Failed Attack on Bridgwater 1685
Who Fought
History & Significance
The Monmouth Rebellion (also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, Revolt of the West or West Country rebellion) in June 1685 was an attempt to depose James II, who in February had succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ireland. Dissident Protestants led by James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, opposed James largely due to his Catholicism.
The failure of Parliamentary efforts to exclude James from the succession in 1681 resulted in the 1683 Rye House Plot, an alleged attempt to assassinate Charles II and James. Monmouth, implicated as a co-conspirator, went into exile in the Dutch Republic. He returned to England when on 11 June 1685, he landed at Lyme Regis in the South West where he had widespread popular support, planning to take control of the area and march on London.
The rebellion coincided roughly with Argyll's Rising in Scotland, an ill-organised failure intended to take place at the same time. Over the next few weeks, Monmouth's army skirmished with troops commanded by Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham, and John Churchill. However, he failed to attract wider backing and was defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685.
Monmouth was captured and beheaded for treason on 15 July 1685, while around 1,000 of his supporters were executed or transported in what became known as the Bloody Assizes. James II reigned until 1688, when he was deposed by another nephew, William III of Orange, in the Glorious Revolution.
Monmouth was an illegitimate son of Charles II. There had been rumours that Charles had married Monmouth's mother, Lucy Walter, but no evidence was forthcoming, and Charles always said that he only had one wife, Catherine of Braganza.
Monmouth had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the English Army by his father in 1672 and Captain general in 1678, enjoying some successes in the Netherlands in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, as commander of a British brigade in the French army.
The English Civil War had left resentment among some of the population about the monarchy and the penalties which had been imposed on the supporters of the Commonwealth. The South West of England contained several towns where opposition remained strong. Fears of a potential Catholic monarch persisted, intensified by the failure of Charles II and his wife to produce any children. A defrocked Anglican clergyman, Titus Oates, spoke of a "Popish Plot" to kill Charles and to put the Duke of York on the throne. The Earl of Shaftesbury, a former government minister and a leading opponent of Catholicism, attempted to have James excluded from the line of succession. Some members of Parliament even proposed that the crown go to Charles's illegitimate son, James Scott, who became the Duke of Monmouth. In 1679, with the Exclusion Bill – which would exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the line of succession – in danger of passing, Charles II dissolved Parliament. Two further Parliaments were elected in 1680 and 1681, but were dissolved for the same reason.
The ground they fought on
The site of Failed Attack on Bridgwater 1685 lies on Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Triassic. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
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- Monmouth Rebellion · Wikipedia
- Battle of Sedgemoor · Wikipedia
- Monmouth Rebellion · Bridgwater Town Council
- The Battle of Sedgemoor · The Battlefields Trust
- The Battle of Sedgemoor: Remembering England's Last Pitched Battle on its 340th Anniversary | Defense.info · defense.info