
- I'm sorry, mother.
- Your, your father's very busy,
we shouldn't have intruded.
I heard you'd come to Hanover, Count.
I'm happy to hear of your appointment.
- [Prince] Are your a soldier?
- Yes, your Highness.
- So am I.
I've got new pony, six years old.
- How old are you?
- Sophie, your manners.
The Count comes from Sweden.
You don't want him to think badly of us.
- Sweden, is he on our side?
- Yes, your Highness.
(dramatic music)
(whimsical music)
- All right.
- I've not had the chance,
Colonel, to congratulate you.
I'm glad that Hanover
so quickly appreciates a man of talent.
Countess, you'll excuse me.
- Certainly.
- Friend of yours?
- I find him useful.
- Don't like his manners.
- Men hate to see others
succeed where they've failed.
- You're a woman greatly admired.
- Durer, he wants my good favour
only because he knows that
I'm powerful in Hanover.
I'm used that sort of attention.
I hope you are a little
more disinterested, Philip.
- Why do you suppose?
- What do I mean to you?
- Pleasant evenings after some dull days.
A woman's company without
having to watch my tongue.
A head for drink as strong as my own.
What more do you want?
- A great deal more.
- You're sentimental to today, Clara.
- Yes.
- Now's not the time for it.
- That young man, I'm not
all together satisfied.
- Konigsmark.
- The Morea campaign.
Are you sure he can be
trusted not to talk?
- I'm keeping my eye on him.
- Charles' tastes have changed.
- His mother gave it to him.
She thinks him idle,
is trying to cure him.
- Daily dose of prose.
The remedy seems a little drastic.
- I'm afraid he doesn't take it.
- Take what?
- Nothing, Charles.
- Charles is a philosopher.
- [Dorothea] Dear Charles.
- If life fails to go the way he wants it,
he has one infallible
answer, he goes to sleep.
- Sleep, the needs of
the rebel sleep of care.
- You learn poetry as
well as your children.
- English poetry.
I have to discover all I can of England
since it seems I might
have to go there one day.
- You're not looking forward to it.
- One place or another,
the court is much the same.
- Not in England, not if it's
the same as when I was there.
- What was it like?
- Merry, but a little mad.
The whole nation's mad,
but the sanest lunatics in the world.
- What kind of madness?
- Peculiar sense of what matters.
do you know what's really
changed England's history
in the last 50 years?
Civil war, bill of rights,
habeas corpus, not a bit of it.
It was now grim,
the first cup of tea and the
water Oliver Cromwell's known.
- Your Highness, they're waiting for you.
- You must continue the lesson, Count,
on some other occasion.
(dramatic music)
- It's a long time since
I've seen you so happy.
What is it?
- Nothing.
- Make sure it doesn't run away with you.
You're not the only one.
- I don't know what you mean.
- I mean, Countess Platen.
(ominous music)
- [Konigsmark] Konigsmark, your Highness.
- I give your reception here.
We study our English history.
- Highness.
- Some weeks ago you
were offered a commission
with Prince Charles in the Morea.
You refused it.
I ask you now to reconsider.
- I'm sorry.
- [Highness] Why will you not go?
- Your, Highness.
- I want the truth.
- It's difficult to
speak it without offence.
- Speak as you like.
- Prince Charles of the
Royal family, Madam.
If the state requires him
to go on such a campaign,
he can't question the order.
I'm a foreigner, I'm hardly
under the same obligation.
- They told me your family
had a name for courage.
- Courage is one thing,
madams, stupidity another.
I'll accept danger readily enough,
but why should I go on my way
to invite discredit as well.
- Discredit, to fight for Hanover?
- With what kind of an army?
Tired, ill-equipped
men and untrained boys?
I know as well as you
do, why they have to go,
but they're not fit to fight.
They haven't a chance, and you know it.
You couldn't keep that secret
from the English perhaps,
but not from your own officers,
and certainly not from the man
who has to lead the poor
fool to their slaughter.
Your son goes because he must,
but don't expect me to
join him in this massacre.
- I understand, Count Konigsmark.
I'm obliged to you.
