Monmouth, James Scott, duke

Monmouth, James Scott, duke of

 orig. James Fitzroy or James Crofts

Duke of Monmouth, oil painting after W. Wissing, c. 1683; in the National Portrait Gallery, …

(credit: Courtesy of The National Portrait Gallery, London)

(born April 9, 1649, Rotterdam, Neth.—died July 15, 1685, London, Eng.) British military leader. The illegitimate son of Charles II of England, he lived in Paris with his mother. In 1662 he was brought to England as a favourite of the king, who created him duke of Monmouth. He married the Scottish heiress Anne Scott, duchess of Buccleuch, and took her surname. A member of the king's guard from 1668, he commanded troops in the Anglo-Dutch War and against Scottish rebels in 1679. He was championed for the royal succession by the anti-Catholic Whigs, but after the unsuccessful Rye House Plot he took refuge in the Netherlands (1684). Returning after Charles's death to challenge James II, he and his army of peasants were defeated, and he was captured and beheaded.