James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth

“ In 1665 he served with credit under the duke of York in the sanguinary naval battle off Lowestoft. A captaincy in the Life Guards was given him, and in 1670, on the death of Monk, he was made captain-general of the king’s forces. In 1670 Monmouth was with the court at Dover, and it is affirmed by Reresby that the mysterious death of Charles’s sister, Henrietta, duchess of Orleans, was due to her husband’s revenge on the discovery of her intrigue with the duke. ”

“ His Lordship married Lady Katherine Somerset daughter of Edward, fourth Earl of Worcester, K.G., but dying without issue on the 6th June, 1642, he was succeeded by his nephew Thomas Windsor-Hickman, the son of his elder sister Elizabeth.
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH, K.G.
James Scott, the natural son of Charles II, was born 9th April, 1649, and created Duke of Monmouth in 1663. The same year, on the 7th May, he was admitted to the freedom of the Barber-Surgeons, in company with Alexander Lord Leven, Richard Hopton, and Thomas Rosse, Esquires. ”

“ He was released on bail, and in February 1683, after the flight and death of Shaftesbury, he openly broke the implied conditions of his bail by paying a third visit to Chichester with Lord Grey and others on pretence of a hunting expedition.
It is probable that Monmouth never went so far as to think of armed rebellion; but there is little doubt that he had talked over schemes likely to lead to this, and that Shaftesbury had gone farther still. ”

“ By denouncing the parliament that body became his mortal foes. The only party from which he could now expect any support was the people, and without means, without leaders, without military training, the result could only be failure utter and fearful.
And spite of the persuasions of Ferguson, the melancholy truth seemed already to stare the unhappy Monmouth in the face. He received a secret answer from Albemarle, addressed to James Scott, late duke of Monmouth, telling him that he knew who was his lawful king, and that he had better have let rebellion alone. ”

“ The parliament finished a session of hysterical passion by passing a series of resolutions of extreme violence, of which one was that Monmouth should be restored to all his offices and commands; and when Charles summoned a fresh parliament to meet at Oxford the leaders of the exclusionists went thither with troops of armed men. Not until the dissolution of this last parliament, on the 27th of March 1681, did the weakness of Monmouth’s cause appear. The deep-seated respect for legitimate descent asserted itself, and a great reaction took place. ”

“ She is known to have had two children: (1) James, born at Rotterdam on 9 April 1649, who was on 14 Feb. 1663 created Duke of Monmouth [see Scott, James (known as Fitzroy and as Crofts) , Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch) ; (2) a daughter, Mary (by Arlington ?) , born at The Hague on 6 May 1651, who married William Sarsfield, elder brother of Patrick, earl of Lucan [q. v.] ”

“ They told me that since his marriage, when quite a lad, he had taken the name of his noble wife, wanting one of his own, and that that name was Scott. They jeered and gibed at him and his feeble insurrection in a fashion that made my heart beat fast with mingled wrath and fear, and kept me in constant dread of betraying myself by some unguarded word. But for my lord's sake I strove for patience and discretion; and being accounted but a boy, and a hunchback to boot, I misdoubt if any words of mine would have been taken seriously by the troopers who rode for a time with us. ”

“ We disclaim any desire to tyrannize over those of others."
The debate would now have run higher than ever, but they were interrupted by intelligence that the Duke of Monmouth had commenced his march towards the west, and was already advanced half way from Edinburgh. This news silenced their divisions for the moment, and it was agreed that the next day should be held as a fast of general humiliation for the sins of the land; that the Reverend Mr Poundtext should preach to the army in the morning, and Kettledrummle in the afternoon ”

“ When he returned to the Tower, he wrote a letter to the king, supposed to contain a secret, the revealing of which might have purchased his life. This letter he intrusted to Captain Scott of Dumbarton's regiment, a descendant of the family of Harden, and, consequently, related to the Duchess of Monmouth. The famous Blood is said to have compelled Scott to deliver up the letter, and carried it to Sunderland, who destroyed it. [299]
The Duke of Monmouth, finding all efforts to procure a pardon ineffectual, met death with great resolution. ”

