Who presided over the 'Bloody Assizes' of 1685?
"The Manor House was once a holding area for the prisoners during the Bloody Assizes with trials held by Judge Jeffreys in 1685. It was connected to a public house nearby, known as “The Crown”, by an underground tunnel where prisoners would be led to and from the court house and manor. The tunnel is now blocked up on either end of both the manor and public house, but the tunnel still exists to this day. The manor house was bought by the National Deposit Friendly Society in 1921, for use as a convalescent home. The house was requisitioned in"
"Bloody Assizes The Bloody Assizes were a series of trials started at Winchester on 25 August 1685 in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which ended the Monmouth Rebellion in England. There were five judges – Sir William Montague (Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer), Sir Robert Wright, Sir Francis Wythens (Justice of the King's Bench), Sir Creswell Levinz (Justice of the Common Pleas) and Sir Henry Pollexfen, led by Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys. Over 1,000 rebels were in prison awaiting the trials, which started in Winchester on 26 August. The first notable trial was that of an"
"Black Assize of Exeter 1586 The Black Assizes is an epithet given to several outbreaks of ""gaol fever"" which struck various prisons and court-houses in England in the late 16th century and which caused the deaths of not only many prisoners awaiting trial but also the magistrates in the court buildings holding assizes. The basic cause was fever spreading from insanitary jails via prisoners into dirty and overcrowded courtrooms. The most notable Black Assizes were: The Black Assizes at Exeter Castle were the Lent Assizes held from 14 March 1586 by Sir Edmund Anderson (1530–1605), Lord Chief Justice of the"
"briefly arrested for addressing a large crowd in the market place, but released on the intervention of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. During the Monmouth Rebellion (1685) the rebel army attacked the cathedral in an outburst against the established church and damaged the west front. Lead from the roof was used to make bullets, windows were broken, the organ smashed and horses stabled in the nave. Wells was the final location of the Bloody Assizes on 23 September 1685. In a makeshift court lasting only one day, over 500 men were tried and the majority sentenced to death. The"
"gentry found it expedient to change allegiance and to swap the sides they supported on several occasions. In 1643, the town was attacked by 2,000 troops under Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon. Its defences proved inadequate and it quickly surrendered but was spared the plunder and punishment it might otherwise have received. It remained under Royalist control for some time, but was eventually recaptured by the Puritans. In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth failed in his invasion attempt, the Monmouth Rebellion, and almost 300 of his men were condemned to death or transportation in the ""Bloody Assizes"" presided over"
"assizes held at Oxford in 1577, later deemed the Black Assize, over 300 died from gaol fever, including Sir Robert Bell, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. The Black Assize of Exeter 1586 was another notable outbreak. During the Lent assizes court held at Taunton in 1730, gaol fever caused the death of the Lord Chief Baron, as well as the High Sheriff, the sergeant, and hundreds of others. During a time when persons were executed for capital offenses, more prisoners died from 'gaol fever' than were put to death by all the public executioners in the British realm. In"
"1685 and he was succeeded by his brother James II. During his lifetime Charles had always pledged loyalty to the Protestant Church of England, despite his private Catholic sympathies. James was openly Catholic. He attempted to lift restrictions on Catholics taking up public offices. This was bitterly opposed by Protestants in his kingdom. They invited William of Orange, a Protestant who had married Mary, daughter of James II and Anne Hyde to invade England and claim the throne. William assembled an army estimated at 15,000 soldiers (11,000 foot and 4000 horse) and landed at Brixham in southwest England in November,"
"couple of months later, the surviving Portuguese prisoners, whom Drake had had imprisoned in Exeter Castle, were put on trial, the charge perhaps being mutiny. Those who lived came to trial at the notorious Lent Black Assize of Exeter from 14 March 1586 held at Exeter Castle. The prisoners were so weak and ill that Drake was reprimanded by the judge, Edward Flowerdew (died 1586), Baron of the Exchequer, for his neglect. Within little more than three weeks, the judge, eleven of the twelve jurors and eight justices of the peace, who had been exposed to the prisoners, died from"
