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n In the struggle for the succession of the Englishnthrone in the late seventeenth century, there is one incident that deservesnespecial mention – the Monmouth Rebellion.
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| James Scott, Duke of Monmouth |
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nKing Charles II was married to Catherine ofnBraganza, a Portuguese Catholic Princess, who had miscarried three times andnwas unable to bear children. But the licentious Charles had numerous affairsnand had illegitimate children by his many mistresses. When Charles died, inn1685, the crown passed to his younger brother James, Duke of York, who became KingnJames II. Many Protestants opposed this, as James was a Catholic, and one ofnCharles’s illegitimate sons, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, felt that he wasnthe rightful heir to his father’s crown. So, on the morning of June 11thn1685 (old style, more of this another day) the frigate Helderenbergh andntwo smaller vessels appeared off the shore of Lyme Regis, Monmouth andneighty-two armed supporters came ashore, and Monmouth read a declaration in thenmarket square.
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| Lyme Regis |
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nBishop Burnet’s History of his Own Times (1724) describesnit thus:
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n“The Duke of Monmouth’s Manifesto was long, and ill penned: full ofnmuch black and dull malice. It was plainly Ferguson’s style, which was bothntedious and fulsome. It charged the King with the burning of London, the PopishnPlot, Godfrey’s murder, and the Earl of Essex’s death: And to crown all, it wasnpretended, that the late King was poisoned by his orders.” [Robert Fergusonnwas a Scottish pamphleteer, known as ‘The Plotter’].n
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nBut Monmouth wasnastonishingly popular in the West Country. Men flocked from the surroundingncountryside and rallied under his blue standard, and arms and provisions werenunloaded from the three ships, including swords, muskets, armour, gunpowder andnfour pieces of light artillery.
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| King James II |
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nNews of the invasion reached the King in Londonnat four o’clock on the morning of June 13th, and when Monmouth’s Declarationnreached the King two days later, he ordered it to be publicly burnt by thencommon hangman. Militia were despatched to intercept Monmouth’s forces,nalthough none at the time knew where he intended to lead them, (there werenrumours he was heading north, some said to Scotland, others said tonLancashire). On June 14th a body of about five hundred men marchedntowards Bridport, where they met a county militia composed mostly ofnfarm-workers led by country squires and barristers.
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| Lord Grey |
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nWhen action was joined,nLord Grey panicked and rode his cavalry back to Lyme, whilst Nathaniel Wadenrallied the foot soldiers and withdrew in good order. The next day, Monmouthnled his army of about 2,000 infantry and 300 cavalry towards Axminster, wherenthe Duke of Albemarle, alarmed by musketeers lining the laneside hedges and thenfield artillery pieces, and fearing that his Devonshire militia would desert innfavour of Monmouth’s popular local appeal, ordered a retreat. Monmouth did notnpursue them – if he had, he may have taken Exeter without the need for arms,nbut he preferred instead to train his new, raw recruits, consolidate his slightngain, and await support from Cheshire. He turned toward Taunton, where he wasnmet with joy and affection.
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| The Popular Appeal of Monmouth |
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nWindows were decked with flowers, men wore greennboughs in their hats as emblems of support and a train of young girls welcomednhim. Agricultural labourers, shopkeepers, dissenting clergymen and apprenticesnflocked to Monmouth’s cause but no members of Parliament, peers, knights ornbaronets were to be seen, so Ferguson, his ‘evil angel’, pointed outnthat either he was the King or his uncle was King. If Monmouth declarednhimself, the rebellion would be a fight between two rival princes and thennobles would align themselves to either side accordingly.
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nAnd so, on June 20thn1685, at Taunton, he was crowned King – and to avoid the confusion of havingntwo rival Kings both called James, he was designated King Monmouth, althoughnthe other side called him ‘Gaffer Scott with his vagabonds’. On thenfollowing day, the new King and his army marched to Bridgwater, where he wasnagain proclaimed King. His army was now swelled to about six thousand and wouldnhave been double that if they had sufficient arms; as it was, many men hadnfashioned their own weapons from scythe blades attached to poles.
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| Scythes on poles |
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nAll thenwhile, the government forces were assembling. Albemarle still commanded thenDorsetshire militia to the northwest, whilst in the east the trainbands ofnWiltshire assembled. Henry Somerset, Duke of Somerset, was in arms to thensoutheast, a noble man of the old sort, an old style cavalier who every daynprovided nine tables of food for his two hundred tenants, whose kitchen, cellar,nstables and kennels were famous throughout the realm, who was generous, affablenand well loved by his family and neighbours, and commanded a troop of cavalrynof his own. In Oxford, undergraduates removed their gowns and queued to sign tonthe government cause. In Lyme Regis, the Royal Navy captured Monmouth’s ships,nmaking escape impossible. Across the south, men took up pikes and muskets andnswords, and gathered around the surrounded insurrection in Somerset. Monmouthnwandered, seemingly interested only in gathering men from the local marketntowns, in Glastonbury, Street, Frome, Wells and Shepton Mallet.
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| Map of Monmouth’s movements (Sedgemoor marked in red) |
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nHe wasn’tnhelped by the typical English summer weather – torrential rain fell for daysnand turned the tracks into quagmires. His heart failed him and he seriouslynconsidered slipping quietly away to the continent, to the consternation of hisnadvisors, who begged him to stay. Lord Grey, in particular, was vociferous innhis demands and exhortations, but then again Grey was conspicuously bravenwhenever pistols weren’t being fired or swords weren’t being clashed in hisnimmediate vicinity.
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nA slight skirmish with a scouting party convinced Monmouthnof the need to return to Bridgwater where, he heard, more armed men awaitednhim. He went via Wells, where his men tore lead from the cathedral roof, withnwhich to make musket balls, and to their shame defaced the ornaments of thengreat building. They arrived back in Bridgwater on July 2nd, to muchnless acclaim than their previous visit, just ten days before.
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| Sedgemoor |
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nThree days later,nthe King’s forces came into view, advancing from the east, two and a halfnthousand regular men and five hundred Wiltshire militiamen, they pitched theirntents on the vast peat plain of Sedgemoor.
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nTomorrow – Sedgemoor …
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