Monmouth, James Scott, Duke of 1649-85
English claimant to the throne

Born in The Hague (or Rotterdam), the illegitimate son of Charles II and Lucy Walter, he was committed by Charles to the care of Lord Crofts. In 1662 he went to England and was created Duke of Monmouth (1663), was wedded to a rich heiress, Anne, Countess of Buccleuch, and became captain-general (1670). Handsome, athletic, but a brainless libertine, he was popular because of his humanity towards the Scottish Covenanters at Bothwell Brig (1679), the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Bill, and his two semi-royal progresses (1680-82). The first Earl of Shaftesbury pitted the protestant Duke against the popish heir-presumptive (later James VII and II), and involved him in the Rye House Plot (1683), after which Monmouth fled to the Low Countries. At Charles's death, he landed at Lyme Regis, quickly raised 4,000 troops, branded James as a popish usurper, and asserted his own right to the Crown. At Taunton he was proclaimed King James II, and he attempted to surprise the king's forces at Sedgemoor. He was defeated and fled, but was captured and beheaded. His followers were persecuted in the 'Bloody Assizes' of Judge Jeffreys.

Bibliography: Bryan Bevan, James, Duke of Monmouth (1973)