- Forgive me, your Highness,
but you asked for the truth.
- I'm glad to learn it.
You have our permission to
leave, Count Konigsmark.
- She didn't know, nor you?
- No.
- I had no suspicion.
- There's no need to blame yourself.
- Or what will she do?
- Nothing.
- You mean she'll let Charles go?
- The English Throne is involved.
Beside that, her son is nothing.
Haven't you seen enough yet of Hanover
to know that we're all of a kind here?
That we live our lives for politics.
Marry for politics, bare
children for politics,
and lose them to-
I'm sorry, I shouldn't speak like that.
(dramatic music)
- I've seen how it is for you here.
- Please forget what I said, I was upset.
- There's something I want to say to you,
will you listen?
- You're holding me.
(dramatic music)
What was it you wanted to say?
- It's said.
(intense music)
- You're the first man,
Philip, who ever cost me money.
My commission, if you'd accepted
the command in the Morea,
but I don't regret it.
Everyone knows I expect,
apart from the Elector,
but no one will whisper any scandal.
No one willingly makes an enemy of me.
When I came to this court, I had nothing.
No friends, no money, just my wits.
Some women have only to show their faces
to make a way in the world.
I wasn't created such
a woman, I know that.
But I've succeeded in spite of them,
even at the game the others play.
The old woman at the palace.
She was a great beauty, but
what she had out of life?
That pretty little
simpleton of a princess.
She'll be Queen of England one day.
I go to the court and I
curtsy low in front of them.
But I don't envy them.
I have what I want.
I've got you, Philip.
Philip, what are you thinking of?
- You.
(singing in foreign language)
(whimsical music)
- Dorothea.
- Why must you make it harder?
To be so easy now.
It's so much what I
want to, say everything.
But once I did, once I
admitted it, even to myself.
- But I'm in love with
you, and you with me.
Is that something to be frightened of?
- Yes.
- Listen to me.
I've seen something in
the world, more than you.
If you want anything badly, take it.
Take it and don't be
afraid of the consequences.
Look around you, in Hanover.
- So we should be like them?
Lying and cheating?
Snatch at our pleasures when
there's no one by to see.
That's not what I want.
That's not how I think of you.
And I thought that you,
as you say, you've seen more of the world.
- Philip.
(intense music)
- There's only one mother tonight!
The King must rule and here they are!
(people cheering)
(drums banging)
- The whole town's of the fair tonight.
Crowd sweating and pushing,
singing, dancing, drinking.
- Leave it.
- Not for me.
We're not so young as we were.
- Leave it.
- Either of us.
- Get the dress.
- Which one, madam?
- There on the bed.
(knocking on door)
Come.
- Good evening, Philip.
- Clara.
- You can go, Maria.
Why do I have to send for you?
Two weeks.
What kept you away?
- Oh, my house, the
regiment, hundred things.
- Why have you been avoiding me?
- I haven't been avoiding you.
- Don't lie to me.
You're not very clever, Philip.
It's suits your vanity
to turn the head of the Crown Princess.
All right, amuse yourself.
Amuse her, too.
She must need some distraction
with her husband who makes
love as a pig makes fat.
The idea of George Louis disturbs you.
- Don't be a fool, Clara,
what's the matter with you?
We're not romantic children.
We don't have to meet every hour.
- I don't expect that.
I don't ask for size or,
or eyes turned up to the moon,
but I expect honesty.
What is there between
you and the Princess?
- Nothing.
- Then what is it, Philip?
Why have you left me alone?
Kiss me.
(tense music)
(Philip grunting)
You won't easily forget that.
Philip!
Listen to me, listen.
I tell you the truth.
No lies, no intrigue.
Truth's a weapon, I put it in your hand.
I'm 44.
I've been a woman 44 years,
I shan't be much long
with you, understand?
I'm getting tired, tired and old.
I cover my face with paint,
but the lines show through.
I feel old, but not with you.
When you touch me, my flesh
comes life, I'm young again.
Without you I'm nothing.
- Clara, please.
- It's true, I swear it!
Would I humble myself if it weren't?
