648

Monmouth's Assumption of Regal State.

The Mayor, Gregory Alford, fled, and there was no force left to oppose the Duke, who enlisted recruits and resided at the George Inn. There had been little preparation made by friends or foes. Skirmishing soon began, the first killed being two militia horsemen. Some who intended to join were arrested; others, like John Trenchard, the unready blusterer (whose words in the Commons had been so loud, and whose actions were so small), moved away; he going to France to avoid entanglement, after boasting that he had fifteen hundred men ready at Taunton. The Duke fell into melancholy, but could see no way to retrace his steps. It was difficult for isolated parties to join him, the roads being well guarded by Albemarle's troopers and by militia. But there was little enthusiasm. The "Declaration" had pleased nobody except the ignorant and fanatical.

Having been persuaded by evil counsellors, such as Robert Ferguson and Forde Lord Grey of Werk, and by his own vanity, to proclaim himself as King of Great Britain, Ireland, France, etc., it was not unnatural that Monmouth should follow up this aggression by denouncing as rebels and traitors whomsoever loyalty to James the Second might cause to advance in repression of the new Progress. Foes were already numerous, Christopher Monk, Duke of Albemarle, Thomas Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort, threatening from different directions to hem in the insurgents. Monmouth seriously addressed in royal style this summons or warning to Albemarle.

Letter from the Duke of Monmouth, as "King," to the Duke of Albemarle,

[Harleian MS., No. 7006, fol. 195.]

MY LORD, Whereas wee are credibly informed that there are some horse and ffoot in Arms under your Command for James Duke of Yorke wch are purposely raysed in opposition to us and our Royall authority, wee thought fitt to signifie to you our resentmt thereof, and doe promise Ourself that what you have transacted therein is through inadvertancy and mistake, and that your Grace will take other means when you have recd Informacon of Our being proclamed King to succeed Our Royall Father lately deceased, Wee have therefore sent this Morning on purpose to intimate the same unto you, and it is Our Royall will and pleasure, and wee doe hereby strictly Charge and Command you, upon notice and Rect hereof, to cease all Hostilitys and Force and Arms against us, and all Our Loving Subjects, and that your Grace would immediately repaire to Our Camp, where you shall not faile of a very kind reception by Us, or in default of the promisses Wee shalbe obliged to proclame you, and all those in Armes under your Command, Rebells and Traytors, and shall proceed against them and you accordingly. Yet wee assure Our selfe that yor Grace will pay ready obedience to Or Command, wherefore wee bid you heartily farewell.

James R.

[Superscribed,] To our trusty and welbeloved Cousin and Councellr

Christopher, Lord Duke of Albemarle.

Fletcher brooks no insolence from Dare.

649

The Reply of Lord Christopher Monk to James, late Duke of Monmouth: signing himself “ James R."

[From the same Harleian MS., No. 7006, fol. 195.]

Duke of Albemarle's answer by the same trumpet, ut seq.

I reed your Lre and doe not doubt but you would use me very kindly if you had me, and since you have given yourselfe the trouble of invitacon, this is to lett you know that I neuer was, nor neuer will be, a Rebell to my Lawfull King, who is James the Second, brother to my late dear Master King Charles the Second: if you thinke I am in the wrong, and you in the right, when euer wee meet I doe not doubt but the Iustness of my Cause shall sufficien[t]ly conuince you that you had better haue lett this rebellion alone, and not to have putt ye Nacon [=Nation] to soe much trouble.

[Superscribed,] For James Scott, late Duke of Monmouth.1

Albemarle.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, ablest of the followers, and almost the only man of military skill beside the Duke, became lost to the cause, through a quarrel with the overbearing Heywood Dare, in which Fletcher shot him dead, and was put under arrest, sent on board the frigate to save him from the vengeance of Dare's son, and hindered for ever from helping Monmouth. Dare might have been of use, by influence and knowledge of the country; but Fletcher's courage would have ensured success where the cowardice and incompetence or treachery of Grey brought nothing but disaster. They went to Bridport, by Allington, with a skirmish and repulse. All leaving Lyme, they went to Axminster, to Chard, to Ilminster, and then to Taunton. It was here that maidens made a gala day and welcomed him with wreaths and twentyseven flags; with hospitable shelter, acclamations, and recruits. Ambitious promptings came to him. It was here that on June 20th he proclaimed himself as "King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.'

