Battle of Sedgemoor (Cheryl Morgan)

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

Bob Shaftoe gives Eliza a concise account of the end of the Monmouth Rebellion in Quicksilver. However, being a Londoner, Shaftoe is somewhat ignorant of West Country geography and skims a lot of the detail.

After being proclaimed king in Taunton, Monmouth marched north towards Bristol, but was forced back by Royalist forces. Feversham's army finally caught up with him at the town of Bridgwater. Realizing that things were desperate, Monmouth gambled on a surprise night attack, but his approach was spotted by Royalist cavalry and the alarm was raised. From then on Monmouth's largely peasant army stood no chance. As Shaftoe reports, Monmouth was eventually discovered hiding in a ditch, although he had got as far away as Hampshire before he was caught.

Judge Jeffreys was placed in charge of the trial of the rebel troops, a task which he attended to with great enthusiasm and cruelty.

Further information about the Monmouth Rebellion can be found at: http://www.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ASH/Monmouthreb.htm. As Sedgemoor was one of the last battles on English soil it is a famous event and re-enactments of the battle are occasionally staged (there was one in 2003).

The Battle of Sedgemoor, and Judge Jeffreys, also figure in the classic nautical novel Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, and the swashbuckling Errol Flynn film of the same name.

Entirely unconnected to this, Bridgwater and the surrounding area seems to have more than its expected share of science fiction writers. John Brunner, Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne all lived there for part of their lives. Arthur C. Clarke was born in nearby Minehead.

Not to mention Brian Aldiss who attended West Buckland School (Near Barnstaple), in the same area.