Battle of Sedgemoor - Capture and Aftermath

Capture and Aftermath

Monmouth escaped the battlefield with Grey and headed for the southern coast, disguised as peasants. They were captured near Ringwood, Hampshire. He was taken to the Tower of London in London where he was, after several blows of the axe, finally beheaded.

A letter written by the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury in 1787 provides more detail as to Monmouth's capture:

The tradition of the neighbourhood is this: viz. That after the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth at Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater, he rode, accompanied by Lord Grey, to Woodyates, where they quitted their horses; and the Duke having changed clothes with a peasant, endeavoured to make his way across the country to Christchurch. Being closely pursued, he made for the Island, and concealed himself in a ditch which was overgrown with fern and underwood. When his pursuers came up, an old woman gave information of his being in the Island, and of her having seen him filling his pocket with peas. The Island was immediately surrounded by soldiers, who passed the night there, and threatened to fire the neighbouring cotts. As they were going away, one of them espied the skirt of the Duke's coat, and seized him. The soldier no sooner knew him, than he burst into tears, and reproached himself for the unhappy discovery. The Duke when taken was quite exhausted with fatigue and hunger, having had no food since the battle but the peas which he had gathered in the field. The ash tree is still standing under which the Duke was apprehended, and is marked with the initials of many of his friends who afterwards visited the spot.

The family of the woman who betrayed him were ever after holden in the greatest detestation, and are said to have fallen into decay, and to have never thriven afterwards. The house where she lived, which overlooked the spot, has since fallen down. It was with the greatest difficulty that any one could be made to inhabit it.

After the battle about 500 of Monmouth's troops were captured and imprisoned in St Mary’s Parish Church in Westonzoyland, while others were hunted and shot in the ditches where they were hiding. More were hung from gibbets erected along the roadside. The royalist troops were rewarded with Feversham being made a Knight of the Garter, Churchill promoted to Major-General and Henry Shires of the artillery receiving a Knighthood. Other soldiers, particularly those that had been wounded, received allowances ranging from £5-£80. Some of the wounded were amongst the first to be treated at the newly opened Royal Hospital Chelsea.

The king sent Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys to round up the Duke's supporters throughout the south west and try them in the Bloody Assizes at Taunton Castle and elsewhere. About 1,300 people were found guilty, many being transported abroad, while some were executed by drawing and quartering. Daniel Defoe, who would later write the novel Robinson Crusoe, had taken part in the uprising and battle. He was heavily fined by Jeffreys, losing much of his land and wealth.

James II was overthrown in a coup d'état three years later, in the Glorious Revolution.

The battle of Sedgemoor would be the last clear-cut pitched battle on open ground between two military forces fought on English soil. While there were later armed confrontations it has been argued that the Battle of Preston (1715) was more in the nature of a siege and the Clifton Moor Skirmish (1745) was a skirmish rather than a battle, while the Battle of Bossenden Wood (1838) did not involve troops on both sides.