James Scott was born at Rotterdam, Netherlands on April 9, 1649, the illegitimate son of Charles II and Lucy Walter. He was brought to England after the Restoration and recognized publicly by Charles as his son, being known as James Fitzroy and James Croft.
After serving in the armies of his uncle, the Duke of York, he was made captain-general of the king's forces in 1670. Monmouth was known as the "Protestant Duke" and became the favorite of the many English Protestants who disliked the idea of the Catholic Duke of York being next in line to the crown of the nominally Protestant Charles.
Rumors spread that Monmouth was a legitimate child of Charles and therefore the rightful heir to the crown, but the king swore before the Privy Council that he had never married Lucy Walter and that Monmouth was illegitimate.
As the king's captain-general, Monmouth quelled an uprising of Scottish Covenanters in 1679, but gained tremendous popularity among the Scots and other Nonconformists by granting them clemency after his victory at Bothwell Brigg. The king censured him for this, and sent him to Holland.
When he returned to England, he was royally welcomed by the Nonconformists. Suspected of complicity in the Rye House Plot, an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the king and the Duke of York in 1683, he told the king what he knew of the plan and was pressed into making a "confession. " He was pardoned and again exiled to Holland.
After Charles's death in 1685, Monmouth returned to England, declared himself king, and led a revolt against James II. The short-lived insurrection ended with his capture by the new king, and despite his admissions of guilt and his pleas for mercy he was beheaded on Tower Hill, July 15, 1685, for treason. His followers were severely treated in the Bloody Assizes.
In 1663 he was created Duke of Monmouth and married Anne Scott, Countess of Buccleuch, whose family name he assumed.
