Henry Bertie’s Eye-Witness Account of the Battle of Sedgemoor ⚔️

On 21 June 1685 Henry Bertie left Oxford, with the militia horse, to join the royal army at Reading commanded by the Earl of Feversham. As the army marched to engage the Duke of Monmouth's rebel force in the West Country, Henry Bertie chronicled its progress in his letters to his brothers Peregrine Bertie and James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire. The letters provided the Earl of Abingdon with an essential source of reliable and frequent news. This particular letter describes Monmouth's defeat at the battle of Sedgemoor, in Somerset, on 6 July 1685. The letter is remarkable for Henry Bertie's extremely idiosyncratic spelling. (Shelfmark: MS. Eng. hist. c. 51, fol. 159r)

This recording was made for our website, Rediscovering Rycote: The History of a lost Tudor Mansion. Rycote was arguably the dominant country house in early modern Oxfordshire and played host to six English kings and queens, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The mansion archive was destroyed on a bonfire, but the Bodleian Library holds many manuscripts, letters, accounts, drawings and maps relating to the estate. The Rediscovering Rycote project aims to uncover the fascinating stories and voices that have been lost for so long.