The Last Royal Rebel
The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth
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- R$ 117,90
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- R$ 117,90
Publisher Description
The absorbing tale of how this legendary rogue became the champion of parliamentary monarchy and changed the course of English history.
At first light on July 6, 1685, the last battle ever fought on English soil was almost over. On one side of the watery pasture at Sedgemoor was the dashing thirty-six-year-old Duke of Monmouth, the charismatic son of Charles II, adored by the people. A reformer, a romantic, and a Protestant, he was fighting the army he had once commanded, in opposition to his uncle, King James II. Yet even before he launched his attack, Monmouth knew he would die.
Born in the backstreets of Rotterdam in the year his grandfather Charles I was executed, Monmouth was the child of a turbulent age. His mother, the first of Charles II's famous liaisons, played courtesan to the band of raw and restless young royalists forced abroad by the changing political current. Conceived during a revolution and born into a republic, Monmouth, by the time he was twelve, was the sensation of the most licentious and libertine court in Europe. Adored by the king and drenched in honors, he became the greatest rake and reprobate of the age.
On his path to becoming "the last royal rebel," Monmouth consorted with a spectacular list of contemporaries: Louis XIV was his mentor, William of Orange his confidant, Nell Gwyn his friend, the future Duke of Marlborough his pupil, D'Artagnan his lieutenant, John Dryden his censor, and John Locke his comrade. Anna Keay expertly chronicles Monmouth's life and offers splendid insight into this crucial and dramatic period in English history.
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Keay (The Magnificent Monarch) seeks to rehabilitate the image of James, Duke of Monmouth (1649 1685), the oldest illegitimate child of the "Merry Monarch," Charles II of England. She emphasizes Monmouth's transformation from an unstable royal mistress's hungry child into a "selfish wastrel" and then "principled politician." London's National Portrait Gallery describes Monmouth as "charming, ambitious, and unprincipled," adding to the duke's popular depiction as a womanizing opportunist on a quest to supplant his father's brother as heir to the throne. While Monmouth initially dives into frivolity, later military experience gave him a greater empathy and a hero's reputation. Keay understates the influence of Lucy Walters (Charles II's mistress and Monmouth's mother) and neglects the Duchess of Portsmouth's role in shocking treaty negotiations with the French, but she beautifully explores the relationships Monmouth had with his father; the Duke of York (later James II); and his cousin and friend William of Orange. Monmouth earned the dedication of his soldiers and commoners while laying a road map to the throne for William, who succeeded James II only three years later. Keay's portrayal softens Monmouth's own quest for the throne, though she convincingly describes him as a complex and sympathetic figure who was doomed by his family's fracturing due to England's religious struggles.