Philip, I helped you
once when you needed me,
help me now, come back to me!
Love me!
Let me be young again!
Philip!
Philip.
(Clara crying)
(lively music)
- Let's go down.
Shall I get your cloak?
- I'm not going there.
- Why not?
- I, I'm tired.
I'd rather stay in.
- That isn't the reason.
You're afraid of meeting him.
You mustn't be like this.
You can't put an end to
something by hiding from it.
- Go down to them now.
Make my excuses.
(light dramatic music)
(crowd roaring)
(crowd cheering)
(dramatic music)
(crowd cheering)
(intense music)
- Come and see the tree man,
all the way from (indistinct).
(people chattering)
(crowd roaring)
(intense music)
(romantic music)
- Philip.
(tense music)
- I'll get some more light.
I never thought I'd see you again,
in my house, in this room.
I want to see you in it.
- I've been here often in my thoughts.
- It's in some disorder.
- I never saw it very clearly.
Only you.
And now I'm are with you.
All these weeks and
months thinking about you.
It's what I've longed for, always.
To say the things I want to say.
Things I haven't the
strength to hide any longer.
Even from myself.
Who is she?
- My sister.
- She's very beautiful.
- Hers is not the only kind of beauty.
Many men have admired her.
Too many.
We are foreigners.
My sisters have been
liberal with their favours
in half the courts of Europe.
My brother was tried
for murder in England.
As for me, I know better than the others.
Something in our blood that
makes us worthless to anyone.
- I know what you are
trying to do, Philip.
It's no use.
I've tried for so long to fight this.
I can't anymore.
- I'm leaving Hanover.
- No.
- All ready this has endangered you.
- Tonight, I know I've done a bad thing,
but I can hide my feelings.
No one need know.
All I wanted to see was
sometime to be near,
better to speak.
- It can't be like that.
Someone who knows already.
- Countess Platen.
- Yes.
- And you want this here,
but you made love to her.
- She means nothing to me.
- No, no woman means anything.
You think we're all the same.
You think that's all we expect.
- Listen to me.
I love you.
I love you.
I've never said just
that to any other woman.
I never will.
Do you believe me?
- Philip.
(melancholy music)
- Take you back.
(ominous music)
(triumphant music)
(people cheering)
- Some fool in the future will
call this campaign a tragedy.
If only he knew the comedy of it.
It's always a woman one way or the other.
(triumphant music)
- Graveside, 9,000 men under earth,
but I've seen enough.
Will you read to me, child?
- Forgive me, madam.
My head aches.
- The heat.
Go to your room.
We shall expect you at dinner.
- I don't understand.
You stay here and read
while your son goes off.
- What else do you look for?
- Some compassion.
Some, some sign of heart, of feeling.
- Your emotion, I take it,
is on behalf of my son.
I'm making no accusation,
but you must remember,
your good name is of value
to others beside yourself.
- How do you think that I should live?
Without friends, my
children taken from me,
my husband and his women,
making a laughing stock of me?
- That is something no
other person can do for us.
We have only ourselves to
thank if we laughed at.
- It's easier for you.
- What is easier?
- To live with books.
To ignore the things around you.
But I'm young and while I eat
and sleep, my life goes by.
- And for that, you complain?
You should thank your God for it.
When the hours drag,
when each day is like a great
stone that you roll uphill.
I know what I speak of.
I'm older than you.
- Highness, I've seen
what you have to suffer.
Receiving Countess
Platen and accepting her,
shutting your eyes to the humiliation.
It's cruel of the Elector.
- Have a goodness, never
again in my hearing
to criticise the Elector.
Your concern is misplaced.
- Please, don't go.
Forgive me, I didn't mean to offend.
- I know my dear, you've
had something to bear,
but you are to remember
that royalty may not look for happiness
such as others enjoy.
We are not to have hearts,
are not to have feelings.
That is not within our province.
We have no more right to
inequalities of temper,
than the town clock has
irregularities of time.
The people set their lives by us.
- [Dorothea Voiceover] I
knew she spoke the truth
out of the bitterness
of her own experience,
and I resolved to take her advice.
