September 28, 1663: Birth of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton

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1st Duke of Grafton, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Barbara Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, Duke of Monmouth, Glorious Revolution of 1688, Henry FitzRoy, Isabella Bennet, James Scott, John Churchill, King Charles II of England, King James II-VII of England, Monmouth Rebellion, Scotland and Ireland, William III of Orange

Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, KG (September 28, 1663 – October 9, 1690) was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland and his mistress Barbara Villiers. A military commander, Henry FitzRoy was appointed colonel of the Grenadier Guards in 1681 and Vice-Admiral of England from 1682 to 1689. He was killed in the storming of Cork during the Williamite–Jacobite War in 1690.

Early life and military career

Born to Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine in 1663, Henry FitzRoy was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England, the second by Barbara Villiers. His mother was the daughter of William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison, and Mary Bayning (1623-1672), heiress to a fortune of £180,000. Viscount Grandison was a colonel of one of King Charles I’s regiments who was killed in action during the Civil War.

William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison, was born in 1614, eldest son of Sir Edward Villiers (1585-1626) and Barbara St. John (ca 1592-1672). His father was the older half-brother of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, favourite of both James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland and Charles I, a relationship from which he greatly benefitted.

On August 1, 1672, at the age of nine, a marriage was arranged for Henry FitzRoy to the five-year-old Isabella Bennet, the only daughter of Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, a Royalist commander, by his wife, Elisabeth of Nassau (1633–1718). Elisabeth was a daughter of Louis of Nassau-Beverweerd and thus a granddaughter of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and a great-granddaughter of Prince Willem I the Silent, Prince of Orange.

In 1675 Charles II created Henry, Duke of Grafton. A wedding ceremony between Henry FitzRoy and Isabella Bennet took place on November 7, 1679. At the time of his marriage, Henry FitzRoy was created Baron Sudbury, Viscount Ipswich, and Earl of Euston. After their wedding the couple lived at Euston Hall. Isabella and her husband had one son, Charles FitzRoy, who succeeded his parents as 2nd Duke of Grafton and 3rd Earl of Arlington.

King Charles II made his son a Knight of the Garter in 1680. He was appointed colonel of the Grenadier Guards in 1681.

FitzRoy was brought up as a sailor and saw military action at the siege of Luxembourg in 1684. In that year, he received a warrant to supersede Sir Robert Holmes as Governor of the Isle of Wight, when the latter was charged with making false musters. However, Holmes was acquitted by court-martial and retained the governorship.

In 1686 Henry FitzRoy killed John Talbot, brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury, in a duel. FitzRoy was appointed Vice-Admiral of the Narrow Seas from 1685 to 1687. At King James II-VII’s coronation, Grafton was Lord High Constable. During the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth he commanded the royal troops in Somerset.

Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, the Duke of Monmouth was Henry Fitzroy’s half-brother, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland with his mistress Lucy Walter.

Monmouth led the unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, an attempt to depose his uncle King James II-VII. After one of his officers declared Monmouth the legitimate king, (alleging his mother was legally married to Charles II) in the town of Taunton in Somerset, Monmouth attempted to capitalise on his Protestantism and his position as the son of Charles II, in opposition to James, who was a Roman Catholic. The rebellion failed, and Monmouth was beheaded for treason on July 15, 1685.

Henry FitzRoy acted with John Churchill, and joined his cousin and his wife’s kinsman, Prince Willem III of Orange to overthrow the King in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, KG, PC (1650 – 1722 O.S.) played a defining role in defeating both the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 that helped secure James on the throne, but he was also a key player in the military conspiracy that led to James being deposed during the Glorious Revolution.

Death

Henry FitzRoy died in Ireland on October 9, 1690 aged 27, of a wound received at the storming of Cork while leading King William III’s forces. His body was returned to England for burial.

On October 14, 1697 his widow married Sir Thomas Hanmer, a young Buckinghamshire baronet, who became Speaker of the House of Commons and an authority on the works of William Shakespeare. The Dowager Duchess of Grafton died in 1723.

Legacy

The Duke of Grafton owned land in what was then countryside near Dublin, Ireland, which later became part of the city. A country lane on this land eventually developed into Grafton Street, one of Dublin’s main streets. Grafton Alley in Cork, close to where he was shot, also bears his name.

The Life of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth (1649-1685)

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1st Duke of Monmouth, Duke of York, English Civil War, Illegitimate, James Scott, King Charles II of England, King James II of England, Lucy Walter, Rebellion, Royal Bastard

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch (April 9, 1649 – July 15, 1685) was a Dutch-born English nobleman. Originally called James Crofts or James Fitzroy, he was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland with mistress Lucy Walter

During the summer of 1648, Charles, Prince of Wales was in exile as the English Civil War was being played out. The Prince of Wales captivated by Lucy Walter, who was at The Hague for a short while about this time. He was only eighteen, and she is often spoken of as his first mistress, but they may have had a tryst as early as 1646.

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch

Charles moved to The Hague during 1648, during the Second English Civil War, where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange, were providing more support to his father Charles I‘s cause than his French relations.

