Qualla: Monmouth Rebellion

Monmouth Rebellion: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James Grant (book author), Public domain. Three small ships dropped anchor off Lyme Regis on 11 June 1685. From them stepped James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, with eighty-two companions, four light field guns, and 1,500 muskets. He was Charles II's eldest illegitimate son, Protestant, charming, and convinced that the West Country would rise to put him on the throne in place of his Catholic uncle James II. The West Country did rise. By the end of June some 6,000 men - nonconformist artisans, weavers, farm workers, the kind of people the gentry rarely counted - had joined him. By 15 July his head had been struck from his body on Tower Hill, and the executions of his followers had only just begun.

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Image: James Grant (book author) | Public domain

Monmouth Rebellion: The Bastard's Hope

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit anonymous, Public domain. Monmouth's mother was Lucy Walter, a Welsh gentlewoman who had been Charles II's mistress during his exile in The Hague. Rumours that Charles had secretly married her circulated for decades; Charles always denied them, insisting his only wife was Catherine of Braganza. Monmouth h...

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Image: anonymous | Public domain

Monmouth Rebellion: Marching North Instead of East

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris McKenna (Thryduulf) (photographs and merged image), CC BY-SA 4.0. Word of Monmouth's arrival had reached London ten days before he landed; the mayor of Lyme Regis, Gregory Alford, dispatched a customs officer named Samuel Damsell to ride two hundred miles to the capital with the news. He made it on 13 June. John Churchill - later Duke of Marlbo...

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Image: Chris McKenna (Thryduulf) (photographs and merged image) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Monmouth Rebellion: A Coronation at Sword Point

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Signed J. Quartley, Public domain. He denounced King James at Chard, and on 20 June 1685 he was crowned king in Taunton. The Taunton Corporation was compelled to witness the ceremony at sword point outside the White Hart Inn - not because the townspeople opposed Monmouth, but because his more radical supporters wa...

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Image: Signed J. Quartley | Public domain

Monmouth Rebellion: Norton St Philip and the Retreat

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Raboe001, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 26 June Monmouth approached Bath and found it held against him. He camped at Philips Norton, now Norton St Philip. The next morning Feversham's leading elements attacked. Monmouth's half-brother, Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton, led royalist cavalry into the village and was sur...

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Image: Raboe001 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Monmouth Rebellion: Sedgemoor and the Axe

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edgar Bundy, Public domain. On the night of 5-6 July, Monmouth led his men out of Bridgwater to attempt a surprise attack on the royal camp at Westonzoyland, three miles east. The march across the dark moor was guided by Richard Godfrey, a local farmer's servant. The first rebel cavalry over the rhynes star...

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Image: Edgar Bundy | Public domain

Monmouth Rebellion: The Bloody Assizes

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Attributed to William Wolfgang Claret, Public domain. What followed was a calculated terror. Judge George Jeffreys led a special commission, the Bloody Assizes, through the West Country in September 1685. Around 320 people were condemned to death. About 800 more were sentenced to transportation to the West Indies for ten years of ha...

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Image: Attributed to William Wolfgang Claret | Public domain