1 These two Letters were afterwards Licensed for publication by R. L'Estrange: printed by George Croom (of Thames Blanket-Fair Press; cf. pp. 323, 459). 2 Andrew Fletcher was worth a thousand of such swaggerers as Heywood Dare. We confess to feeling a genuine satisfaction at punishment alighting on the man who had insolently replied to Charles II.'s remonstrance at his having presumed to offer arrogantly such a petition as he once did, "Sir, my name is Dare!" It was less safe to bluster with the fiery Scot. Because in June, 1685, Fletcher" requisitioned" for his own use in the Duke's service a fine horse that Dare had procured from some country sympathizers, or had taken perforce, the irascible Devonian shook his riding-switch threateningly in the face of Fletcher; and had to pay the penalty. It was, we admit, an irregular process of Lynch Law for a stranger to enforce against a terræ filius; but "nice customs courtesy to great kings." We like Fletcher none the worse for avenging an insult on the spot. But it was disastrous for the cause he favoured. He was of low stature, lean, yet vigorous: "Of a brown complexion, full of fire, with a stern, sour look," one of the bravest and best of that memorable race The Scot abroad."

66

650

Monmouth at Philips-Norton and Frome.

After four days' stay at Lyme, and a slight skirmish, they went to Bridgewater, to avoid being enclosed in Taunton. The reception was good, the recruits numerous; but, as earlier after landing, thousands went back, because they could not be armed. Unopposed hitherto by any considerable force, Monmouth's hopes grew with every day's advance, until he was refused admittance into Bristol. This was the first great repulse. Bath also resisted his summons and slew the herald. Then came the Philips-Norton fight. Attacked by the Duke of Grafton with an advance guard of the King's army, Monmouth's men held their ground and got the better of their foes, owing to good use of the narrow lanes and hedges. Monmouth lost but eighteen men; the King's troops lost eighty. A fragment of an old ditty is recorded as having been sung until early in this century, with a traditional reference to the victory: The Duke of Monmouth is at Norton-Town, All a-fighting for the Crown;

Ho, boys, ho!

News came thither that the

The march was resumed, to Frome. Earl of Feversham, in chief command of the King's troops, had been reinforced; and also that Argyle had failed in Scotland. Desertions were frequent, and the expected aid did not arrive. It is said that there was debate as to the Duke and officers deserting the common troops, then taking flight from Frome to secure their own safety at a seaport and escape to Holland. Since they ultimately fled, after Sedgemoor, the disgrace could scarcely have been greater had they gone at once. The failure was already apparent, because support was not given, or likely to reach them. In arms, money, provisions, horses, discipline, and every requisite of a wellappointed army, they were miserably deficient. Courage there was, and zeal among them: love for their leader, and, in many hearts, a devotion to what they thought to be a rightful cause.

On to Shepton-Mallet; thence to Wells, living at free quarters, indulging sectarian bigotry and irreverence against the Cathedral ; next to Pedwell Plain, and again to Bridgewater, with intention of retreating into Cheshire. Then, as the King's army had marched into Sedgemoor, the end approached, for it was resolved to attack the troops. Leaving this final encounter undetailed (see p. 658), it is time, after this long introductory summary, to give some of our many ballads descriptive of Monmouth's expedition.

1 The Axe Papers mention that when Monmouth's ill-armed forces marched out, seven thousand in number, Robert Ferguson gave a specimen of what he was, having his sword drawn (he was chaplain of the army), and often saying, "I am Ferguson, that famous Ferguson for whose head so many hundred pounds were offered; I am that man, I am that man!"

The Western Rebel;

or, the True Protestant Standard set up.

TO THE TUNE OF, Packington's Pound. [See p. 457.]

Ee the Vizor's pull'd off and the Zealots are arming,

the 'swarming.

The True Protestant Perkin in lightning has spoke,
And begins in a flash to Vanish in Smoak:

Little Jemmy's lanch'd o're

From the old Holland Shore,

Where Shaftsbury march'd to the Devil before.1

The old Game's a beginning; for High-Shoes and Clowns
Are turning State-Tinkers for mending of Crowns.

