EMINENT PERSONS. Hyde, earl of Clarendon; Villiers, duke of Buckingham Butler, duke of Or mond; Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury; sir William Temple; Algernon Sidney; Wentworth Dillon, earl of Roscommon; R. Boyle, earl of Orrery; G. Mackenzie, earl of Cromarty; G. Monk, duke of Albemarle; C. Stanley, earl of Derby: Montague, earl of Sandwich; J. Powlett, marquis of Winchester; W. Cavendish, duke of Newcastle; G. Digby, earl of Bristol; Denzil, lord Hollis; Dudley, lord North; J. Touchet, earl of Castlehaven and baron Audley; H. Pierpont, marquis of Dorchester; J. Wilmot, earl of Rochester; † Anthony Ashley; Heneage Finch, earl of Nottingham; Francis North, lord-keeper Guildford; J. Robarts, earl of Radnor; Arthur Annesley, earl of Anglesea; marquis of Argyle, H. Finch, earl of Winchelsea; A Carey, lord Falkland; Anne, countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery; Margaret, dutchess of Newcastle. CHAPTER XXXI. JAMES II. Born 1633. Began to reign February 6, 1685. Abdicated the throne January 22. 1688. Reigned 2 years. SECTION I. Near Bridgewater, the fatal place Of Monmouth's downfall and disgrace, The hopeless duke, half starved, half drown'd, In covert of a ditch was found.-Dibdin. 1. (A. D.) 1685.) THE duke of York, who succeeded his brother by the title of king James the second, had been bred a papist by his mother, and was strongly bigoted to his principles. He went openly to mass with all the ensigns of his dignity, and even sent one Caryl as his agent to Rome, *The strange character of this highly-gifted but profligate nobleman is thus graphically described by Dryden: 46 A man so various that he seemed to be He died in wretchedness. Pope thus describes the miserable end of his career: "In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung * Rochester was equally celebrated for his wit and profligacy. His mock epitaph on Charles II. contains a severe but just character of that monarch: "Here lies our mutton-eating king, Whose word no man relies on: He never said a foolish thing, to make submission to the pope, and to pave the way for the readmission of England into the bosom of the catholic church. 2. A conspiracy, set on foot by the duke of Monmouth, was the first disturbance in this reign. He had, since his last conspiracy, been pardoned, but was ordered to depart the kingdom, and had retired to Holland. Being dismissed from thence by the prince of Orange, upon James's accession he went to Brussels, where finding himself still pursued by the king's severity, he resolved to retaliate, and make an attempt upon the kingdom. 3. He had ever been the darling of the people, and some averred that Charles had married his mother, and owned Monmouth's legitimacy at his death. The duke of Argyle seconded his views in Scotland, and they formed the scheme of a double insurrection ; so that, while Monmouth should attempt to make a rising in the west, Argyle was also to try his endeavours in the north. 4. Argyle was the first who landed in Scotland, where he published his manifestos, put himself at the head of two thousand five hundred men, and strove to influence the people in his cause. But a formidable body of the king's forces coming against him, his army fell away, and he himself, after being wounded in attempting to escape, was taken prisoner by a peasant, who found him standing up to his neck in a pool of water. He was from thence carried to Edinburgh, where, after enduring many indignities with a gallant spirit, he was publicly executed. 5. Meanwhile Monmouth was by this time landed in Dorsetshire, with scarcely a hundred followers. However, his name was so popular, and so great was the hatred of the people both for the person and religion of James, that in four days he had assembled a body of above two thousand men. 6. Being advanced to Taunton, his numbers had increased to six thousand men; and he was obliged every day, for want of arms, to dismiss numbers who crowded to his standard. He entered Bridgewater, Wells and Frome, and was proclaimed in all those places; but he lost the hour of action in receiving and claiming these empty honours. 7. The king was not a little alarmed at his invasion; but still more so at the success of an undertaking that at first ap peared desperate. Six regiments of British troops were recalled from Holland, and a body of regulars, to the num ber of three thousand men, were sent, under the command of the earls of Feversham and Churchill, to check the progress of the rebels. 8. They took post at Sedgemore, a village in the neighbourhood of Bridgewater, and were joined by the militia of the county in considerable numbers. It was there that Monmouth resolved, by a desperate effort, to lose his life or gain the kingdom. The negligent disposition made by Feversham invited him to the attack; and his faithful followers showed what courage and principle could do against discipline and numbers. 9. They drove the royal infantry from their ground, and were upon the point of gaining the victory, when the misconduct of Monmouth, and the cowardice of lord Grey, who commanded the horse, brought all to ruin. This nobleman fled at the first onset; and the rebels being charged in flank by the victorious army, gave way, after three hours' contest. 10. About three hundred were killed in the engagement, and a thousand in the pursuit; and thus ended an enterprise rashly begun, and more feebly conducted. Monmouth fled from the field of battle about twenty miles, till his horse sunk under him. He then alighted, and changing his clothes with a shepherd, fled on foot, attended by a German count, who had accompanied him from Holland. 