The Battle of Sedgemoor was the final battle of the Monmouth Rebellion, fought on 6 July 1685 in Somerset, England.
After landing at Lyme Regis in Dorset, the Protestant pretender James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth increased his band of followers from 82 men to 4,000, most of them nonconformist, artisnas, and farm workers armed with pitchforks. King James II of England gave Louis de Duras, 2nd Earl of Feversham and Colonel John Churchill command of his army, and they contained Monmouth in South West England to prevent them from recruiting nonconformists in Wiltshire or from marching on London.
By 3 July 1685, the Duke of Monmouth was hemmed in at Bridgwater, and he ordered his army to fortify the town. He launched a night attack on the Royalist army at 10 PM on 6 July 1685, only to be delayed by deep marshland. The first man across startled a Royalist patrol, alerting the English Army to the rebel attack. Ford Grey, Lord Grey of Warke's rebel cavalry were engaged by the Royal Regiment of Horse, and the better-trained English troops and their horses routed the rebels by outflanking them. Monmouth was captured while hiding in a ditch, disguised as a peasant, and he was taken to the Tower of London and beheaded. 1,300 of his men were found guilty during the Bloody Assizes, and many were deported to the Caribbean or executed.