James was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, then spent his early years in Schiedam.

There is some question to whether or not Prince Charles was the father of James Scott. Research by Hugh Noel Williams suggests that Charles had not arrived at The Hague until the middle of September 1648 – seven months before the child’s birth, but that he had met Lucy in July. Some voices later whispered that in the summer of 1648 Lucy had been the mistress of Colonel Robert Sidney, a younger son of the Earl of Leicester. When the child grew to manhood, those loyal to the Duke of York (whom the exclusionists wished to replace as heir to the throne) publicly put about the story that they saw a semblance to Sidney.

Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Father of The Duke of Monmouth.

These voices may have been encouraged by the Duke of York himself, brother of King Charles II, who was afraid of any of the acknowledged fourteen royal bastards’ possible claims to the throne, Charles having no legitimate surviving children. In 2012, a DNA test of Monmouth’s patrilineal descendant the 10th Duke of Buccleuch showed that he shared the same Y chromosome as a distant Stuart cousin; this is evidence that Charles II was indeed Monmouth’s father.

Lucy Walter, mistress of King Charles II and Mother of the Duke of Monmouth.

As an illegitimate son, Monmouth was ineligible to succeed to the English or Scottish thrones, unless he could prove rumours that his parents had married secretly. Monmouth came to maintain that his parents were married and that he possessed evidence of their marriage, but he never produced it. Charles II, as King, later testified in writing to his Council that he had never been married to anyone except his queen, Catherine of Braganza.

On February 14, 1663, at the age of 13, shortly after having been brought to England, James was created Duke of Monmouth, with the subsidiary titles of Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tynedale, all three in the Peerage of England, and on 28 March 1663 he was appointed a Knight of the Garter.

On April 20, 1663, just days after his 14th birthday, he was married to the heiress Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch. James took his wife’s surname upon marriage. The day after his marriage, the couple were made Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, Earl and Countess of Dalkeith, and Lord and Lady Scott of Whitchester and Eskdale in the Peerage of Scotland. Monmouth, as he became known, was popular, particularly for his Protestantism, whereas the official heir presumptive to the throne, the King’s brother James, Duke of York, had openly converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1665, at the age of 16, Monmouth served in the English fleet under his uncle, Prince James, the Duke of York in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In June 1666, he returned to England to become captain of a troop of cavalry. On September 16, 1668 he was made colonel of the His Majesty’s Own Troop of Horse Guards. He acquired Moor Park in Hertfordshire in April 1670.

James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, commanding the English against the Dutch in 1672, by Jan Wyck

In June of this 1679. It was at about this time that he was first seriously proposed as the rightful heir to the Crown, despite the obvious problem of his illegitimacy, and his father’s refusal to acknowledge that he had married Lucy Walter. Monmouth may have come to sincerely believe that his parents had been married.

Rebellion

As his popularity with the masses increased, Monmouth was obliged to go into exile in the Dutch United Provinces in September 1679. Following the discovery of the so-called Rye House Plot in 1683, which aimed to assassinate both Charles II and his brother James, Monmouth, who had been encouraged by his supporters to assert his right to the throne, was identified as a conspirator. On King Charles II’s death in February 1685, Monmouth led the Monmouth Rebellion, landing with three ships at Lyme Regis in Dorset in early June 1685, in an attempt to take the throne from his uncle, James II-VII.

He published a “Declaration for the defence and vindication of the protestant religion and of the laws, rights and privileges of England from the invasion made upon them, and for delivering the Kingdom from the usurpation and tyranny of us by the name of James, Duke of York”: King James II and VII responded to this by issuing an order for the publishers and distributors of the paper to be arrested.

Coat of Arms of the 1st Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch: The royal arms of King Charles II differenced with a baton sinister argent overall an inescutcheon of pretence of Scott (Or, on a bend azure a mullet of six points between two crescents of the field).

Monmouth declared himself as the rightful King at various places along the route including Axminster, Chard, Ilminster and Taunton. The two armies met at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6 July 1685, the last clear-cut pitched battle on open ground between two military forces fought on English soil: Monmouth’s makeshift force could not compete with the regular army, and was soundly defeated.

Capture

Following the battle a reward of £5,000 was offered for his capture. On 8 July 1685, Monmouth was captured and arrested near Ringwood in Hampshire,

Following Monmouth’s capture, Parliament passed an Act of Attainder, 1 Ja. II c. 2:

Treason. ¶Whereas James Duke of Monmouth has in an hostile Manner Invaded this Kingdome and is now in open Rebellion Levying Warr against the King contrary to the Duty of his Allegiance, Bee it enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majestie by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this Parlyament assembled and by the Authoritie of the same, That the said James Duke of Monmouth Stand and be Convicted and Attainted of High-Treason and that he suffer Paines of Death and Incurr all Forfeitures as a Traitor Convicted and Attainted of High Treason.