“ Knowing that I had been involved in the miserable final adventure of that unhappy Prince, James Scot, Duke of Monmouth, and even been with him in that last Council in Bridgewater, my lord Rochester showed me this letter with a kind of languid malice, and even had the indecency to smile at it and address to me a remark slighting to the unfortunate writer of that desperate appeal.
“For,” said he, “had Monmouth a secret to reveal, though ever so base a one, he had disclosed it to save his life–and since he disclosed nothing ’tis proof plain this was but a fool’s trick to catch mercy.” ”

“ Has not your Grace heard that Basil Olifant has collected several gentlemen and men of substance in the west, and is in the act of marching to join them?"
"Basil Olifant?" said the Duke; "who, or what is he?"
"The next male heir to the last Earl of Torwood. He is disaffected to government from his claim to the estate being set aside in favour of Lady Margaret Bellenden; and I suppose the hope of getting the inheritance has set him in motion."
"Be his motives what they will," replied Monmouth, "he must soon disperse his followers, for this army is too much broken to rally again. ”

“ Better trot your nag back and save his mettle to-day, that he may save your life to-morrow."
"I cannot think," said Morton, "that even if the Duke of Monmouth should consider us as criminals, he would condemn so large a body of his fellow-subjects without even hearing what they have to plead for themselves. On my part I fear nothing. I am conscious of having consented to, or authorized, no cruelty, and the fear of suffering innocently for the crimes of others shall not deter me from executing my commission." ”

“ Had all England known something more of the temper of the King and the nature of the tools he employed, and purposes yet more fully to employ, I sometimes wonder whether more of our class might not have joined issue with the Duke of Monmouth, in despair of ever serving such a monarch as the treacherous and unkingly James. ”

“ Respecting in its identity and history, from its removal from the rebel duke's pocket down to its production at the Royal Irish Academy, Dr. Anster showed that after Monmouth was beheaded—which he was on Tower Hill, by the too-celebrated John Ketch, on the 15th July, 1685—the articles found on his person were given to the king. At James's deposition, three years afterwards, all his manuscripts, including those that had belonged to Monmouth, were carried into France, where they remained till the Revolution in that country a century afterwards. ”

“ How may that be, if our gracious King be not victorious?"
"It may be that thou wilt live to see such a thing one day, Dicon," answered my lord, "and yet not see King Monmouth on the throne. Knowest thou not that there be men who have already fixed their eyes upon the Prince of Orange, husband to the King's daughter, as a possible saviour and deliverer? The witch knows more of such things, I trow, than thou dost, boy, in spite of all thy learning." ”

“ For there could be small doubt that it would go hard but that bloodshed of some kind there would be, were the Duke of York to succeed to the throne; and yet there seemed no other to take that place, seeing that the Duke of Monmouth was an exile, and that he would have to fight for the crown ere he could hope to wear it. Men who remembered the horrors of civil war a generation back, the disruption of families, and the bloodshed and confusion, shook their heads mournfully, and advised any submission rather than a repetition of such fearsome things ”

“ I hate that false and cruel King James, who will stoop to fondle such vile creatures as Jeffreys and Kirke. Yet I love not your Duke of Monmouth, who can keep a crawling knave like Ferguson in his counsels, and who leaves his virtuous wife and seeks happiness with another fair lady. Were I a man I would follow neither, but be a free lance for the cause of right and liberty!" And the little lady would toss back her ringlets, whilst her face would flush and kindle till I would regard her with admiration akin to awe, and think that a man might well follow such a leader to the death. ”

“ Many of the Scottish nobles were disaffected, and the army was disorganized. At Solway Moss, James was openly defied by his nobility. Scott says regarding this bitter humiliation, “He shut himself up in the palace of Falkland, and refused to listen to any consolation. A burning fever, the consequence of his grief and shame, seized on the unfortunate monarch. They brought him tidings that his wife had given birth to a daughter; but he only replied, ‘Is it so?’ reflecting on the alliance which had placed the Stuart family on the throne. ‘Then God’s will be done. ”

