James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth

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James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
Coat of arms of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
The Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch (around 1683)

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth , Duke of Buccleuch (born April 9, 1649 in Rotterdam , † July 15, 1685 in London ) was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, English pretender to the throne , general and leader of the Monmouth Rebellion .

Life

James was born from a union of the English heir to the throne Karl and the Scottish noblewoman Lucy Walter . During this time, Karl was in exile in The Hague because of the English Civil War . He was born in Rotterdam and grew up in the care of his mother for nine years. During this time he received neither instruction nor education.

In the summer of 1656, Lucy Walter traveled back to England from The Hague with her children James and Mary. The family were immediately arrested by Oliver Cromwell's envoys upon arrival and taken to prison. When she was arrested, Lucy Walter was officially referred to as "the wife and mistress of Charles Stuart" for the first time, which was later to fuel the rumor of a secret wedding between Charles II and Lucy.

Lucy Walter managed to be released from prison with her children and traveled back to The Hague. Theobald Taaffe, 2nd Viscount Taaffe , an intermediary between Lucy and Charles II, guaranteed her regular pension payments, mainly to look after their son James.

James was illiterate at nine, did not know how to behave in normal company, and was considered feral. Furthermore, it did not serve his future to continue to live with his mother, whose reputation had meanwhile been devastated and whose house in Brussels served unofficially as a brothel. Lucy placed James in his father's care. Charles II named a tutor to teach and educate James from 1658. He never saw his mother again.

After Cromwell's death, the English parliament granted James the king's dignity as Charles II in May 1660. In 1662 James came to England to be recognized by the king as his son. On February 14, 1663 he was given the hereditary English titles Duke of Monmouth , Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tindale . Charles II never made James his heir to the throne and also denied having been married to James' mother throughout his life. The rumors of a marriage never stopped, even though no marriage certificate was found. On April 20, 1663 he married Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch , and received the Scottish titles Duke of Buccleuch , Earl of Dalkeith and Lord Scott of Whitchester and Eskdaill by his father on the same day . At the same time, the same titles suo iure were also bestowed on his wife. His father also owed his rapid military career. In 1668 he was made captain and in 1674 Commander in Chief of the British Army . He was also said to have had an affair with his father's long-time mistress, Barbara Villiers .

After the death of his father, he claimed the throne in place of his uncle, Jacob II . This triggered the Monmouth Rebellion . His troops were but bloody beaten on July 6, 1685 near the village of Sedgemoor .

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, was caught fleeing the battlefield and finally executed on July 15, 1685 on Tower Hill , London by Jack Ketch . Eighty of his followers were executed in Dorchester in 1685 (in the so-called " Bloody Assizes " under Judge George Jeffreys in Maumbury Rings ).

Because of his high treason, his nobility titles were forfeited, but not those of his wife. His subordinate English titles Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tynedale were also restored in 1743 for his grandson Francis Scott , who had inherited his wife in 1732 as the 2nd Duke of Buccleuch. His male descendants, the Dukes of Buccleuch , are now the greatest landowners in the United Kingdom.

progeny

From his marriage in 1663 to Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch (1651–1732), he had five children:

From the relationship with Eleanor, daughter of Sir Robert Needham, he had three illegitimate children:

Literary processing and fiction

  • Theodor Fontane : Song of James Monmouth. In: Walter Keitel (Ed.): Ballads, Songs, Sprüche. Casual poems. Early poems. Trials and fragments. 3. Edition. Hanser, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-446-11456-4 , ( Complete Works. Department 1, Volume 6), p. 99.
  • One hypothesis is that the man in the iron mask was the Duke of Monmouth. On the assumption that Jacob II did not have his own nephew, who rebelled against him, executed in 1685, but replaced him with another. This hypothesis seems to arise from an effort to present an Englishman as a candidate.
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle : The Adventures of Micah Clarke. Historical novel. Original title: Micah Clarke (1889). Translation from English by Robert Koenig. Ed. by Olaf Spittel. Verlag 28 Eichen, Barnstorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-940597-08-3

Web links

predecessor Office successor
- Commander in Chief of the British Army
1674–1679
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
New title created Duke of Monmouth
Duke of Buccleuch
1663–1685
Title forfeited
New title created Earl of Doncaster
1663-1685
Title forfeited
(from 1743: Francis Scott )