Let his desperate Frenzy to ruine spur on

The Rebel too late and Madam 2 too soon:

But Politick Noddles without Wit or Reason,

When empty of Brains, have the more room for Treason.
Ambition bewitches,

Through bogs and through ditches,

[= Monmouth.

Like a Will with a Wisp: for the Bastard blood itches;
And the Bully sets up, with high-shoes and Clowns,
A true Protestant Tinker for mending of Crowns.

Let him banter Religion, that old stale pretence,
For Traytors to mount on the neck of their Prince :
But clamour and nonsense no longer shall fright us,
Our wits are restor'd by the flogging of Titus.3

Their Canting Delusion,

And Bills of Exclusion,

No longer shall sham the mad World to confusion:
The old cheat's too gross, and no more Bores and Clowns,
For perching on Thrones, and prophaning of Crowns.

652

The Western Rebel, 1685.

So the great murder'd Charles, our Church, Freedom, and Laws,
Were all Martyrs of old to the Sanctified Cause;

Whilst Gospel and Heaven were the popular name:
The Firebrands of Hell were all light' from that Flame.
Reformation once tun'd,

Let Religion but sound,

When that Kirk Bag-Pipe plays, all the Devils dance round.
But the whining Tub cheat shall no longer go down,
No more Kings on Scaffolds, and Slaves on a Throne.

Let his hot-brain'd Ambition, with his Renegade-Loons,
Mount the Son of the People for Lord of Three Crowns ;
The Impostor on one hand, and Traytor on t'other,
Set up his false Title, as crack'd as his Mother.
But whilst, Peacock-proud,

He struts and talks loud,

The Head of the Rabble, and Idol o' th' crowd;

36

[= Lucy Walter.

From his false borrow'd Plumes, and his hopes of a Crown,
To his black feet below, let th' Aspirer look down.

Then let him march on, with his Politick Poll,
To perch up his Head by old Bradshaw and Noll: 5
Whilst the desperate Jehu is driving head-long
To visit the Relicks of Tommy Armstrong.

But there's Vengeance a-working

To give him a Jerking,7

And humble the Pride of poor little Perkin.

45

[=Argyle?

[=Monmouth.

54

Great James his dread Thunder shall th' Idol pull down,
Whilst our Hands, Hearts, and Swords are all true to the Crown.

Finis.

[In White-letter. Date about the 15th of June, 1685, before any great reverse.]

1 See Vol. IV. p. 240, and Bagford Ballads, p. 784.

2 Probably the term "Madam" here refers, not to Monmouth's mistress, Lady Henrietta Maria Wentworth, whom he called "the choice of his ripened years (compare pp. 385 to 396, 559, 638, 698); but was falsely vituperative of Anne Scott, the lawful Duchess of Monmouth. At this time she was at the Cockpit in London, under a guard, and not permitted to move freely with her two sons (see "The Duke of Monmouth's Lamentation," our pp. 696 to 698). The guard was not removed until a year afterwards, in June, 1686. For "the politics of his Scotch Duchess." see p. 470. Perhaps "Madam" is a misprint for Madman”? 3 See pp. 597 to 606, on Titus Oates flogged lustily at the Compter Prison. 4 In Vol. IV. p. 192, note, we mentioned the abortive attempts to pass the Exclusion Bill disqualifying the Duke of York from succession, being Catholic. 5 The juxtaposition of the two regicides' heads, John Bradshaw's and Oliver Cromwell's, is also indicated in a "Loyal Song sung before the Loyal Liverymen in Westminster Hall, July the 19th, 1684: see the beginning of it on p. 653. 6 For Tommy Armstrong," see pp. 477-488. Jehu now means Monmouth, but the nickname was formerly applied to the Earl of Shaftesbury, ex. grat. p. 14, And my small Jehu, at a furious rate,

Was driving 'Eighty back to 'Forty-eight.

7 66 Jerking" was the old cant-name for a flogging; perhaps with some reference to a buff jerkin; but etymology is a quagmire. "That way madness lies!" as King Lear remarks, on a less intricate involvement.