The Last Royal Rebel

The Last Royal Rebel is described as "brilliant and revelatory... a superb biography, which paints a vivid picture of the times and of her subject" by the Daily Telegraph.

James, Duke of Monmouth, the cherished illegitimate son of Charles II, was born in exile the very year his grandfather was executed and the English monarchy abolished. Removed from his mother under his father’s directive, he rose from a childhood in the backstreets of Rotterdam to command the ballrooms of Paris, the brothels of Covent Garden, and the battlefields of Flanders. Pepys famously described him as ‘the most skittish, leaping gallant that ever I saw, always in action, vaulting or leaping or clambering’.

Louis XIV was his mentor, Nell Gwyn his protector, D’Artagnan his lieutenant, William of Orange his confidant, John Dryden his censor, and John Locke his comrade. He inspired both delight and disgust, adulation and abhorrence and, over time, love and loyalty almost beyond fathoming. Anna Keay brings him to glorious life, combining rigorous scholarship with a storyteller’s gift to captivating effect.

His story illustrates the bond between father and son, the power struggle between King and Parliament, and the conflict between love and honour. His life, culminating in his ill-fated invasion, provides a sweeping history of the turbulent decades during which the England we know was forged.