| In 1985,nearly everyone in the West Country
was commemorating the 300th anniversary of the Monmouth
Rebellion, that bold, impassioned and tragic attempt to replace
the unpopular Catholic James II by installing Charles II's
eldest( but illegitimate)son, the Duke of Monmouth. Many local people were killed in battle, hanged or transported when it failed. The play told the whole story of the campaign, alternating between scenes of the fighting, or at Court, with the fears and disappointments of a fictional Winsham family. The photograph below shows the whole cast, including the "maids of Taunton" where Monmouth was hailed as king. Taunton was then described as "the most rebellious town in the West". The most acclaimed line in the play was one of the villagers saying "Up there in London they don't care what happens to us....they think we are just ignorant peasants...but we could show 'me!" Sometimes one feels that in the three hundred years that have passed since, not all that much has changed! |