"who was killed in 1586 at the Battle of Zutphen. He married Eleanor Chichester (died 1585), a daughter of Sir John Chichester (died 1569), MP, lord of the manor of Raleigh in the parish of Pilton, Devon. By her he had five sons and two daughters including: Bassett died of Gaol Fever in 1586 whilst serving in his judicial role at the notorious Lent Black Assize of Exeter from 14 March 1586. Eight other judges or Justices of the Peace also died of the same fever. In his will dated 18 October 1585 he asked to be buried ""honestly and"
"15 February 1685/6, the next to 28 April, and the third to 22 November 1686. There were two more prorogations in 1687, and the parliament was finally dissolved by proclamation on 2 July 1687. No further parliaments met before King James was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Although he summoned a parliament in September 1688, with the intention of having it meet in November, the elections to the Commons were cancelled, due to the imminent invasion of William of Orange. After a disastrous campaign against William's forces, James retreated to London before finally fleeing the country on 18"
"judges—most notably, George Jeffreys—condemned many of the rebels to transportation and indentured servitude in the West Indies in a series of trials that came to be known as the Bloody Assizes. Some 250 of the rebels were executed. While both rebellions were defeated easily, they hardened James's resolve against his enemies and increased his suspicion of the Dutch. To protect himself from further rebellions, James sought safety by enlarging his standing army. This alarmed his subjects, not only because of the trouble soldiers caused in the towns, but because it was against the English tradition to keep a professional army"
"(d. 1585) He also presided at the Star Chamber inquest, by which (23 June 1585) the suicide and treasons of the Earl of Northumberland were certified; and was a member of the commissions which attainted Northumberland's accomplice, William, grandson of Sir William Shelley, and passed sentence of death upon Anthony Babington and his associates (September 1586). He was present at Fotheringay Castle as assessor to the tribunal before which the Queen of Scots pleaded in vain for her life (14 October 1586), but appears to have taken no part in the proceedings. He presided, vice Sir Thomas Bromley (1530–1587), absent"
"defeated by James, Duke of Monmouth, the King's illegitimate son, at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge. In the early 1680s a more intense phase of persecution began, later to be called ""the Killing Time"". When Charles died in 1685 and his brother, a Roman Catholic, succeeded him as James VII of Scotland (and II of England), matters came to a head. James put Catholics in key positions in the government and attendance at conventicles was made punishable by death. He disregarded parliament, purged the Council and forced through religious toleration to Roman Catholics, alienating his Protestant subjects. It was believed"
"the first martyr of the Bloody Assizes. One of the first acts of parliament of William and Mary after the Glorious Revolution was to reverse her attainder on the grounds that the prosecution was irregular and the verdict injuriously extorted by ""the menaces and violences and other illegal practices"" of Judge Jeffreys. In fact, Jeffreys seems to have followed the strict letter of the law of the time. His modern biographer concludes that justice was done according to the law, but that a wiser ruler than James II would have shown clemency to Lady Lisle. Alice Lisle Lady Alice Lisle"
"of conflicts between Presbyterians and the Bishops of the Episcopalian establishment, culminating in the persecution of The Killing Time. Charles died in 1685 and his brother the Duke of York succeeded him as James VII of Scotland and II of England. He survived attempted rebellions, but alienated much of the political nation by his Catholicism and policies. When William of Orange of the Netherlands, James' Protestant son-in-law, invaded England in 1688, James fled and William and his wife took over the throne as William II and Mary II. William called a Scottish Convention, which was dominated by the Presbyterians. It"
"the Bloody Assizes. Jeffreys mocked Tutchin's verse from the bench and sentenced him to: Tutchin, facing this sentence, appealed to be hanged, instead. His punishment became a ""cause célèbre"" among the Whig and Tory partisans, with the result that he was released after a year. He then married Elizabeth Hickes, the daughter of a Puritan minister who had been vocal and active in the anti-Jacobite causes. The arrival of William III of Orange pleased Tutchin, and he wrote ""An heroick poem upon the late expedition of His Majesty to rescue England from popery, tyranny, and arbitrary government"" in 1689. William"
"R. Jones refers to Jeffreys as ""an alcoholic"". G. W. Keeton in ""Lord Chancellor Jeffreys and the Stuart Cause"" (1965) claimed the historical Jeffreys ""to be a different person from the Jeffreys of legend"". After reviewing the Lisle case and contemporary opinion Brian Harris QC concludes that 'Given that [Jeffreys] had to administer a largely inchoate criminal procedure and impose the bloody sentences that the law then required, a balanced judgement would regard Jeffreys as no worse, perhaps even a little better than most other judges of his era.' One session of the Bloody Assizes was held in Dorchester on"