11. Being quite exhausted with hunger and fatigue, they both lay down in a field, and covered themselves with fern. The shepherd being found in Monmouth's clothes by the pursuers, increased the diligence of the search; and by the means of blood-hounds he was detected in this miserable situation, with raw peas in his pocket, which he had gathered in the fields to sustain life. 12. He wrote the most submissive letters to the king; and that monarch, willing to feast his eyes with the miseries of a fallen enemy, gave him an audience. At this interview the duke fell upon his knees, and begged his life in the most abject terms. He even signed a paper, cffered him by the king, declaring his own illegitimacy; and then the stern tyrant assured him that his crime was of such a nature as could not be pardoned. 13 The duke, perceiving that he had nothing to hope from the clemency of his uncle, recollected his spirits, rose up, and retired with an air of disdain. He was followed to the scaf fold with great compassion from the populace. He warned the executioner not to fall into the same error which he had committed in beheading Russel, where it had been necessary to redouble the blow. 14. But this only increased the se verity of the punishment; the man was seized with an universal trepidation, and he struck a feeble blow, upon which the duke raised his head from the block, as if to reproach him; he gently laid down his head a second time, and the executioner struck him again and again to no purpose. He at last threw the axe down; but the sheriff compelled him to resume the attempt, and at two more blows the head was severed from the body. 15. Such was the end of James duke of Monmouth, the darling of the English people. He was brave, sincere, and good-natured, open to flattery, and by that seduced into an enterprise which exceeded his capacity. 16. But it were well for the insurgents, and fortunate for the king, if the blood that was now shed had been thought a sufficient expiation for the late offence. The victorious army behaved with the most savage cruelty to the prisoners taken after the battle. Feversham, immediately after the victory, hanged up above twenty prisoners. 17. The military severities of the commanders were stil! inferior to the legal slaughters committed by judge Jefferies. who was sent down to try the delinquents. The natural brutality of this man's temper was inflamed by continual intoxication. He told the prisoners, that if they would save him the trouble of trying them, they might expect some favour, otherwise he would execute the law upon them with the utmost severity. 18. Many poor wretches were thus allured into a confession, and found that it only hastened their destruction. No less than eighty were executed at Dorchester; and, on the whole, at Exeter, Taunton, and Wells, two hundred and fifty-one are computed to have fallen by the hands of the executioner. Questions for Examination. 1. In what manner did James act on succeeding to the throne 2 3. What was the first disturbance in this reign? and who were the principals concerned in it? 4. What success attended Argyle's attempt? 5-10. Relate the particulars of Monmouth's invasion. 11. In what situation was he found? 12. What was his conduct after he was taken? 13, 14. Relate what happened at his execution. 15. What was his character? 16. How were the prisoners treated? 17 What was the conduct of judge Jefferies? 18. How many rebels are said to have been executed? SECTION II. With persecution arm'd, the sacred code Of law he dashes thoughtless to the ground. Valpy. 1 (A.D. 1686.) In ecclesiastical matters, James proceed. ed with still greater injustice. Among those who distinguished themselves against popery was one Dr. Sharpe, a clergyman of London, who declaimed with just severity against those who changed their religion by such arguments as the popish missionaries were able to produce. 2. This being supposed to reflect upon the king, gave great offence at court; and positive orders were given to the bishop of London to suspend Sharpe, till his majesty's pleasure should be further known. The bishop refused to comply; and the king resolved to punish the bishop himself for disobe dience. 3. To effect his design, an ecclesiastical commission was issued out, by which seven commissioners were invested with a full and unlimited authority over the whole church of England. Before this tribunal the bishop was summoned, and not only he, but Sharpe, the preacher, suspended. 4. The next step was to allow the liberty of conscience to all sectaries; and he was taught to believe, that the truth of the catholic religion would then, upon a fair trial, gain the victory. He, therefore, issued a declaration of general indulgence, and asserted that non-conformity to the established religion was no longer penal. 5. To complete his work, he publicly sent the earl of Castlemain ambassador extraordinary to Rome, in order to express his obedience to the pope, and to reconcile his kingdom to the catholic communion. Never was there so much contempt thrown upon an embassy that was so boldly undertaken. The court of Rome expected but little success from measures so blindly conducted. They were sensible that the king was openly striking at those laws and opinions, which it was his business to undermine in silence and security. 6. The jesuits soon after were permitted to erect college' in different parts of the kingdom; they exercised the catho lic worship in the most public manner; and four catholic bishops, consecrated in the king's chapel, were sent through the kingdom to exercise their episcopal functions, under the title of apostolic vicars. |