The Duke of Monmouth is found cowering in a ditch
The eldest illegitimate son of Charles II tries to take the throne, but is undone by bad planning
Thelast days of James, Duke of Monmouth, were far from glorious. Having landed at Lyme Regis to try to seize the throne from his uncle, James II and VII, Monmouth failed to secure serious support for his rebellion. On the night of 6 July he launched a surprise attack on the royal army at Sedgemoor in Somerset, but the attempt was a debacle. Monmouth’s men were slaughtered, though the duke escaped, disguised as a peasant. The chase was on.
By the morning of 7 July, Monmouth’s pursuers were almost upon him. After leaving Sedgemoor, he had hidden out in an area of Dorset farmland known as the Island. According to a contemporary report, the militia were accosted by a local woman called Amy Farrant, who told them she had seen two men leaping over a hedge into “fields, some overgrown with fern and brakes, and others sown with rye, peas, and oats”. For the rest of the day, the soldiers scoured the fields, shouting that they would set them on fire if Monmouth did not see reason and come out.
It was not until 7am on 8 July, after endless hours of searching, that a soldier spotted someone skulking miserably in a ditch, hiding beneath brambles and ferns. It was Monmouth, a bedraggled, starving figure, who had eaten nothing but a handful of raw peas since the battle. “Shoot him! Shoot him!” some of the men shouted. Instead, he was taken to London, where it took the executioner at least five blows to sever his head.