"people, people who were not carrying a weapon, were wounded or even killed. But that was not done as a deliberate malicious act. It was done as an act of war"". Although British prime minister John Major rejected John Hume's requests for a public inquiry into the killings, his successor, Tony Blair, decided to start one. A second commission of inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville, was established in January 1998 to re-examine Bloody Sunday. The other judges were John Toohey QC, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia who had worked on Aboriginal issues (he replaced New Zealander"
"Siege of Grave (1586) The Siege of Grave, also known as the Capture of Grave of 1586, took place from mid-February – 7 June 1586 at Grave, Duchy of Brabant, Low Countries (present-day the Netherlands), between the Spanish army led by Governor-General Don Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, and the Dutch-States and English forces under Baron Peter van Hemart, Governor of Grave, during the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). In early spring of 1586, the Count Peter Ernst of Mansfeld, by order of Alexander Farnese, laid siege to the town of Grave. After little more than a"
"death by Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate. Charles died in 1685 and his brother succeeded him as James VII of Scotland (and II of England). James put Catholics in key positions in the government and even attendance at a conventicle was made punishable by death. He disregarded parliament, purged the Council and forced through religious toleration to Roman Catholics, alienating his Protestant subjects. It was believed that the king would be succeeded by his daughter Mary, a Protestant and the wife of William of Orange, Stadtholder of the Netherlands, but when in 1688, James produced a male heir, James"
"Siege of Sluis (1587) The Siege of Sluis of 1587 took place between 12 June and 4 August 1587, as part of the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). On 12 June 1587, Don Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma ""(Spanish: Alejandro Farnesio)"", Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands, and commander-in-chief of the Army of Flanders, laid siege to the strategic deep-water port of Sluis, defended by English and Dutch troops under Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Governor-General of the United Provinces, and Sir Roger Williams. On 24 June, the bombardment began, and on 4 August, after of 13"
"Black Assize of Oxford 1577 The Black Assize is a name given to multiple deaths in the city of Oxford in England between 6 July and 12 August 1577. At least 300 people, including the chief baron and sheriff, are thought to have died as a result of this event. It received its name because it was believed to have been associated with a trial at the Assize Court at Oxford Castle. Reports vary as to the total number of deaths that occurred in the ""Black Assize"". The casualties in Oxford itself are consistently recorded as approximately 300, but some"
"punishing the rebels, and did so extremely harshly. He followed King Richard II into Essex, where he led what was described as a 'bloody assize' against the rebels. He pressured jurors into giving up names of suspects, and to maximise sentences, contrived to have charges presented as felonies rather than trespasses. All in all nineteen men were hanged, while another twelve were hanged and drawn. There was a widespread belief in the localities that royal retribution had gone too far, and that reform of government was necessary as well as punishing the rebels, to prevent further uprisings. In the following"
"Assize and General Gaol Delivery convened in Salem, Essex County, again headed by William Stoughton, as Chief Justice, with Anthony Checkley continuing as the Attorney General, and Jonathan Elatson as Clerk of the Court. The first five cases tried in January 1693 were of the five people who had been indicted but not tried in September: Sarah Buckley, Margaret Jacobs, Rebecca Jacobs, Mary Whittredge (or Witheridge) and Job Tookey. All were found not guilty. Grand juries were held for many of those remaining in jail. Charges were dismissed against many, but sixteen more people were indicted and tried, three of"
"to succour the rebels. In 1584 the Prince of Orange was murdered, political chaos ensued, and in August 1585 Antwerp fell to the Duke of Parma. An English intervention became inevitable; it was decided that Leicester would go to the Netherlands and ""be their chief as heretofore was treated of"", as he phrased it in August 1585. He was alluding to the recently signed Treaty of Nonsuch in which his position and authority as ""governor-general"" of the Netherlands had only been vaguely defined. The Earl prepared himself for ""God's cause and her Majesty's"" by recruiting the expedition's cavalry from his"
