The English exiles in Holland induced the Duke of Monmouth, a natural son of Charles II., to attempt an invasion of England, and on June 11, 1685, he landed with about 80 men at Lyme, where he knelt on the shore, thanked God for having preserved the friends of liberty and pure religion from the perils of the sea, and implored the divine blessing on what was yet to be done by land.  The little town was soon in an uproar with men running to and fro, and shouting “A Monmouth! a Monmouth! the Protestant religion!” An insurrection was inaugurated and recruits came in rapidly.  But Parliament was loyal, and the Commons ordered a bill of attainder against Monmouth for high treason.  The rebel army was defeated in a fight at Sedgmore, and Monmouth in his misery complained bitterly of the evil counsellors who had induced him to quit his happy retreat in Brabant.  Fleeing from the field of battle the unfortunate duke was found hidden in a ditch, was taken to London, lodged in the Tower, and beheaded, with the declaration on his lips, “I die a Protestant of the Church of England.”

After the execution of Monmouth the counties that had risen against the Government endured all the cruelties that a ferocious soldiery let loose on them could inflict.  The number of victims butchered cannot now be ascertained, the vengeance being left to the dissolute Colonel Percy Kirke.  But, a still more cruel massacre was schemed.  Early in September Judge Jeffreys set out on that circuit of which the memory will last as long as our race or language.  Opening his commission at Winchester, he ordered Alice Lisle to be burnt alive simply because she had given a meal and a hiding place to wretched fugitives entreating her protection.  The clergy of Winchester remonstrated with the brutal judge, but the utmost that could be obtained was that the sentence should be commuted from burning to beheading.

The Brutal Judge

Then began the judicial massacre known as the Bloody Assizes.  Within a few weeks Jeffreys boasted that he had hanged more traitors than all his predecessors together since the Conquest.  Nearly a thousand prisoners were also transported into slavery in the West Indian islands.  No English sovereign has ever given stronger proofs of a cruel nature than James II.  At his court Jeffreys, when he had done his work, leaving carnage, mourning, and terror behind him, was cordially welcomed, for he was a judge after his master’s own heart.  James had watched the circuit with interest and delight.  At a later period, when all men of all parties spoke with horror of the Bloody Assizes, the wicked judge and the wicked king attempted to vindicate themselves by throwing the blame on each other.