The Eldest Illegitimate Son of Charles II

choi

Jeffrey Collins, The Accidental Tribune; Charles II's bastard son rose up as a Protestant hero and anticipated the Glorious Revolution. Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2016
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-accidental-tribune-1469821956
(book review on

Note:
(a) "King Charles II * * * The 'merry monarch,' who ruled from 1660 to 1685, sired at least 14 children with women other than his queen. These, to the scandal of his subjects and the amusement of his courtiers, he favored with money, estates and noble titles. The grandest bastard of them all was the first fruit of the king's vice, James, Duke of Monmouth."
(i) Charles II of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_England
("Charles was popularly known as the Merry Monarch, in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans. Charles's wife, Catherine of Braganza, bore no live children")
(ii) scandal (n):
(A) "the outrage or anger caused by a scandalous action or event <divorce was cause for scandal on the island>"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... can_english/scandal
(B) "indignation, chagrin, or bewilderment brought about by a flagrant violation of morality, propriety, or religious opinion"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scandal
(iii) James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Scott,_1st_Duke_of_Monmouth
(1649 – 1685; the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II)
(iv) Monmouth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouth
(county town in Monmouthshire, Wales.  It is situated where the River Monnow [a tributary of R Wye] meets the River Wye"/ section 1 Etymology)

choi

(b) "At Monmouth's birth in the spring of 1649, England was recovering from civil war. His grandfather, Charles I, had been beheaded months earlier. His father, the heir apparent, wandered Europe as an exile. His mother, Lucy Walter, was a beautiful and notorious English courtesan. The entanglement of Charles and Lucy was a brief and purely carnal affair. Charles, however, grew fond of his firstborn and eventually kidnapped James from his mother. In 1658, sadly but conveniently, Lucy Walter died. Two years later, Charles II regained the English throne."
(i) Charles I of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England
(1600 – 1649; reign 1625-1649)
(ii) English Civil War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War
(1642–1651)

Quote: "The overall outcome of the war was threefold: the trial and execution of Charles I; the exile of his son, Charles II; and the replacement of English monarchy with, at first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–53) and then the Protectorate (1653–59) under Oliver Cromwell's personal rule [Oliver died in 1658, whose son and successor as Lord Protector, Richard, lost control a year later]. * * * Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent, although the idea of parliament as the ruling power of England was legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution in 1688

(iii) Lucy Walter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Walter
(c 1630 – 1658; born into a family of middling gentry in Wales; died in Paris of venereal disease and was buried there)

(c) "the queen's [queen was Charles II's wife]  failure to produce a legitimate heir. This positioned the king's brother, James, Duke of York, as the royal successor. But York was a Roman Catholic * * * The final years Charles II's reign were roiled by parliamentary efforts to exclude York from the throne, perhaps in favor of one of his [Charles II's] Protestant daughters. * * * [James II succeeded his brother in 1685. That year, Monmouth] declared himself king. Three years later [1688], James II's son-in-law William of Orange—stadtholder of the Netherlands [succeeded in Glorious Revolution] * * * But Monmouth's anticipation of the Glorious Revolution was an abject failure. The royal armies routed Monmouth at the Battle of Sedgemoor [on July 6, 1685] * * * On July 15, 1685, in a macabre scene spellbindingly recounted by Ms Keay, James, Duke of Monmouth was publicly beheaded. He was 36."

stadtholder
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtholder

choi

(b) "At Monmouth's birth in the spring of 1649, England was recovering from civil war. His grandfather, Charles I, had been beheaded months earlier. His father, the heir apparent, wandered Europe as an exile. His mother, Lucy Walter, was a beautiful and notorious English courtesan. The entanglement of Charles and Lucy was a brief and purely carnal affair. Charles, however, grew fond of his firstborn and eventually kidnapped James from his mother. In 1658, sadly but conveniently, Lucy Walter died. Two years later, Charles II regained the English throne."
(i) Charles I of England
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England
(1600 – 1649; reign 1625-1649)
(ii) English Civil War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War
(1642–1651)

Quote: "The overall outcome of the war was threefold: the trial and execution of Charles I; the exile of his son, Charles II; and the replacement of English monarchy with, at first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–53) and then the Protectorate (1653–59) under Oliver Cromwell's personal rule [Oliver died in 1658, whose son and successor as Lord Protector, Richard, lost control a year later]. * * * Constitutionally, the wars established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent, although the idea of parliament as the ruling power of England was legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution in 1688

(iii) Lucy Walter
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Walter
(c 1630 – 1658; born into a family of middling gentry in Wales; died in Paris of venereal disease and was buried there)

(c) "the queen's [queen was Charles II's wife]  failure to produce a legitimate heir. This positioned the king's brother, James, Duke of York, as the royal successor. But York was a Roman Catholic * * * The final years Charles II's reign were roiled by parliamentary efforts to exclude York from the throne, perhaps in favor of one of his [Charles II's] Protestant daughters. * * * [James II succeeded his brother in 1685. That year, Monmouth] declared himself king. Three years later [1688], James II's son-in-law William of Orange—stadtholder of the Netherlands [succeeded in Glorious Revolution] * * * But Monmouth's anticipation of the Glorious Revolution was an abject failure. The royal armies routed Monmouth at the Battle of Sedgemoor [on July 6, 1685] * * * On July 15, 1685, in a macabre scene spellbindingly recounted by Ms Keay, James, Duke of Monmouth was publicly beheaded. He was 36."

stadtholder
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtholder
(section 1 Etymology)