Angelica is a princess of Cathay ("
China? India? Well, Cathay is Cathay! I don't see why you should make your brain work harder for such an obvious answer!") in the epic poem
Orlando Innamorato, and its sequel,
Orlando Furioso.
A kind, loving princess beloved by her people, Angelica was introduced before Charlemagne's court alongside her brother, Argalia, as part of a diplomatic mission. The paladins were instantly smitten by her beauty, especially cousins Roland and Renaud. Tensions began to rise among the paladins, until Argalia stepped in, saying that those who desires his sister's hand in marriage must defeat him in a jousting competition. And so a competition was held, and hundreds of eligible bachelors answered the challenge. Argalia proved himself as a talented knight, defeating even the likes of Roland and Renaud without breaking a sweat. However, he underestimated one of his opponents, a minor paladin by the name of Ferrau (also known as Ferragut), and fell before him in the match. Overwhelmed by this defeat, Argalia left the kingdom in shame, leaving his belongings behind (
his lance was "borrowed" by a certain crossdressing paladin in his absence). With the competition concluded, Charlemagne was about to announce the results... only for the runner-ups, Roland and Renaud, to contest his decision. They cited various excuses to demand a rematch; "
Ferrau only won because Argalia underestimated him as a knight!", "
Maybe Argalia wasn't in the best of health during the joust!", "
Being completely physically invincible outside his navel is a hack ability, so his victory doesn't count!", and "
Who was he again? I don't remember there being a guy named Ferrau among the twelve of us!", to name some examples. With Argalia's absence, tensions began to rise again, and before long, everyone was at each other's throats. Roland and Renaud, once cousins and the best of friends, unsheathed their blades, threatening to destroy each other. As all hell broke loose, Angelica fled the kingdom, and a chase that spanned the entire world soon ensued, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
Throughout this adventure, Angelica found herself in numerous predicaments, captured by warlocks, kings, knights, and beasts alike, and escaping them through
plot armor the unexplainable contrivances of fate. Roland went mad with romantic passion and rampaged across Europe buck-naked. Meanwhile, Angelica had a few close calls with Renaud, which she escaped from thanks to some comical misunderstandings and drinking from a magical fountain which inverted hers and Renaud's emotions a few times.
Eventually, Angelica found herself naked and chained to a rock in the sea, offered as a sacrifice to a sea monster, mirroring the perils faced by Andromeda of Greek myth. She was rescued from this predicament by the paladin Ruggiero, who gave her a ring that could conceal her presence.
The ring worked well.
Too well, perhaps, to the point that no one was sure what exactly happened to her afterwards. In some versions, she vanished from the epic entirely. In others, she returned to Cathay and reunited with her brother, or married some average schmuck named Medoro somewhere. The third seems to be the most accepted ending to her tale, but said ending heavily contradicts her previous characterization of "a girl who loves, yet cannot perceive romance". Thus, nobody knows for sure how her tale concluded.
Meanwhile, having drunk from the magical fountain, Renaud came to his senses. After going on a trip to the moon Astolfo brought an antidote for Roland, and Roland too arrived at the realization that simping for one woman who didn't even want him, running around nude, and threatening to kill his cousin over this woman might actually be kind of cringe. Oh, apparently he also killed a Mongolian warlord somewhere along the way. And killed
his son when he attempted to avenge his father. Whoops.
Whatever the case, the cousins reconciled, promising never to speak of the incident again, and the story ends on a happy(?) note.