To shut all thought of him out of my life
and to accept with patience,
the futility and monotony
of the life at court.
(whimsical music)
I tried to outdo them all.
because my life was even
emptier than theirs.
Emptier than it had ever been.
- It's true, I tell you, it's true.
- Princess has everyone at her feet.
They'll be saying it is
she who neglects you.
(hooves clopping)
- What is it?
- Dispatches sir, from the Morea.
(tense music)
- No need to look as if you
were going to be hanged.
- How should I look, honoured?
- Send my valet to me.
You've change, you know?
Changed a lot.
Your spirit, I like it better
when a woman has spirit.
The romance, pity a good
looking girl like you
has to content herself with reading.
Go to bed.
- Is his Highness here?
- Yes, sir.
- I must see him at once.
- What is it?
- News from the Morea, Highness.
- Can't you wait till morning?
All right, leave us.
- Your Highness.
- Tomorrow.
- But Highness.
- I said tomorrow.
- Major, there's a rumour.
- News from the Morea?
- Yes.
(people chattering)
- [Dorothea] Who was it?
- Eck.
- Is anything wrong?
- Nothing for you to worry about.
- Why did he come?
- I tell you, he's a fool.
In a panic of the first
whisper of bad news.
- From the Morea?
- We were routed, Charles is missing.
- Charles.
And the others?
- [George Louis] Temple
outfit (indistinct).
What's the matter, you'll faint?
What is it?
- What else?
Tell me, what else?
- That's all.
Send dispatch from Konigsmark.
He says that the Turks are,
what is this?
There was nothing between you and Charles.
(dramatic music)
(Dorothea crying)
(tense music)
- He's safe.
(dramatic music)
(sombre music)
- When they heard the Prince was dead,
the men had no stomach to continue.
We fell back as best we could.
Next day, the Turks withdrew,
but before they left,
they sent four men over to us
leading his Highness' horse.
Body was across the saddle.
They're, they're a
savage people, the Turks,
but they respect courage.
- I should be glad to know
that he received my letters.
- He carried them with him, always, madam.
- Thank you.
- I'm happy my son had you for a friend.
(light dramatic music)
- And we have dispatched
also as our ambassador,
Sir William Colt,
that he may convey to you
in person deepest sympathy.
Our two houses sharing
already the ties of kinship
are now bound together by
blood shed on the battlefield
against our common enemies.
Colt?
It's not a name that I know.
- The man matters little.
It is the fact that he comes
now in the name of Parliament.
It means that at last,
our claims are admitted.
- Believe me, I know her.
I've known her all her life.
She hasn't skilled to hide her feelings.
I'm afraid for her.
- I want only one thing,
for her to be safe, whatever it means.
Even if we never see each other.
- It means more than that.
One word, one hint to George
Louis and he'll destroy her.
Only you can stop that word being said.
- I, how?
- By going back to Platen.
- Did she say this?
- She doesn't know I'm here.
I'm asking you for her sake.
- No, no I-
- She's in danger.
Nothing else matters,
your feelings or hers.
One of two things must be done,
either you must go back
to Countess Platen,
or she must mend matters
with George Louis.
- We only know one way
to be happy, she and I.
But to be unhappy, to be
in hell a thousand ways.
How does she look?
Does she go out much, ride?
- She's too full of crying.
- Tell her,
tell her that whatever happens,
whatever she may hear-
- She knows.
- You sent for me, Highness?
- There's news from England.
We are to expect the ambassador.
Our claims are last admitted.
- I am happy that your
Highness' hopes are fulfilled.
- The reward would be yours
when you are Queen of England.
- I have no wish for it.
- No wish for it?
Do you think this is a matter
in which to consider private sentiment?
My son gave his life for this
and I've spent a better
part of mine working for it.
An end to such talk.
- I understand my duty,
I've tried to do it.
- Have you?
You have only one son,
and England is joined to our crown.
There must be another.
- Madam.
- There is nothing to be said.
Your separation is to
end, once and for all.
- We're going to Helenhausen
to see the ambassador.
We shall occupy the south
apartment there, together.
