1685 Monmouth Rebellion

                Duke of Monmouth biography by Laura Brennan , published by 'Pen & Sword'   This biography came out in 2018 and now available on kindle. Only two years after Anna Keay's extensive biography 'The Duke of Monmouth- The Last Royal Rebel'. I treated myself to the hardback version and noticed straight away that the book seems quite short, 133 pages text  ( excluding index and bibliography). The book has attracted some criticism due to errors, typos and poor editing. Which is a shame, because there are some valuable questions raised about the Duke of Monmouth and the 1685 Rebellion.   Although titled 'Life and Rebellion' , the book is  not a standard biography. The life of James, born in Rotterdam in 1649, to Lucy Walter, mistress to the young Charles II in exile and uncrowned, his initial promotion and rise to a leading Restoration figure,  even as illegitimate son to the king, only to be executed by his Uncle James II after leading a doomed r

                            This post first appeared in the blog   A Burnt Ship   in April 2021                                                                  'The Morning of Sedgemoor ' by Edgar Bundy  (1905) , Tate Britain, courtesy of 'Wikipedia'  Below are some strangely prophetic words written by Aphra Behn and published in 1681, concerning the Duke of Monmouth. Ironically, after being defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor, Monmouth was captured dressed as a shepherd whilst on the run.                          Young Jemmy: OR, The Princely Shepherd'  Aphra Behn                                                           But oh unlucky fate                                                         ah Curse upon Ambition:                                                         The busie Fops of State,                                                         have ruin'd his condition :                                                         For glittering hope he l

This post originally appeared on line in the blog  A Burnt Ship  in 2019. Does not necessarily reflect my current opinion about the Monmouth Rebellion                              James Duke of Monmouth portrayed in poetry Part I  '                   On the Duke of Monmouth's Expedition Into Scotland In The Summer Solstice 1679' by Edmund Waller '        James Duke of Monmouth in Garter Robes' by Sir Peter Lely, courtesy of pinterest.co.uk                          Edmund Waller was born in 1606, educated at Eton and Kings College Cambridge, and presented at the Court of King James when he was 18.He became an MP by 1624, and leaned more towards the Parliamentarian side during the disputes of Charles I reign. However once war broke out in 1642,  Waller was in favour of a negotiated settlement  between Parliament and  the King. in 1643, he was arrested for his part in a conspiracy to seize London for Charles I. Waller had no qualms about bribing fellow MPs and readily

         This post first appeared in the blog  A Burnt Ship  in March 2018. Some of the comments made might not reflect my current view of the Monmouth Rebellion  '  M icah Clarke '  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel  about the  Monmouth Rebellion from 1889.                                                                                                                                                                     H.M.Brock  illustration 1903 edition  I am very grateful to the 'ECW  & Stuart era Fiction' Facebook group  for directing me to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel  'Micah Clarke- His Statement As Made To His Three Grandchildren Joseph, Gervais, and Rueben During The Hard Winter of 1734'. The images are taken from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia website and their use is much appreciated  https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com ''Micah Clarke' is a fictionalised account of a young veteran of the doomed 1685 West Country rebellion le

                This post first appeared in March 2021 in my blog  A Burnt Ship                                 Some Associated Poetry                                     Portrait of the Duke of Monmouth by William Wessing, sometimes spelt 'Wissing'  : In the public domain , courtesy of 'Wikipedia'  James Scott  Duke of  Monmouth was the eldest of the 13 illegitimate children of Charles II. Born on 9th April 1649 in Rotterdam, as a result of Charles' affair with one Lucy Walters ,whilst in exile. He was to play a leading and quite controversial role during the politics of the Restoration as the 'Protestant Duke'. When Charles II died in 1685, Monmouth was living in temporary exile in the Dutch Republic, and the Duke of York ascended the throne as James II. Monmouth launched an ill fated rebellion in the West Country  against James II , but was defeated , captured and finally executed on 15th July 1685.  Seems to have been a while since this blog covered an

                              Monmouth Rebellion 1685                          The purpose of the blog is to look at how the life of the  Duke of Monmouth and the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 have been portrayed in literature, fiction, art, drama, poetry, So the emphasis is on imagined history.  The above image is taken  from Wikipedia quite deliberately and reproduced with thanks.  It is in fact  book illustration   From p. 380 of the 1873 book  British Battles on Land and Sea , volume 1    by James Grant. And depicts Monmouth's landing at Lyme Regis on the 11th June 1685.  To take a more contemporary account from the  Diary of John Evelyn " 14th June, 1685. There was now certain intelligence of the Duke of Monmouth landing at Lyme, in Dorset [Pg 225] shire, and of his having set up his standard as King of England. I pray God deliver us from the confusion which these beginnings threaten! Such a dearth for want of rain was never in my memory. 17th June, 1685. The Duke landed wit