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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Duke of Monmouth
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(James Scott, 1649–85, duke 1663) Illegitimate son of *Charles II, born to his mistress Lucy Walter during his exile in the Netherlands. The boy was married in 1663, when he was 14, to a Scottish heiress, Anne Scott; he took her surname and was created a duke. Opponents of the Roman Catholic duke of York (the future *James II) favoured Monmouth, a Protestant, as heir to the throne. But the king stood by his brother, repeatedly denying the rumour that he had married Lucy Walter.
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A few months after the accession of James II, Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis in Dorset with just 82 followers. Protestants failed to rally to his cause in the numbers hoped for, and he was defeated by the royal army at Sedgemoor, in Somerset, on 6 July 1685. Monmouth was beheaded on Tower Hill, while those few who had supported him were treated in the Bloody Assizes with the severity which gave Judge *Jeffreys his lasting reputation.
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