The Battle:

Desperate now, Monmouth sent his cavalry ahead to engage the enemy as quickly as possible, and his foot soldiers followed as quickly as they could. The main body of the cavalry crumpled quickly in the face of heavy fire by the alerted defenders.

Warning of Monmouth's approach had been sent back to Weston, and with the call of 'Beat the drums, the enemy is come' the royal army prepared for action hastily but without confusion. The infantry in their six battalions were quickly in position.

The rebel cavalry, under Lord Grey, rode forward but failed to find the plungeon or crossing over the Bussex Rhine and were forced by the infantry fire into confusion and panic. A few tried to secure the second crossing of the rhine but failed also.

The uncontrollable horses fled into some of the oncoming rebel infantry, adding to the confusion.

Nevertheless, the rebel infantry still advanced towards the royal army, and the Dutch gunners with their little cannon, caused considerable casualties among their opponents.

But the infantry could not cross the rhine; and as they grouped and fired towards the enemy, great gaps were cut in their ranks by the royal cannon. Cavalry also rode out across the plungeons as the patrols began to come in towards the sounds of battle, and with a pincer movement they attacked the main body of the rebels who continued to fight bravely, though their leaders had decided on flight and were riding off towards the Polden Hills and Bristol.

The regular infantry had by now discovered that the Bussex Rhine was neither deep nor difficult, so they crossed the ditch and joined the fight. The rebels were being slaughtered despite their courage, and at dawn the task began of rounding up those who had managed to escape

Feversham sent his own horsemen to flank Monmouth's men, and at first light the royal troops attacked the rebels on three sides. Though Monmouth's untrained volunteers fought bravely, they were doomed from the start.

The Aftermath:

Casualties are reckoned at about 400 rebels who died in the battle, with many more killed in the pursuit and rounding up of those who tried to escape, while only about 50 regular soldiers lost their lives and about 200 were wounded.

Monmouth and Grey escaped into Dorset hoping to find a ship at Poole to take them to France; but by now the whole countryside was being watched by militiamen and the promise of a reward of £5000 led to an intensive search. Monmouth was found hiding in a ditch at Horton, and taken to London. Though he pleaded abjectly for mercy, he showed courage when he was beheaded on Tower Hill on July 15th.

Meanwhile the rounding-up and capture of the rebels was taking place on Sedgemoor.  The prisoners suffered greatly, especially those who were wounded, in the dreadfully insanitary prisons where they were held before trial.

The Church and the Parish:

In the early hours of the 6^th July small groups of rebel prisoners were rounded up and brought into the Church.  Alan Wheeler, a drummer of the militia, recorded them as they passed by him into the Church. 

Prisoners were stripped of anything of value and were imprisoned without food or water.  They numbered some 500 of whom 5 died during the night. 

Local family tradition has it that after dark, the Church Warden, Richard Alford and his daughter, though keen Royalists, carried buckets of water into the Church for the prisoners, who had not been fed or watered by their captors.

Among the prisoners was one Francis Scott , and his brother in law tells: “he was wonderfully preserved, being taken and put in Weston steeplehouse with many more the night after the fight in order to be hanged the next day, as many were; but he got out at the little north door while the watch was asleep and so escaped with his life, lying in cornfields by day and going by night till he got home, and so lay about till the general pardon.”

This little north door could have been the door from the chancel to the present vestry, the outer wall of which has been rebuilt since that time.  The Church account book contains an entry for 1685 which reads: “Paid for mending of ye locke and righting of the key of the north door £0. 1s 9d”  Perhaps this was connected with Francis Scott’s escape?

The local people of Westonzoyland were required to bury the dead in the fields in a mass grave, and they recorded as many as 1384 bodies. 

The burial must have been done hastily because within a few days complaints were made to Colonel Kirke that the rebels buried on the moor were not sufficiently covered.  Kirke  wrote to the “tything man” or constable of Chedzoy on 13^th July to request: “6 ploughs and 12 men to come to the mass grave to help erect a mount over the bodies.”  The parish was required to pay £2.4s.1d as their share of this cost and the cost of making gibbets and gemasses.

A considerable number of rebels appear to have been summarily executed at various places around the village and along the road to Bridgwater.  Those condemned to hanging were quartered and distributed around the area to spread the grim warning against rebellion.  “Heads and limbs treated with pitch were scattered far afield”.