Have you any objection?
- I will order the
apartments to be made ready.
- The Countess is ill.
- Ill, what is it?
- Measles.
- That I think I might risk.
- She is seeing nobody.
- [Konigsmark] She'll see me.
(knocking on door)
- [Platen] Who is it?
- Konigsmark.
- Philip.
A moment.
Maria, take this.
The curtains, and let him in.
Hurry.
- Yes, madam.
- Good evening, Maria.
- A fine time to come.
Maria, I find him a chair.
- I heard you were sick.
- It's nothing, a child's complaint.
Maria, you can go.
- What's that stuff she's taking out?
- Cream curdled with saffron.
It gives me a clownish look so
I'll, I'll keep out of sight.
Sit down.
Had a bad time?
- Oh, I managed to save my neck.
The only mark that I got from a friend.
- It was a madness.
That's not the way I go to work,
with shrieks and red hot tongues.
I was possessed.
- Is the devil gone?
- I think so, but don't recon on it.
Wasn't there a man in the Bible,
they drove the devil out of him
and in came seven others
worse than the first.
- I'm still not safe.
- No one's safe in love.
Philip.
- Mm-hm?
- Why have you come?
Things could be as they were between us.
Do you want that?
Speak, say it.
- I, I'm here, isn't that proof enough?
- Where should we go?
Your home, to Sweden?
- You'd leave Hanover?
- Now there's a throne at stake,
his Serene Highness will
have to behave himself.
- It's certain then, the English throne.
- I've made it certain.
Every step.
The marriage with Celle,
support for the English.
I've planned and schemed for the day
when the Elector gives
me my little pension
and we say goodbye.
Only one person might have
stopped that day coming, you.
You and your silly little
romance with the Princess.
But you had the sense
to see the folly of it.
She's having the sense
to do as she's told.
To go back to George Louis.
To give him the family he
needs to make succession sure.
(intense music)
England's welcome to her.
Perhaps they like that pale
kind of prettiness there.
You're cured, aren't you Philip?
(intense music)
Philip.
Philip!
- He's gone, madam.
(intense music)
- Major Eck is here, sir-
- Get rid of him.
- Ah Colonel, I was just
leaving this for your signature.
- Then leave it, leave it and get out.
I'll see to it tomorrow.
- Thank you.
It should go to the Prince tomorrow.
The Prince?
What is it?
- I understood you'd been informed.
His Highness George Louis
leaves for Helenhausen in a week
to meet the English ambassadors.
Acknowledgement of the succession.
The regiment plans a dinner in his honour.
This is the invitation.
- Prince Charles is dead.
This isn't an occasion to celebrate.
- Good night, Colonel.
(people chattering)
- England?
The English have no liking for me.
I suit their purpose
'cause I'll keep them appropriate.
I don't understand their language.
I don't have their manners.
When I go, I shall take
German company with me.
I'll keep me own friends
and drink me own wine.
(people chattering)
(cup banging)
- Serene Highness, gentlemen.
I am a foreigner and not
over subtle in your customs.
That must excuse me.
The honour of speaking tonight
should have fallen to another.
I wish that it had.
Such man as his late
Highness, Prince Charles,
are not often to be found
in places of high rank.
However,
the fortunes of war and
politics have robbed us of him.
I am to pledge our loyalty,
that is the custom.
But loyalty is not everything.
We need other things as well,
equipment and good leadership.
When I was in Dresden,
I had the luck to see
something of Saxonese troops.
No cheese pairing in Saxony.
That's an army that
keeps as an army should.
- They're no good to fight.
Against the French, they ran.
- Right, Major, for what reason?
Because generals don't
fall out of the sky.
You can't make a leader
as you make a marshall,
with the yard of ribbon and guild stick.
(people murmuring)
- If Dresdon gave the Colonel
such paragons to handle,
I'm astonished he ever left there.
- I left Dresdon because disdain
and serving under Prince Augustus,
a man who betrays an adorable
wife for a succession
of loud mouthed, grasping
creatures out of the gutter.
(people chattering)
All right, Major.
