Monmouth, James, Duke of, reputed natural son of king Charles II of England, deserves a place here for the part he had in the agitation provoked by the Rom- ish Titus Gates plot, and for his relation to the Scotch Covenanters. He was born at Rotterdam in 1649, and was brought to England by his mother, Lucy Walters, in 1656, during the Commonwealth. They were both imprisoned for a time, but finally James was intrusted to the care of a nobleman, and on the Restoration was handsomely provided for by the court. He had scarcely completed his sixteenth year when he was married to a woman selected for him at court, and was tlien created duke of Monmouth. About 1670 he was put forward by lord Shaftesbury as the crown rival of the duke of York (later James 11, q. v.), and during the revelations of the Titus Gates plot (1678), when the feeling against Romanists and all who favored them ran high, public opinion was so decidedlj' in his favor, and so indignant against the duke of York, that the latter was compelled to quit the kingdom ; and a bill was brought forward b}' Parliament for excluding the duke of York from the succession; but Charles suddenly dissolved it, and a document was at the same time issued by the king, sol- emnly declaring that he had never been married to Lucy Walters. Monmouth himself was sent into Scot- land in 1679 to quell the rebellion. He defeated the Covenanters at Both well Bridge; but his humanity to the fleeing and wounded was so conspicuous, and his recommendations to pardon the prisoners were so ur- gent, as to bring upon him the violent censures of the king and of Lauderdale. He thus became the idol of the English Nonconformists. The return of the duke of York and the exile of Monmouth having followed, the latter went to Holland, and aUied himself with the lead- ers of the Nonconformist party, exiled like himself; and when he was allowed to return to London, he was re- ceived with such demonstrations of joy that Monmouth felt that he was the people's choice. In 1680 he made a semi-roj'al progress through the west of England, ■with the design, probably, of courting the Nonconfor- mists, who were more numerous there than in any other part .of the country, except London and Essex. In 1682 he traversed some of the northern counties. The king and his brother were alarmed; and Monmouth was arrested at Staiford, and bound over to keep the peace. He meanly confessed his participation in the Rye-House plot, accusing himself and others of a design to seize the king's person, and subvert his government. The king pardoned him, on his solemn promise to be a loyal subject to the duke of York, in case the latter should survive the king. In 1684 Monmouth fled to Antwerp, and remained abroad until the death of the king, when he embarked for England, landed (June 11, 1685) at Lyme-Regis, and issued a manifesto declaring James to be a murderer and usurper, charging him with introducing popery and arbitrary power, and asserting his own legitimacy and right by blood to be king of England. He was received with great acclamations at Taunton, where he was proclaimed as king. At Frome he heard the news of the defeat of Argyle, who, at the head of the Scottish exiles, had attempted to raise an insurrection in Scotland. Money and men were now abundant; but arms were lacking, and thousands went home for want of them. (3n July 5 he was per- suaded, with only 2500 foot and 600 horse, to attack the king's forces, which, imder the command of the earl of Feversham, were encamped at Sedgemoor, near Bridge- water. Monmouth lost ground, and, having himself set a cowardly example of flight, his troops were slaughtered like sheep. About 300 of his followers fell in the battle ; but 1000 were massacred in the pursuit. Monmouth was found concealed in a ditch, and was brought to London. He made the most humiliating
submissions, and obtained a personal interview with James. "He clung," says MacaiUay, "in agonies of supplication round the knees of the stern uncle he had wronged, and tasted a bitterness worse than that of death, the bitterness of knowing that he had humbled himself in vain." Even his prayer for " one day more," that he might "go out of the world as a Christian ought," was brutally refused. On July 15 he was brought to the scaffold, and beheaded on Tower Hill; the executioner performing his office so unskilfully that five blows were struck before the head was severed. See Robert, Life of Duke of Monmouth (18-44); the .histories of Macaulay, Hume, and Lingard; Stoughton, Eccles. Hist, since the Restoration ; Chambers, Cyclop, s. v. ; and the article Jajies II in this Cyclopaedia.
Monnard, Charles, a noted Swiss literary char- acter, deserves our attention specially on account of his humanitarian struggles in Switzerland. He was born at Berne in 1790, and was educated first at the academy in Lausanne, and then at Paris, where he enjoyed the friendship of the truly great, though himself a youth. In 1817 he returned to Lausanne, to become professor of French literature, and quickly rose to distinction for his great eruciition, and the enthusiasm with which he ap- proached his subject. He had taken orders, expecting to enter the service of the Church, but, turned aside by this appointment, he now devoted his leisure hours to the study of ecclesiastical and civil law. That Mon- nard largely profited by the knowledge thus acquired was manifest shortly after, when the obnoxious law- passed, May 30, 1824, depriving men of the free exer- cise of the dictates of their conscience, intended, of course, mainly to stay the inroads which new Protestant doctrines were making in Switzerland, particularly those of the jMomiers (q. v.). Monnard came forward as a de- fender of religious liberty, and declared the law micon- stitutional. He enjoyed at this time the intimate as- sociation of the learned Swiss divine, Alexandre Ro- dolphe Yinet (q. v.), and brought out for this friend the treatises De la liberte des cultes (1826), and Observations sur les sectaires (1829). This action resulted in Mon- nard's suspension from his professorship and removal to Geneva, where, however, he soon found as warm friends as he had left at Lausanne, both among the learned and those seeking knowledge. Political changes finally permitted his return to Canton Yaud, and he was pub- licly honored, and called to fill several civic offices. After the revolution of 1845, Monnard retired altogether from political life. It was supposed by his friends that he would now enter the Church ; but he, having found that much ill-feeling still existed against him among the clergy for the position he had taken in behalf of the IMomiers, finally resolved to quit Switzerland, and ac- cepted a chair in the University of Bonn, which he held until his death, Jan. 12, 1865. See Journal de Ge- neve, Jan. 13, 1865; Augshurger Allgemeine Zeitung, Feb. 1865. (J.H.W.)