Battle Bothwell Bridge 1679 Lanarkshire Covenanters James, Duke of Monmouth Solider fighting battle war attack death siege fight
Battle of Bothwell Brig or the Battle of Bothwell Bridge was fought on 22 June 1679 in Lanarkshire between an army of Covenanters and a government army commanded by James, Duke of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II. Badly prepared and ill-led the rebel forces were defeated with , who had emerged in England as the great Protestant champion, came determined to act with as much moderation as he could in the circumstances. He made it known that he had the power to pardon all, except those already forfeited and the murderers of Archbishop Sharp. Some negotiations were held, but before Monmouth agreed to final terms he required the rebels to lay down their arms. Although Hamilton promptly refused he still did nothing to ensure that his men were ready for battle. As Gilbert Burnet, the Scottish cleric and historian, who was also Hamilton's uncle, later wrote - 'they had neither the grace to submit, nor the sense to march away, nor the courage to fight it out.' At 7 o' clock on the morning of Sunday 22 June, the government army was poised on the north side of the Clyde before Bothwell Bridge. The Whig forces, now reduced to about 4000 men, had been divided in two: the main body was drawn up on some rising ground on the edge of a moorland, close to the town of Hamilton, while a smaller party of 300 men from Kippen and Galloway, under Hackston and Shargarton, prepared to defend the bridge itself. It is not clear who made these dispositions, or if the party by the bridge simply represented a hard core of those who recognised that it was necessary to make a stand. As well as muskets these men had one small brass cannon to hold the passage of Bothwell Bridge. Monmouth's own guns were brought down to pound the barricades erected by the enemy; but the single Whig cannon and the musketeers opened up with such effect that the timid artillerymen abandoned their weapons. For a brief period the enemy had the chance to spike the government guns. However, the op
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