No actual sex or nudity, but two male characters discuss their romantic relationship while in bed together. Multiple extramarital affairs are referred to or depicted in brief, mild form. A man treats his wife roughly when she resists his advances in their volatile marriage.

The film culminates with an offscreen execution by beheading; the axe is seen coming down.

A man is murdered by being stabbed by several assailants over 50 times.

A man is murdered by strangling with a rope, after he escapes an attempt to kill him by blowing up his house with gunpowder.

A pregnant woman is handled roughly while being taken prisoner.

A man is seen after being tortured in a dungeon, and is heard screaming.

A woman harshly slaps a man she is romantically involved with out of jealousy over his compliments about another woman.

Several references to bastard children (including adults referring to themselves). One character calls another a whore.

No recreational drugs, as the film is set in the late 16th century. Some wine drinking, particularly to celebrate a wedding; a man is given a glass of wine which has been drugged to make him unconscious.

A man who has contracted a venereal disease is seen with his face covered in bandages. When he removes the bandage, numerous sores are visible on his face.

A teenager with a serious ear infection is seen in agony and heard screaming in pain; the infection causes a fatal brain affliction.

A man is thrown from his horse on the beach, and is briefly unconscious.

Dead bodies of messengers are seen on horseback after they have been captured and killed.

Much of the plot revolves around religious conflicts and wars between Catholics and Protestants in 16th-century Europe, with various characters being called papists and heretics, and being assaulted and abused for their faith.

A woman deals with the deaths of three husbands over a period of two decades. Different characters deal with the deaths of a mother and a son.