James Scott, First Duke of Monmouth

English pretender and rebel leader

• Born: April 9, 1649
• Birthplace: Rotterdam, Holland, United Provinces (now in the Netherlands)
• Died: July 15, 1685
• Place of death: London, England

An illegitimate son of King Charles II, Monmouth became the hope of radical Protestants opposed to the succession of Charles’s Catholic brother, James II. The duke’s ill-conceived invasion of England failed and led to his execution.

Early Life

The early life of James Scott, duke of Monmouth (MAHN-muhth), scarcely foretold his future prominence in Restoration English politics. He was the illegitimate son of Lucy Walter, a young English woman who by 1648 was living in The Hague under the pseudonym of Mrs. Barlow. Initially the mistress of Cavalier Robert Sidney, in the summer of 1648, she began an affair with Charles II, then the exiled prince of Wales. Despite later attempts by Monmouth and his supporters to prove that a clandestine marriage between the pair occurred, no such evidence exists.

Lucy and Charles named their son James in honor of Charles’s brother and grandfather. The first decade of young James’s life was traumatic and unstable. His parents’ liaison apparently ended in 1651 when Charles returned from a vain attempt to regain his crown only to find Lucy living with an Irish nobleman whose daughter she had borne. For the next several years, Charles tried to gain possession of his son. Lucy, in turn, demanded a pension to support her and her son and even began spreading embarrassing rumors that Charles had secretly married her. James’s education was severely neglected as his mother drifted from one relationship to the next. Finally, in 1658, Lucy agreed to hand over her son to Charles in return for a generous pension. James never saw his mother again, as she died later the same year.

Charles initially placed his son under the care of Lord Crofts in Paris, with James posing as Crofts’s nephew. Dowager Queen Henrietta Maria , living in exile in Paris at the time, took an interest in her grandson, whose prospects dramatically improved in 1660 when his father regained the English throne. When Henrietta returned to England in early 1662, she brought James with her.

The king openly acknowledged James as his illegitimate son and showered him with honors as a sign of his affection. In 1663, Charles created him duke of Monmouth and gave him precedence over all dukes not of the royal blood. The same year, he arranged a lucrative marriage with Anne Scott, countess of Buccleuch, the wealthiest heiress in the realm. Henceforth, he was known as James Scott, duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch. As was the case with many arranged marriages, the relationship proved unsatisfactory. The couple had six children, but Monmouth was frequently unfaithful, and the two eventually separated.

Life’s Work

Following his dramatic turn in fortune, the young duke emerged as an increasingly prominent figure at court, honored by his father and increasingly popular with the people. His behavior at court became raucous and irresponsible, and his reputation was somewhat tarnished when he and several other young nobles were implicated in the murder of a watchman in 1670. Later the same year, he engineered an attack on Sir John Coventry, who had dared to attack Charles II’s morals in Parliament.

These early stains on Monmouth’s character did not prevent his receiving important military commissions from the king. He began his military career at age sixteen, serving with his uncle James, duke of York, aboard the royal flagship and participating in a great sea battle against the Dutch. In 1670, King Charles made Monmouth a privy councillor and appointed him captain general of the army. Twice during the 1670’s, the young duke commanded English forces on the Continent, first leading an English contingent aiding Louis XIV in his war against the Dutch in 1672-1673 and later in 1678 fighting for the Dutch in their struggle against the French. On both occasions, Monmouth fought bravely, increasing his prestige at home. In 1679, Charles entrusted his son with command of the English forces against a Covenanter revolt in Scotland. Monmouth crushed the rebels at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge and enhanced his popularity by his clemency toward the defeated rebels.

Bothwell Bridge marked the apogee of the duke’s military career. By this time, he had become involved in what ultimately proved to be the more dangerous business of political intrigue. By the late 1670’s, England was embroiled in a serious controversy regarding the succession. Although King Charles fathered some fifteen children by numerous mistresses, his marriage to Catherine of Braganza was barren. The king’s legal heir was his brother James, who in the 1670’s had publicly embraced Catholicism. The prospect of a Catholic king ruling over a largely Protestant nation alarmed much of the country, and various public and private plots arose to exclude James from the throne.

Anthony Ashley Cooper, first earl of Shaftesbury , and other leading Whig politicians became increasingly attracted to the idea of having Monmouth declared legitimate and thus the heir to the throne. Hailed by his Whig supporters as “the Protestant duke,” Monmouth foolishly involved himself in these intrigues. The king twice denied before the Privy Council that he had married Lucy Walter, and in 1679, he deprived his son of his position as captain general of the army and ordered him into exile in Holland. Within months, Monmouth returned to England without permission and unsuccessfully sought an audience with his increasingly estranged father. The angry king stripped Monmouth of his remaining offices and openly declared he would rather see him hanged than become his successor.

Defying his father’s orders to leave the kingdom, Monmouth remained in the country and continued to conspire with Whig radicals and to court popularity with the people. Twice during this period, he made elaborate progresses throughout the west of England, where he received much acclaim from the local gentry and peasantry as their potential savior from the dangers of Catholic tyranny. These progresses encouraged Monmouth’s ambitions and undoubtedly contributed to his belief that the people of this region would flock to his banner to help him gain the throne.

Throughout 1682 and 1683, Monmouth involved himself in dangerous schemes to raise an insurrection, although it remains unlikely that he sanctioned the Rye House Plot that planned to assassinate the king and the duke of York. Upon receiving his wayward son’s confession, King Charles pardoned Monmouth but banished him from court. The disgraced duke left England for a second exile in the Netherlands in 1684. He still hoped for a reconciliation with his father, but in February, 1685, received news that the king had died and been peacefully succeeded by the duke of York as King James II.

