Battle page 3

Monmouth's fate:

The executioner was usually the public hangman and, because of the rarity of the sentence, he was often inexperienced at beheading. Since the muscles and vertebrae of the neck are tough, it could take more than one blow to sever the head - a prospect every condemned person dreaded. The victim was offered a blindfold, to prevent him seeing the axe and moving his head at the crucial moment.

The most badly botched execution was that of James, Duke of Monmouth, in 1685. His executioner was the hangman, Jack Ketch, a notorious bungler with an axe. On climbing the scaffold, Monmouth picked up the axe and ran his fingers along the blade, asking Ketch if he thought it was sharp enough for the job. He handed Ketch six guineas, promising him six more if he did a clean job: "Pray do not serve me as you did my Lord Russell. I have heard you struck him four or five times; If you strike me twice, I cannot promise you not to stir."

Ketch had an attack of nerves and his first blow only grazed the back of the duke's head. Monmouth, who had refused the blindfold, turned his head around and gazed directly at Ketch, further unnerving him. When two more blows failed to sever the head, Ketch threw the axe down and offered 40 guineas to anyone in the crowd who could do better. At this the Sheriff of Middlesex, who was in charge of the execution, threatened to have him killed if he did not finish his job. When two more blows failed, Ketch had to use his knife, butchering the Duke like a pig.

Monmouth's fate at the hand of hangman Jack Ketch on Tower Hill.

Monmouth's family then retrieved the body, and had his head sewn back on so that he could have his portrait painted.

Jack Ketch lives on today as the hangman in Punch and Judy shows

The Bloody Assizes:

The Autumn Assizes of 1685, now referred to as the Bloody Assizes were a series of trials started at Winchester on 25 August 1685 following Monmouth’s defeat and capture at the Battle of Sedgemoor. There were five judges lead by Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys. The king was anxious that an example should be made to deter any other attempts at rebellion; Jeffreys was a sick man, suffering from an extremely painful illness; many of the accused were persuaded to confess, hoping for mercy after a plea of 'Guilty'.

By then well over a thousand rebels were in prison and awaiting the trials. The first notable trial was that of an elderly gentlewoman called Dame Alice Lyle. She was condemned to death for helping two of the rebels, a harsh and terrible judgement on an old and kindly lady. The law recognizing no distinction between principals and accessories in treason, she was sentenced to be burned. This was commuted to beheading, with the sentence being carried out in Winchester market-place on 2^nd September 1685.

"The Hanging Judge", George Jeffreys, later to be the Lord Chief Justice.

The court proceeded through the West Country through Salisbury and onto Dorchester where the full horror of the Assize began to be felt as between 300 and 350 rebels were accused. A few were acquitted, some were fined or sentenced to be flogged, but the majority were condemned to death and handed over for execution as soon as possible. This horrifying spectacle included public hanging, disembowelling and then quartering, after which the heads and quarters were dipped in pitch and salt and sent to villages around to be displayed in public on poles. Many who were condemned to death had their sentences reduced to transportation, in effect, long years of slavery in the colonies. The Taunton Assize took place in the Great Hall of Taunton Castle (now the home of the Somerset County Museum). Of more than 500 prisoners brought before the court on the 18^th and 19^th September, 144 were hanged and their remains displayed around the county to ensure people understood the fate of those who rebelled against the king. Similar events took place at Exeter and Wells.

Some 800-850 men were transported to the West Indies where they were worth more alive than dead as a source of cheap labour. A woman named Elisabeth Gaunt had the grisly distinction of being the last woman to be burnt in England for political crimes.

Jeffreys returned to London after the Assizes to report to King James who thanked him. As a reward he was made Lord Chancellor (at age of only 40), 'For the many eminent and faithful services to the Crown'. He became called "the hanging judge".

This rebellion and its consequences made a deep and lasting impression on the minds and memories of the people of the Westcountry. In particular it was in Somerset that the most lasting bitterness remained. The King had raised a far larger standing army to be ready to face any similar threat to his position, and this added another factor to the growing antagonism in the country. Only three years later he was faced with another invasion, this time by William of Orange with a well equipped army. Somerset people, vividly recalling the horrors of the Monmouth Rising, did not hasten to join his forces.

The Booklet titled "The Western Rising" has been used in producing this website by kind permission of Mr Don Mattravers.

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