A man who sends his own
brother to the Morea
to do the dying for him
can't be expected, I suppose,
to defend his own honour.
- If you gentlemen are finished,
I think we could find
better entertainment.
Sit down, gentlemen, sit down.
A song now.
I'm in the mood for a song.
How about "The Black Brunswickers?"
(people singing indistinctly)
(Dorothea gasping)
- Is he there, Konigsmark?
Yes, I know him.
And now that I know him,
I can deal with him.
I'll have him shot, shot
and no questions asked.
(intense music)
(tense music)
(hooves clopping)
- Anders, Anders!
- Here my Lord.
- How many horses have we
got that can pull a carriage?
- Well, my Lord, they're
riding beasts, mostly.
- I just want a dozen.
- A dozen?
- Yes, and the two carriages.
Paint out the arms on the smaller one
and have new cushions put
in, the best you can find.
And see you keep your mouth shut.
If one word of this gets out,
I'll crucify you against that wall.
- Yes, my Lord.
- All right.
(Philip calling)
- Philip.
He knows, Philip, he knows.
He'll have you killed.
- He won't act if the
court be for Helenhausen.
I know him.
No scandal that way.
We're safe for 24 hours.
- You'll go, you'll leave
Hanover, promise me.
- We're leaving together.
Tomorrow night, it's arranged.
(pounding on door)
- [Durer] Would you tell Count Konigsmark
that Captain Durer's here to speak to him?
- Durer, Countess Platen's man.
We must have been seen.
- I had this, he can't have recognised me.
- We'll find out.
Stay here.
- Oh, a late call, Colonel, my apologies.
Can I speak to you privately?
Perhaps in-
- We can speak privately here.
All right.
Well?
- You spoke very bluntly
this evening, Colonel.
It's possible that you
underestimate the consequences.
- I don't think so.
- I came to warn you and to offer my help.
- Help?
- You doubt my intentions?
- You mean do I doubt
your coming to my house
at this hour for that reason?
I do.
- Had I known you were engaged.
- Engaged?
- You're such a great cavalier, Colonel.
One never knows which lady
will be found next under your roof.
- Why don't you go and look?
I doubt if she'll be pleased, or you.
I imagine Countess Platen
pays you to spy for her,
not on her.
- Countess Platen?
- Don't you believe me?
- No Colonel, but I'll give
her the benefit of my doubt.
(tense music)
(hooves clopping)
- Yes?
- No sign, sir.
No one in the house.
- From the town gate, sir.
Count Konigsmark's coach passed
through about one o'clock.
Took the road to Asneboork.
- Asnebrook?
All right.
He'll be into Holland by this time.
No more to be done except
report to the Prince.
- I'm glad you will have the pleasure.
- [Man] What of it?
- Nothing.
- Go on, go on.
- The coat of arms on Konigsmark
coach was painted out.
- Anybody escaping would do the same.
- The coach is still here.
It was in his second
coach that he escaped.
The smaller, faster one he left behind.
And with it, the faster team of horses.
- Well?
- Seem that he expects someone to find.
So perhaps it might be yourself.
- When?
- The court leaves for
Helenhausen tomorrow.
(tense music)
- If she's going, it'll be tonight.
- 90,
80,
210.
500.
The game to me.
Another?
- It's late.
You'd best go to bed, child.
- I'm not tired.
- You look it.
And we have more than
piquet to play tomorrow
with the English ambassador.
You have to make an impression.
- Yes, Highness.
Good night, Highness.
- Good night.
- I think you were wrong.
- I was.
- She's not going then.
- He's come for her.
- He's here.
- Philip?
- He didn't go.
He wasn't in the coach.
Don't listen to him,
he's got some wild plan.
- Leave me with him.
- No, I don't trust you.
I'm afraid you haven't the
strength to send him away.
- Leave me now.
(dramatic music)
Philip, why'd you do this?
Risk your life and-
- To take you away.
- It's not possible.
I can't go.
This morning when I'd heard you gone,
I felt part of my life was emptied,
and I knew I could go on.
Live the rest of it,
because you were safe.
You'd give me the courage.
