Monmouth Rebellion - Duke of Monmouth

Duke of Monmouth

Monmouth was an illegitimate son of Charles II. There had been rumours that Charles had married Monmouth's mother, Lucy Walter, but no evidence was forthcoming, and Charles always said that he only had one wife, Catherine of Braganza. That marriage produced no surviving children.

Monmouth was a Protestant. He had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the English Army by his father in 1672 and Captain-General in 1678, enjoying some successes in the Netherlands in the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

An attempt was made in 1681 to pass the Exclusion Bill, an Act of Parliament to exclude James II Stuart, Charles II's brother, from the succession and substitute Monmouth, but Charles outmanoeuvred his opponents and dissolved Parliament for the final time. After the Rye House Plot to assassinate both Charles and James, Monmouth exiled himself to Holland, and gathered supporters in The Hague.

So long as Charles II remained on the throne, Monmouth was content to live a life of pleasure in Holland, while still hoping to accede peaceably to the throne. The accession of James II put an end to these hopes. Prince William of Orange, although also a Protestant, was bound to James by treaties and could not accommodate a rival claimant.