Exclusive interview with author Anna Keay and a review of her book about the eldest illegitimate son of King Charles II
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera
“The current Duke of Buccleuch, Monmouth’s direct descendant, was showing me what remained of his ancestor’s possessions,” says The Last Royal Rebel author Anna Keay. “After seeing numerous fascinating original paintings and other material, he took me to his strong room. He showed me, in an old velvet box, a breathtaking thing. Here was Monmouth’s gorgeous diamond-studded Great George, part of the insignia of the ancient order of the Garter. These were the jeweled objects he prized most, given to him by his father when he was just 13 and taken by him into exile twenty years later. They were then the objects he pawned to a Rotterdam merchant to raise the money to equip his three ships for his invasion, using the funds to buy canons and breastplates, gunpowder and a printing press.”
Keay takes a rare look at the death of King Charles II, the Restoration of the monarchy and role his son James Monmouth played in the politics of seventeenth century England. Keay’s choice of words evokes the time, the triumphs and disappointments. The king, Charles I, has been killed. Cromwell has taken over England. How charming and dissolute both Charles II and James were. For English history lovers, you’ll learn quite a bit about this royal pair.
King Charles II had many illegitimate children. James lived with his mother Lucy Walters, an English girl who was brought to the Netherlands by her mother, who later leaves, stranding Lucy who has to make her own way by whatever means she can. Lucy uses James as a pawn to get money from Charles. Charles wants his son away from Lucy’s bad influence. Launching three kidnap attempts, the third is successful. Once Charles is back in England and taken his rightful place he brings his son to England. James life is glamorous, yet fraught with danger.
Anna Keay grew up in the west Highlands of Scotland, in a remote farmhouse. “When I was at Oxford University I had a summer job working in Inveraray Castle, the seat of the Dukes of Argyll and the Clan Campbell. As I took people on tours of the building, in my tartan skirt, I pointed out the Earl of Argyll who was executed for treason in 1685. He led the Scottish wing of Monmouth’s rebellion. I was always intrigued about these two young aristocrats who looked like the most elegant courtiers leading an armed invasion of Britain.” Ten years later, while working as a curator at the royal palaces in London, the buildings that the Duke of Monmouth had called home before he joined forces against his uncle James II, Keay decided to write the book.
“What I love about this period in history that national politics were personal and personal relationships political,” says Keay. “Monmouth was the illegitimate son of Charles II, conceived when his parents were both 18. His life, from the moment he was kidnapped from his mother when he was eight to his execution at 36, was a journey through the highs and lows of British political history in the age of revolution.”
Monmouth fought with d’Artagnan, talked politics with John Locke, danced with Nell Gwyn, campaigned with Louis XIV, planned buildings with Christopher Wren and was adored by his father Charles II. Yes, the d’Artagnan of The Three Musketeers novel, which was inspired by the life of Charles de Batz-Castelmore d’Artagnan, Louis XIV’s captain of the Musketeers of the Guard who died at the Siege of Maastricht in the Franco-Dutch War in 1673.
Keay lives in London and in Norfolk in a medieval merchant’s house near the sea. She was born in the West of Scotland in a remote farmhouse, where her father still resides.
The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth by Anna Keay. Hardcover: 480 pages, Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (May 24, 2016), Language: English. ISBN-13: 978-1620409343 $35.00