Don't make me a coward now.
Help me and go, please.
- I won't go without you.
- You knew before, why didn't you tell me?
- I wanted to be certain.
I wanted them caught
without a shadow of doubt.
- They will be.
- Wait.
Open scandal is not the best way.
Keep your own hands clear of it.
- How?
- Trust my discretion, you have before.
Let me make the arrest.
Give me four men of the guard
to obey without question.
Haven't much time.
- We can go through
West Fallen to Holland.
Then we take a ship for Sweden.
Sweden.
I've not told you about my house, have I?
All this time and I haven't
told you about my home.
It's big and rambling.
You'll be mistress of it.
You'll like it, you see.
The people are good.
My grandmother knew them
all for 10 miles around
and doctored them.
There's a great book that had handwriting
that my nurse was frightened
of because it had spells in it.
Stop trembling.
- Oh Philip, Philip.
- I'll be 15 minutes, no longer.
I want nothing from Hanover
except what I owe to you now.
You'll hear the coach
below, then come down.
- I'll be ready.
(tense music)
(clock bell ringing)
(body crashing)
(sword wooshing)
(man grunting)
- Stay where you are.
(metal clanging)
(man screaming)
- Captain, Captain.
- Where's the lantern?
Fetch us some light.
(swords clanging)
(man grunting)
(swords clanging)
(intense music)
(dramatic music)
- Dorothea.
(Clara screams)
(dramatic music)
(church bells ringing)
- You've taken money, maintained spies.
Your excesses have been
the shame of this court.
Now you have blood on your hands.
You have dishonoured our house.
- Your house?
Who do you think built it?
Do you think that now that
the English succession is sure
that it was done by you,
sitting still and looking
like a picture in a gallery?
It was done by me.
And when your son is on that throne,
George, the First of England,
Scotland and the rest of it,
my wits will have set him
there, not your pedigree.
- God's will may be done
by an unworthy instrument.
We owe you no debt.
- Do me this service then.
Dispatch me and let me rest.
I fear nothing but sleep,
that and, and growing old.
- Why are you such a fool
as to suppose that to run out
of life is to escape judgement?
When the axe falls, you
will be in God's hands.
I'll pray for you.
(knocking on door)
- Come.
- From his Serene Highness.
Your Highness has requested
to make ready to go to him
in the council chamber.
- No, where is he?
What have they done?
Have he taken him?
- I don't know.
I didn't speak.
They know.
I don't know how, but they know.
- A statement by her Highness,
the Princess Sophie Dorothea of Hanover.
Before this tribunal and dated this day,
September the 20th 1694.
"I make known my desire to
separate from my husband,"
"his Highness, Prince George Louis,"
"withdrawing from my conjugal duties."
"I request his Serene
Highness, the Elector,"
"that he will return to
me the Castle of Ahlden"
"that was part of my dour,"
"that I may retire there to live"
"under the care and
guard of the Natasaad,"
"whom it shall please his
Serene Highness to a point,"
"and to submit to such conditions"
"as his Serene Highness shall require."
"I undertake in no ways
to communicate by letter"
"or by other with any
person outside the castle."
"Secondly, I will at no
time leave the castle,"
"safe to walk in the garden
between the two moats."
"Thirdly, I hereby
renounce in perpetuity,"
"all those styles and titles to which my-"
(ominous music)
(announcer mumbling)
- He's dead.
- [Announcer] "I further undertake
to accept all conditions"
"that his Serene Highness
may from time to time"
"see fit to impose."
(quill scratching)
- My child, God knows what is within us,
both of strength and of weakness.
There is much happiness in this world.
The secret is to abandon hope of it.
At once all things come to your aid.
Nature is wiser than ourselves.
Little by little, she takes away desire,
and then, with the body at rest,
comes hope of quiet...
(Dorothea sobbing)
(melancholy music)
- [Dorothea Voiceover] That same day,
as they left for Helenhausen,
I came to Ahlden.
That was 30 years ago,
half a lifetime.
I have grown old.
I have nothing to wait for now,
except...
(dramatic music)
(grand orchestral music)