How the Duke of Monmouth Lost His Head

Noble Blood

iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 13.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

King Charles II's oldest illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, was handsome and charismatic. But more importantly, he was Protestant, which made him an attractive alternative to the Catholic Duke of York, next in line for the throne. Eventually, the power and propoganda would go to Monmouth's head.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the story of how a group of people brought music back to Afghanistan by creating their own version of American Idol.
0:10.0	The joy they brought to the nation.
0:12.0	You're free completely.
0:14.0	No one is there to destroy you.
0:16.0	The danger they endured.
0:18.0	They said my head should be cut off.
0:21.0	I'm John Legend.
0:22.0	Listen to Afghan Star on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
0:25.8	Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.
0:29.4	Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky.
0:37.0	Listener discretion advised.
0:40.0	The executioner, a man named Jack Ketch, was already famous in London for a bungled execution,
0:51.8	so you couldn't really blame the Duke of Monmouth as he walked to
0:55.5	the scaffolding on Tower Hill for wanting to take a few extra precautions.
1:01.5	According to the apocryphal story at the time, the Duke of Monmouth offered
1:06.5	Jack Ketch a few shillings as a bribe for the executioner to make the beheading as swift and as painless as possible.
1:15.6	Well, there are a few possible ways to understand what happened next.
1:21.4	Maybe Jack catches dignity was offended that the Duke tried to bribe him at all.
1:27.8	Maybe one of the Duke's enemies paid the executioner an even greater bribe. Or maybe Jack Ketch was simply so unskilled with an
1:38.0	axe that what happened to the Duke of Monmouth was him just trying his best because what happened to the Duke of
1:46.8	Monmouth was a disaster. In the end it took five strokes of the axe to sever the Duke's head from his body.
1:56.8	And I've actually seen that number in some sources as high as eight.
	...

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