It was a gentle, warm day on June 11th 1685 when a small flotilla of boats made landfall in the bay at Lyme Regis in the County of Dorset. There were 82 men in the group who went to work immediately by raising a further 300.
The landing party was led by the Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II. He had a vision; to wrest the throne of England from James II. But as events unfurled how he, and his supporters must have wished for a “wise woman”, or a suitable seer to warn them of their folly. But in those days such women were hanged.
At first it all went well with more recruits volunteering, but it was a ragtag army of peasants, artisans and farm workers. They marched north with several skirmishes on the way and eventually, in weather which was getting worse and worse, found themselves in the small town of Bridgwater where they dug in. However, by this time recruits were now missing their families and were quietly drifting home. Monmouth’s navy had been captured so cutting off any retreat, and a simultaneous rebellion in Scotland had fizzled out. Royalist troops had virtually surrounded Bridgwater.
So the Duke was stuck on the Somerset Levels, a rather ghostly, mist engulfed marshlands where, about 700 years earlier, King Alfred had also sought sanctuary from the Vikings. The Duke then made the extraordinary decision to lead his ill-equipped army out of Bridgwater on a night march across the moors. He clearly had no knowledge of all the deep and dangerous drainage ditches which criss-crossed the countryside. These are hard enough to ford in daylight, let alone on a cloudy, dark night. So it was only a matter of time before they were seen by a royalist patrol and the alarm was raised.
It was a disaster for the Duke which was eventually to lead to his execution. His army of farm-workers were no match for the King’s regulars and in the early morning of July 6, 1685 the flatlands of Sedgemoor absorbed the blood and spirits of more than 2000 violent deaths. There was more bloodshed to follow as Judge Jeffries hanged more than 300 survivors, but there was one lucky escapee, a certain Daniel Defoe who would go on to write more than 500 books and pamphlets, including the famous Robinson Crusoe.
Today, phantom cavalry can be seen galloping across the moors, jumping the ditches and then disappearing into the mist which hangs in a melancholy salute to the dead. And spectral voices can be heard calling the opposition to defect, while it is said that on the anniversary of the battle the ghost of Monmouth himself can be seen making his escape, stooped and slinking over the land as he fled the field of battle in dishonour. But the most poignant legend is that of a farmer who was given the chance to escape if he could outrun a horse. With his local knowledge he picked the most sodden, waterlogged area and won the race while the horse got bogged down. But he was shot anyway. His lover, who had to witness this event, then cast herself in her misery into the nearest river and drowned. Her ghost can now be seen gliding along the path of the race, while the heavy breathing of the runner can be heard over hoof beats on the turf. Or it might be just the sighing of the wind over the grasses; local views are mixed.
Finally, those who like the books written by Arthur Conan Doyle should get a copy of Micah Clarke. This gives a wonderful dramatisation of the whole saga. Then go to Lyme Regis and Sedgemoor to see for yourself.
You can also read this article, and many others, at the Western Gazette website. Click here to follow me and be the first to know when I publish my next short story, article or book review.
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If you enjoyed this article you may also like P J Cadavori's sexy supernatural horror novel Catacombs of the Damned.
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