The Bloody Assizes were a series of trials started at Winchester on 25 August 1685 in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which ended the Monmouth Rebellion in England.
The Bloody Assizes were a series of trials started at Winchester on 25 August 1685 in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which ended the Monmouth Rebellion in England.
There were five judges: Sir William Montague (Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer), [1] Sir Robert Wright, [1] Sir Francis Wythens (Justice of the King's Bench), [1] Sir Creswell Levinz (Justice of the Common Pleas) [1] and Sir Henry Pollexfen, led by Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys.
Over 1,000 rebels were in prison awaiting the trials, which started in the Great Hall of Winchester Castle in Winchester on 26 August. [1] The first notable trial was that of an elderly gentlewoman named Dame Alice Lisle. [2] The jury reluctantly found her guilty and, the law recognising no distinction between principals and accessories in treason, she was sentenced to be burned. This was commuted to beheading, with the sentence being carried out in Winchester market-place on 2 September 1685. [1]
From Winchester the court proceeded through the West Country, and conducted a brief hearing in Salisbury, where there were no rebels to be tried for high treason, on 1 September 1685. [3] The court went on to the main centres of rebellion holding assizes at the Antelope Hotel in Dorchester on 5 September 1685, Exeter Guildhall on 14 September 1685 and the Great Hall of Taunton Castle on 17 September 1685, before finishing up at Wells Market and Assize Hall on 23 September 1685. [4] More than 1,400 prisoners were dealt with and although most were sentenced to death, fewer than 300 were hanged or hanged, drawn and quartered. [5] [4] Of more than 500 prisoners brought before the court at Taunton between 17 and 19 September, 144 were hanged and their remains displayed around the county to ensure people understood the fate of those who rebelled against the king. [6]
Some 800–850 men were transported to the West Indies [2] where they were worth more alive than dead as a source of cheap labour [7] (the novel Captain Blood , and the later movies based on it, graphically portray this punishment). Others were imprisoned to await further trial, although many did not live long enough, succumbing to 'Gaol Fever' (typhus), which was rife in the unsanitary conditions common to most English gaols at that time. A woman named Elizabeth Gaunt had the distinction of being the last woman burnt alive in England for political crimes. [8]
Jeffreys returned to London after the Assizes to report to King James, who rewarded him by making him Lord Chancellor (at the age of only 40), 'For the many eminent and faithful services to the Crown'. Jeffreys became known as "the hanging judge". [7]
After the Glorious Revolution, Jeffreys was incarcerated in the Tower of London, where he died in 1689. His death was probably due to his chronic medical history of kidney and bladder stones leading to an acute infection, kidney failure and possibly toxaemia. [7]
Writing as recently as 1929, Sir John C. Fox [9] said:
Even to the present day, the mothers of West Somerset control their unruly offspring by threatening to send for 'Judge Jeffreys'. [10]
George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor. His conduct as a judge was to enforce royal policy, resulting in a historical reputation for severity and bias.
The Battle of Sedgemoor was the last and decisive engagement between the Kingdom of England and rebels led by the Duke of Monmouth during the Monmouth rebellion, fought on 6 July 1685, and took place at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerset, England, resulting in a victory for the English army.
The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to depose James II, who in February 1685 succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ireland. A group of dissident Protestants led by James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, opposed James largely due to his Catholicism.
Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke and 5th Earl of Montgomery,, styled The Honourable Thomas Herbert until 1683, was an English and later British statesman during the reigns of William III and Anne.
Alice, Lady Lisle, commonly known as Alicia Lisle or Dame Alice Lyle, was a landed lady of the English county of Hampshire, who was executed for harbouring fugitives after the defeat of the Monmouth Rebellion at the Battle of Sedgemoor. While she seems to have leaned to Royalism, she combined this with a decided sympathy for religious dissent. She is known to history as Lady Lisle although she has no claim to the title; her husband was a member of the "Other House" created by Oliver Cromwell and "titles" deriving from that fact were often used after the Restoration.
Captain Blood: His Odyssey is an adventure novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1922.
Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall still stands; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester.
John Tutchin was a radical Whig controversialist and gadfly English journalist, whose The Observator and earlier political activism earned him multiple trips before the bar. He was of a Puritan background and held strongly anti-Catholic views.
The Castle Hotel at Taunton is a hotel with two restaurants, Castle Bow Restaurant and BRAZZ, located in the centre of Taunton, Somerset, England. The business is located in a Grade II listed 18th-century reconstruction of the former 12th-century Norman fortress, Taunton Castle.
Taunton Castle is a castle built to defend the town of Taunton, Somerset, England. It has origins in the Anglo Saxon period and was later the site of a priory. The Normans then built a stone structured castle, which belonged to the Bishops of Winchester. The current heavily reconstructed buildings are the inner ward, which now houses the Museum of Somerset and the Somerset Military Museum. The building was designated a grade I listed building in 1952.
Events from the year 1685 in England. This year sees a change of monarch.
Key dates in the history of Somerset
Sir Robert Tresilian was a Cornish lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench between 1381 and 1387. He was born in Cornwall, and held land in Tresillian, near Truro. Tresilian was deeply involved in the struggles between King Richard II and the Lords Appellant, and was eventually executed for his loyalty to the king.
The Shire Hall, Monmouth, Wales, is a prominent building on Agincourt Square in the town centre. It was built in 1724, and was formerly the centre for the Assize Courts and Quarter Sessions for Monmouthshire. The building was also used as a market place. In 1839–40, the court was the location of the trial of the Chartist leader John Frost and others for high treason for their part in the Newport Rising.
Cothelstone Manor in Cothelstone, Somerset, England was built in the mid-16th century, largely demolished by the parliamentary troops in 1646 and rebuilt by E.J. Esdaile in 1855–56.
The assizes, or courts of assize, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction, though most of their work was on the criminal side. The assizes heard the most serious cases, most notably those subject to capital punishment or, later, life imprisonment. Other serious cases were dealt with by the quarter sessions, while the more minor offences were dealt with summarily by justices of the peace in petty sessions.
William Strode II was a wealthy English landowner, Member of Parliament, and aider of the Duke of Monmouth in the Monmouth Rebellion (1685).
The Black Assizes is an epithet given to several outbreaks of "gaol fever" which struck various prisons and court-houses in England in the late 16th century and which caused the deaths of not only many prisoners awaiting trial but also the magistrates in the court buildings holding assizes.
Taunton Shire Hall is a municipal building on Shuttern in Taunton, Somerset. The Shire Hall, which serves as a Crown Court, is a Grade II listed building.
Wells Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place in Wells, Somerset, England. The building, which is the headquarters of Wells City Council, is a Grade II listed building.
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