“ The Whig power lay not in support of the right, but in the constituencies, above all in London, where the sentiments by which Monmouth found favour had their strongest hold. Monmouth was moreover a man open to influence. Were the Duke of York successfully excluded, Shaftesbury was more likely to find room for the exercise of his talents under the rule of James’ nephew than under that of his son-in-law, William of Orange. Of the two Monmouth gave far better promise to the earl that he would retain his power in the country and regain it in the government. ”

“ G. Roberts's Life, Progresses, and Rebellion of James, Duke of Monmouth (2 vols., 1844) , is a biography of rare industry and completeness, though occasionally deficient in vigour of judgment. There is also a life of Monmouth in Collins's Peerage of England (5th ed.) , iii. 365–387. The Historical Account of the Heroick Life and Magnanimous Actions of the Duke of Monmouth, &c., is a partisan panegyric, published in 1683. ”

“ The conversation turned naturally enough to the situation of Monmouth and the king's troops, and some speculations were indulged in as to the result of the struggle going on. It was evident that the good farmer was a Tory at heart, although he took especial care to guard the expression of his opinions.
"Lord bless you! my lady," he said, in answer to some observation of Hortensia, "there will be no battle. The duke can't afford to fight such men as he's got before him--that's to say, the duke or King Monmouth, as they call him ”

“ I am not aware of any contemporary authority for the names of the three dukes; and a difficulty in the way of assigning them by conjecture is, that in the poem they are called "three bastard dukes." Your correspondent C. has rightly said (p. 46.) that none of Charles II.'s bastard sons besides Monmouth would have been old enough in 1671 to be actors in such a fray. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes on Absalom and Achitophel, referring to the poem, gives the assault to Monmouth and some of his brothers ”

“ The more moderate party lay the whole blame on Hamilton, whose conduct, they say, left the world to debate, whether he was most traitor, coward, or fool. The generous Monmouth was anxious to spare the blood of his infatuated countrymen, by which he incurred much blame among the high-flying royalists. Lucky it was for the insurgents that the battle did not happen a day later, when old General Dalziel, who divided with Claverhouse the terror and hatred of the whigs, arrived in the camp, with a commission to supersede Monmouth, as commander in chief. ”

“ Nothing would so injure the righteous cause as a revolt against law and order; nothing would so greatly hurt the cause of the young Duke of Monmouth. We must show discretion and wisdom at this time, that none might have cause to look with suspicion upon us. ”

“ We ourselves so thoroughly believed in the rights of the exiled Monmouth, that we could not credit or understand that these had never been greatly believed in by the mass of the nation, and that the King's brother was likely to obtain all the support of the lovers of established monarchy, as well as of those who, whilst personally regretting the character of the man, would not be a party to a measure of exclusion which should keep the true heir from the throne, or favour a possible usurper. ”

“ Monmouth landed at Lyme, in Dorset, and thousands flocked to greet the popular and handsome young Duke. He marched to Exeter, and thence to Taunton, where he was received with rejoicings by the lower classes. The gentry, nobles, and clergy were against him, for they hoped that when James died he would be succeeded by his daughter Mary, the Princess of Orange. Soon James’ troops under Lord Feversham, and Captain Churchill, were moving against the poorly-armed followers of Monmouth. On the night of July 5th, 1685, Monmouth endeavored to surprise the royal troops at Sedgemoor. ”

“ He was a man of great pride and the old feudal system was full of attractiveness. He knew every detail of the history of the Scott family for centuries. He revered the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch as the head of his clan. As his writings, year after year, brought him financial returns almost fabulous in size, he began to cherish the desire to found a new branch of the Scott Clan. The irresistible impulse to add new lands to Abbotsford, regardless of cost, and to erect a great mansion, fit for the residence of an earl, all sprang from this one motive. ”