Restoration and revolution / Revolution
battle. A further 50 or so rebels were
executed without trial in its immediate
aftermath. During the toasts following
a raucous dinner party, one of the king’s
officers, Colonel Percy Kirke, “ordered
several prisoners at Taunton to be hanged
up; as every new health was drunk, he had
a fresh man turned off; and observing how
they shaked their legs in the agonies of
death, he called it dancing, and ordered
music to play to them”.
Monmouth himself was condemned to
death without trial, via the device of a bill
of attainder. It took five blows from the
executioner’s axe to severe the Duke’s head
from his body. Approximately 250 rebels
were sentenced to be hung, drawn and
quartered in the so-called Bloody Assizes.
The salted, boiled and tarred quarters of
executed rebels were hung up in towns
across the south-west as grisly reminders
of the penalties for treason, turning the
region, in the words of one historian into
a “vast anatomical museum”. A further
850 men were sentenced at the assizes to
transportation, mainly to the West Indies.
One of those transported to the Caribbean
was the physician Henry Pitman. He
escaped back to England after a Crusoe-
esque adventure in which he had been
marooned on a desert island with his own
Man Friday, a Carib Indian, before he was
rescued and eventually taken home by a
privateer ship in need of his medical skills.
The birth of King James’s son, James
Francis, on 10 June 1688, raised the
prospect of England being ruled by a long
line of Catholic monarchs. With domestic
rebellion being so easily crushed, this
catastrophe could only be averted by the
intervention of a foreign Protestant power,
the Netherlands. James had exploited
public fears concerning national security
in the aftermath of the Monmouth
rebellion to strengthen his permanent
army. The king’s increased military power
meant it would take a big force to challenge
him. Although estimates vary, the number
of troops the prince brought over may have
been as many as 21,000. With William’s
landing at Brixham on 5 November,
England was effectively in a state of war.Violence and anarchy
Although James’s loss of nerve at Salisbury
on 23 November 1688, when he decided not
to engage the prince’s army, meant that
there were no major battles in England,
there were violent clashes in the winter of- Lord Lovelace, a radical Whig peer,
leading a force of cavalry to join up with
the prince at Exeter, was captured and two
of his men killed in a bloody skirmish at ALAMY X 3, DE AGOSTINI/GETTY IMAGES, BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
James II and VII
James was a devout Catholic, but he
did not wish to see Catholicism restored
by force, seeking instead to gain for
his co-religionists the same rights
enjoyed by members of the Church of
England. However, the questionable
legality of his actions and his
authoritarian style convinced many
he wished to destroy Protestantism.William III
William, the Dutch Stadtholder since
1672, was an astute politician and
experienced general. His greatest
preoccupation was the military struggle
with Louis XIV. In 1688, William saw an
opportunity to gain English support in
this conflict, although initially he only
wanted to engineer an anti-French
Parliament, not take the throne.Mary II
Mary, King James’s daughter by his first
wife, Anne Hyde – and heir to the throne
before the birth of James’s son in 1688 –
sided with her husband rather than her
father in the Revolution. She made her
choice not only on her deep devotion to
William and Protestantism, but also upon
her conviction that King James’s son,
James Francis, was not really his child.Duke of Monmouth
Monmouth, a natural son of Charles II,
was touted as a successor to the crown
by those in favour of excluding James,
Duke of York (later James II and VII), from
the throne. His dissolute personal life
made him a poor Protestant champion,
but his youth and courage helped win him
a popular following. His hopes were
crushed at the battle of Sedgemoor.John Churchill, Duke
of Marlborough
Churchill rose through the ranks in the
army of James. His loyalty to the king
was compromised by a commitment to
Protestantism and the influence of his
Whiggish wife Sarah. His defection to
William on 24 November 1688 was a
bitter blow to James.KEY PLAYERS: Who’s who in the Glorious Revolution