Everything about James Duke Of Monmouth totally explained
James Crofts, later
James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and 1st Duke of Buccleuch (
April 9 1649 –
July 15 1685), was an English nobleman who was executed in 1685 after making an unsuccessful attempt to claim the British throne, the
Monmouth Rebellion. He was born in
Rotterdam in the
Netherlands, the
illegitimate son of
Charles II and his
mistress,
Lucy Walter, who had followed him into continental exile after the execution of Charles II's father, King
Charles I.
Biography
Lucy Walter had almost as bad a reputation as the prince himself, and it isn't at all certain that Charles was the natural father of James. There were rumours that Charles and Lucy did marry, secretly, which would have made James the true and legitimate heir to the throne. Whatever the truth, Charles recognised James as his son, but didn't make him his heir. After succeeding to the throne, Charles married the Portuguese Princess,
Catherine of Braganza; by this time Lucy Walter was dead.
In 1663, at the age of 14, shortly after having been brought to England, James was created Duke of
Monmouth with the subsidiary titles of
Earl of Doncaster and
Baron Scott of Tynedale, all three in the
Peerage of England, and married off to the wealthy
Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch. The day after his marriage, they were made
Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch. Although he showed no aptitude for government, James was popular, particularly since he was a
Protestant, whereas the official heir to the throne, the brother of Charles II,
James, Duke of York, was a
Roman Catholic.
In 1665, at the age of 16, Monmouth served in the English fleet under his uncle the Duke of York in the
Second Anglo-Dutch War. Later in the war, he returned to England to assume his first military command as commander of a troop of cavalry. In 1669 he was made colonel of the King's Life Guards, one of the most senior appointments in the army. When the Captain General of the army,
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, died in 1670, Monmouth became the senior officer in the army at the age of 21. At the outbreak of the
Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1672, a brigade of 6,000 British troops was sent to serve as part of the French army (in return for money paid to King Charles), with Monmouth as its commander. In the campaign of 1673 and in particular at the
Siege of Maastricht, Monmouth gained a considerable reputation as one of Britain's finest soldiers.
In 1678 Monmouth was commander of the Anglo-Dutch brigade, now fighting for the
United Provinces against the French. He distinguished himself at the
battle of St Denis, further increasing his reputation. The following year, after his return to Britain, he commanded the small army raised to put down the rebellion of the
Scottish Covenanters. Despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated the (admittedly poorly equipped) Covenanter rebels at the
Battle of Bothwell Bridge on
June 22 1679. By this time it was becoming apparent that Charles II would have no legitimate heir, and Monmouth was regarded by many as preferable to the Duke of York.
Following the discovery of the so-called
Rye House Plot in 1683, Monmouth was obliged to go into exile in the Dutch
United Provinces. (Although Violet Wyndham gives the date of his exile as 1679). On his father's death Monmouth led the "
Monmouth Rebellion", an attempt to take the throne from his uncle. He declared himself King and was crowned in Chard and was the subject of more coronations in Taunton
June 20 1685 and Bridgwater. On
July 6 1685 the two armies met at the
Battle of Sedgemoor, the second last to be fought on
English soil. Monmouth's makeshift force couldn't compete with the regular army, and was soundly defeated. Monmouth himself was captured and arrested in Dorset. Following this,
Parliament passed an
Act of Attainder,
1 Ja. II c. 2. Despite begging for mercy, he was
executed by
Jack Ketch on
July 15 1685, on
Tower Hill. It is said that it took multiple blows of the axe to sever his head (though some sources say it took eight blows, the official Tower of London website says it took five blows, while
Charles Spencer, in his book
Blenheim, claims it was seven). One of his co-conspirators was Thomas Chamberlain of Oddington, from the family of Tankerville, Glouchestershire, and Barons of Wychkham: in lieu of beheading he was transported to Virginia and there served in the Army.
His dukedoms of Monmouth and Buccleuch were forfeited, but the subsidiary titles of the dukedom of Monmouth were restored to the
Duke of Buccleuch.
According to legend, a portrait was painted of Monmouth after his execution. The tradition states that it was realised after the execution that there was no official
portrait of the Duke—for a son of a King, and someone who had claimed the throne, albeit in vain, this was unheard of. So his body was exhumed, the head stitched back on the body, and it was sat for its portrait to be painted. However, there's at least one formal portrait of Monmouth tentatively dated to before his death currently in the
National Portrait Gallery in London, and another painting once identified with Monmouth that shows a sleeping or dead man that could have given rise to the story.
The theory that the Duke of Monmouth was in fact
The Man in the Iron Mask seems to be based on the reasoning that James II wouldn't execute his own nephew; someone else was executed instead; and James II arranged for Monmouth to be taken to France and put in the custody of his cousin
Louis XIV of France.
Children
His marriage to Anne Scott resulted in the birth of seven children:
- Charles Scott, Earl of Doncaster (August 24 1672 – February 9 1673/1674).
- James Scott, Earl of Dalkeith (May 23 1674 – March 14 1705). He was married on January 2 1693/1694 to Henrietta Hyde, daughter of Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester. They were parents to Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch.
- Lady Anne Scott (February 17 1675 – August 13 1685).
- Henry Scott, 1st Earl of Deloraine (1676 – December 25 1730). He was first married in 1693 to Ann Duncombe, daughter of William Duncombe who served as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. The marriage resulted in the birth of Francis Scott, 2nd Earl of Deloraine, Henry Scott, 3rd Earl of Deloraine and a daughter Anne Scott who died young. He was secondly married on March 14 1726 to Mary Howard, daughter of Colonel Philip Howard and Mary Jennings and granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire. The marriage resulted in the birth of daughters Lady Georgiana Caroline Scott, later wife to James Peachey, 1st Baron Selsey, and Lady Henrietta Scott.
- Francis Scott (1678 – buried December 8 1679).
- Lady Isabella Scott (d. February 18 1748).
- Lady Charlotte Scott (buried September 5 1683).
His affair with
mistress Eleanor Needham, daughter of Sir
Robert Needham of
Lambeth resulted in the birth of three children:
James Crofts (died March, 1732, Major General)
Henriette Crofts (c. 1682 – February 27 1730). She was married around 1697 to Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton.
Isabel Crofts died young.
Toward the end of his life he conducted an affair with Henrietta, Baroness Wentworth.
Duke of Monmouth in fiction
Monmouth rebellion sets the stage for the premise of a classic adventure novel Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.
The Duke of Monmouth in a minor character in The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.
Duke of Monmouth is one of the secondary characters in Neal Stephenson's work Quicksilver.
Joe Frank performed a 1985 radio broadcast "Pretender" based on the life of Monmouth.
Further Information
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