With his Catholic uncle now on the throne, Monmouth allowed himself to become involved in a plot with Whig radicals and Scottish dissidents to invade England. The plan involved a dual assault on Britain, with Archibald Campbell, the Scottish earl of Argyll, invading from the north and Monmouth from the south. Argyll’s ill-fated invasion of Scotland in May was a fiasco, leading to his capture and execution. Unaware of his fellow conspirator’s failure, Monmouth sailed from Amsterdam on May 30 with fewer than one hundred men, landing at the port of Lyme Regis in southwestern England on June 11. The duke’s hopes that massive numbers would flock to his cause was unrealistic. No prominent nobles or members of Parliament supported his uprising, and the gentry of the west also were unenthusiastic. His recruits came almost exclusively from the ill-trained peasantry, tradesmen, and Nonconformist Protestants. At their peak, his forces numbered only some six or seven thousand.

On June 20, Monmouth formally proclaimed himself king, but King James had been decisive in his handling of the crisis, securing firm control over London and arresting many of his rebellious nephew’s potential supporters. After failing to take the key port of Bristol and with his supporters reduced by desertion to some thirty-five hundred, the increasingly desperate duke on July 6 ordered a daring night attack on royalist forces encamped at Sedgemoor. The assault failed, and the royalists slaughtered nearly a third of the rebels. Monmouth fled before the battle ended, hoping to escape to the Continent. He was captured two days after the battle, disguised as a peasant.

Vainly hoping to save his life, the would-be king wrote his uncle begging for forgiveness and requesting an audience. Arriving in London on July 13, Monmouth received his interview and abjectly begged for mercy, but James remained unmoved, even after the frightened rebel hinted he might consider converting to Catholicism. Two days later, Monmouth was beheaded on Tower Hill, the executioner taking several blows to sever the head from the body of the ill-starred duke.

Significance

Ultimately, the duke of Monmouth was a vainglorious and ill-educated young man who allowed himself to be manipulated into ambitions that exceeded his reach. Following his tempestuous childhood, he had briefly played a significant role at the ribald court of his indulgent father. With graceful manners and an affable personality, he became a widely popular figure both at court and in the country. Although Monmouth served bravely on several military expeditions, his unrealistic expectations drew him into intrigues with King Charles’s enemies. Only a few radical Whigs and Dissenters, fearful of a Catholic sovereign, wanted to see Monmouth as king. He could have served his country better by being satisfied with his dukedom and military career rather than giving way to unrealistic expectations that he could gain the throne.

Monmouth’s 1685 invasion was premature, for James had yet to alienate his subjects in any significant respect. The duke’s delusions that large numbers of Protestant gentry and nobles would join his rebellion were fatal to his cause. The few thousand artisans and peasants who were willing to fight for “King Monmouth” were hopelessly outmatched by royalist forces.

Monmouth’s rebellion did have one important political consequence. A vindictive King James authorized the so-called “Bloody Assizes” to punish those suspected of complicity in the uprising. Hundreds of Monmouth’s supporters in the west were executed, and more than a thousand others became virtual slaves in the West Indies. The brutality and unmerciful nature of these trials darkened James’s reputation and were the first of many steps that led to his alienation from his subjects and his ultimate deposition from the throne in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Bibliography

Bevan, Brian. James, Duke of Monmouth. London: Robert Hale, 1973. This well-illustrated eighteen-chapter biography contains an especially strong bibliography of primary and secondary sources related to Monmouth.

Clifton, Robin. The Last Popular Rebellion: The Western Rising of 1685. London: Maurice Temple Smith, 1984. Two of the monograph’s six chapters discuss the duke’s life. Most of the book focuses upon the 1685 rebellion and the nature of Monmouth’s leadership. Well researched with useful maps.

D’Oyley, Elizabeth. James, Duke of Monmouth. Edinburgh, Scotland: J. and J. Gray, 1938. Still considered one of the best biographies. Provides a thorough account of Monmouth’s life and times.

Fraser, Antonia. Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979. This thorough and entertaining study by one of Britain’s most famous contemporary biographers provides an excellent overview of the social and political environment that shaped Monmouth’s life. Superb bibliography of primary and secondary sources of Restoration history.

Lee, Maurice, Jr. The Heiresses of Buccleuch: Marriage, Money and Politics in Seventeenth-Century Britain. East Linton, Scotland: Tuckwell Press, 1996. Contains information on Monmouth’s arranged marriage, as well as his life and attempt to seize the British throne.

Little, Bryan. The Monmouth Episode. London: Werner Laurie, 1956. A highly readable account of Monmouth’s life and the rebellion he led, based on extensive primary sources. Includes numerous illustrations and maps of the 1685 campaign.

McClain, Molly. “The Duke of Beaufort’s Defense of Bristol During Monmouth’s Rebellion, 1685.” Yale University Library Gazette 77, no. 3/4 (April, 2003): 177. Explains the factors that contributed to Beaufort’s successful defense of Bristol against Monmouth’s forces.

Wigfield, W. MacDonald. The Monmouth Rebellion: A Social History, Including the Complete Text of Wade’s Narrative, 1685, and a Guide to the Battlefield of Sedgemoor. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble Books, 1980. Provides an adequate introduction to Monmouth’s life, but the main focus is the men who fought for him in 1685, the Battle of Sedgemoor, and its consequences. Good bibliography and useful illustrations of the types of weapons used in the 1685 campaign.