"of the protests from producers and traders in those commodities. A historian of the period has called the Parliament ""the most loyal Parliament a Stewart ever had"". The unsuccessful Monmouth Rebellion in the south-west of England of June and July 1685, and a smaller simultaneous rebellion in Scotland led by the Earl of Argyll, demonstrated that the country was divided over accepting James as King, but the rebels acted without parliamentary support. In November 1685, Lord Delamere was tried in the House of Lords for treason for his complicity in the Rebellion. James appointed Judge Jeffreys to preside as Lord"
"Protestants and, transferring the presidency of Munster to his brother, Thomas, he rushed to London in May 1585 to prepare for a campaign in the Low Countries. In August he commanded an English army of 4400 men which Elizabeth had sent to support the States General against the Spaniards, in accordance with the Treaty of Nonsuch. He gallantly stormed a fort near Arnhem; the queen, however, was unhappy at this aggression. Still, his army of untried English foot did repulse the Duke of Parma in a day-long fight at Aarschot and remained a threat, until supplies of clothing, food and"
"who attempted, unsuccessfully, to exclude the openly Catholic Duke of Albany from the succession, and the Tories, who opposed them. Similar divisions began to emerge in Scottish political life. Charles died in 1685 and his brother succeeded him as James VII of Scotland (and II of England). James put Catholics in key positions in the government and even attendance at a conventicle was made punishable by death. He disregarded parliament, purged the Council and forced through religious toleration to Roman Catholics, alienating his Protestant subjects. The failure of an invasion, led by Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, and timed"
"decided against the challenge. Levinz's judgment is reported at some length in Cobbett's ""State Trials"". In 1684–85 Levinz was consulted by the king on the question whether a contract by the late king letting out part of the excise to farm was determined by his death, and gave the more sound than courtly advice that it was so. His ""quietus"" was expected to follow as a matter of course. It was deferred, however, for a time, and he was one of Jeffreys' colleagues in the Bloody Assizes, and also helped to try some of the rebels in London. His supersedeas"
"the Earl of Leicester. A few days later, the Spanish army, commanded by the Prince of Parma, laid siege to Venlo, garrisoned and supported by Dutch and English troops led by Maarten Schenck and Sir Roger Williams. On 28 June 1586 the garrison was forced to capitulation to the Spaniards.<ref name=""David Hume/John Lingard"">Hume & Lingard p.52</ref> Siege of Grave (1586) The Siege of Grave, also known as the Capture of Grave of 1586, took place from mid-February – 7 June 1586 at Grave, Duchy of Brabant, Low Countries (present-day the Netherlands), between the Spanish army led by Governor-General Don Alexander"
"the Virginian Revolution. From 1681 to 1684 he commanded escorting the Levant trade. In May 1685 Ashby became the governor of Sandgate Castle. Sir John also commanded as she was mobilized to counter the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth followed by the guardship , and then , the latter in response to the threatened invasion by William of Orange. Ashby was eventually convinced to command for William of Orange, as he was persuaded of the need to fight the 'popish oppression' of the current king, James II. After William III was crowned, he knighted Ashby on-board his flagship on"
"bloodless confrontation between supporters of the King, led by Sir Ralph Hopton, and Parliament, led by Colonel William Strode, in the market place on 1 August 1642. In 1645 Sir Thomas Fairfax led the New Model Army through the town on the way to capturing Bristol, and in 1646 the church organ was apparently destroyed by Cromwellian soldiers. During the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, the Duke of Monmouth was welcomed when he passed through Shepton Mallet, staying in Longbridge House in Cowl Street on the night of 23 June, with his men quartered throughout the town, before setting out for"
"territories of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, the Province of New Hampshire, the Province of Maine, and the Narraganset Country (present-day Washington County, Rhode Island). Charles II had chosen Colonel Percy Kirke to govern the dominion, but Charles died before the commission was approved. King James II approved Kirke's commission in 1685, but Kirke came under harsh criticism for his role in putting down Monmouth's Rebellion, and his commission was withdrawn. A provisional commission was issued on October 8, 1685 to Massachusetts Bay native Joseph Dudley as President of the Council of New England, due to delays in"