The King took the unusual step of allowing his nephew an audience, despite having no intention of extending a pardon to him, thus breaking with a longstanding tradition that the King would give an audience only when he intended to show clemency. The prisoner unsuccessfully implored his mercy, and even offered to convert to Catholicism, but to no avail. The King, disgusted by his abject behaviour, coldly told him to prepare to die, and later remarked that Monmouth “did not behave as well as I expected”. Numerous pleas for mercy were addressed to the King, but he ignored them all, even that of his sister-in-law, the Dowager Queen Catherine.

James II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Uncle of The Duke of Monmouth.

Monmouth was beheaded by Jack Ketch on July 15, 1685, on Tower Hill. Shortly beforehand, Bishops Turner of Ely and Ken of Bath and Wells visited the Duke to prepare him for eternity, but withheld the Eucharist, for the condemned man refused to acknowledge that either his rebellion or his relationship with Lady Wentworth had been sinful.

It is said that before laying his head on the block, Monmouth specifically bade Ketch finish him at one blow, saying he had mauled others before. Disconcerted, Ketch did indeed inflict multiple blows with his axe, the prisoner rising up reproachfully the while – a ghastly sight that shocked the witnesses, drawing forth execrations and groans. Some say a knife was at last employed to sever the head from the twitching body. Sources vary; some claim eight blows, the official Tower of London fact sheet says it took five blows, while Charles Spencer, in his book Blenheim, puts it at seven.

James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch

Monmouth was buried in the Church of St Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London. His Dukedom was forfeited, but his subsidiary titles, Earl of Doncaster and Baron Scott of Tindale, were restored by King George II on March 23, 1743 to his grandson Francis Scott, 2nd Duke of Buccleuch (1695–1751).

Legal Succession: The House of Stuart, Part II

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Anglican, Catherine of Braganza, Exclusion Bill, General Monck, James Scott, Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, The 1st Duke of Monmouth, Titus Oates

The Commonweath period ended after the death of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector in 1658 and the brief stint of his son, Richard Cromwell, in the same position which lasted until May 12, 1659. There followed a period of virtual anrachy as the great ship of state was left without a captain. In steps George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, General of the Army in Scotland. Fearing the country would fall further into disarray he marched his army south into London and forced the Rump Parliament to reinstate the Long Parliament which had the monarchist members ejected during Pride’s Purge toward the end of the Civil War. This new pro-Monarchist Parliament restored Charles II to his throne in May of 1660.

Charles II was now the rightful King of England and Scotland having been legally called to the throne by Parliamanet. At the time of his restoration Charles was 30 years old, unmarried and his brothers, Prince James, Duke of York and Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester were the male hiers to the throne. Prince Henry did not live long with his brother as king, he died, unmarried, from smallpox in September of 1660 at the age of 20. This left his bother, the Duke of York, as hier to the throne. One of the responsibilities of kingship is to provide for the succession. Although Charles had a string of mistresses and many natural children he needed to find a wife. His choice of bride was the Catholic Princess, Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of King João IV of Portugal and Luisa de Guzmán. The queen was not popular in England due to her belonging to the Catholic faith. It is difficult to say whether this was a love match or not. Chalres always dealt with his wife with kindness and consideration but it did not stop him from bringing a consistent flow of mistresses to his bed.

One of the sad aspects of the marriage between Charles and Catherine is that the union did not produce any legitimate hiers. Catherine became pregnant and miscarried three times during the course of her marriage. By the late 1670s many people began to fear that the Duke of York would succeed his brother. The problem with this is that at this time James, Duke of York had openly converted to Catholicism and as a Protestant Nation there were many that did not want another Catholic King sitting on the throne. One of the positive apsect of the possible accession of James as King of England and the Scots was the fact that he had two Protestant duaghters who could succeed him, Princesses Mary and Anne. In 1677 Princess Mary of York married the Protestant Prince Willem III of Orange who was also her first cousin, being the son of Princess Mary, The Princess Royal, sister to both Charles II and the Duke of York. At the time of their marriage Willem was fourth in line to the English and Scottish thrones.

There was such anti-Catholic feeling in the air at this time when a rumor was started by a defrocked Anglican clergyman, Titus Oates, that a “Popish Plot” to assassinate Charles II and to put the Duke of York on the throne, it eventually lead to a bill being propposed in Parilament to exclude the Duke of York from the Succession. There were some members of Parliament that wanted to replace the Duke of York with James Scott, The 1st Duke of Monmouth and eldest illigitimate son of Charles II and his mistress Lucy Walter. In 1679, with the Exclusion Bill one the verge of passing into law, Charles had Parliament dissolved four times that year. During the 1680s the popularity of the Exclusion Bill fadded and when Charles II died he was legally and lawfully succeeded by his brother who became James II-VII, King of England and King of Scots.

There was a brief attempt to usurp the the throne from James when his nephew, James Scott, The 1st Duke of Monmouth tried to depose his uncle. Feeling that his Protestantism would outweigh his illegitimacy the Mounmouth Rebellion tried to depose King James II-VII. The rebellion failed and despite please for mercy from the Duke of Monmouth to his uncle, the Duke was executed July 1685, on Tower Hill. Reports range from anywhere from 5-8 blows to sever his head.