Welsh Journals

have told Barrillon that with the financial support of Louis XIV 'he would undertake things which he would not dare to think of, unless he be in a capacity to support them', including 'the re-establishment of the catholic religion in England', and that in assisting him Louis might claim to be 'the restorer of religion in England'. In the nature of the case, the question of James's precise motives will probably never be settled to everyone's satisfaction but, until more convincing evidence is produced on the other side, the balance of probability still seems to this reviewer to incline strongly toward the traditional view. Two other key questions raised by James II are largely evaded. As far as his political objectives are concerned, we are assured that he 'did not intend to be a ruthless autocrat' (p. 156), while at the same time it is conceded that he 'had not renounced the idea of autocracy' (p. 158) and that he believed his royal prerogatives allowed him in fact to 'govern his kingdom autocratically' (p. 166). Dr. Ashley appears to want to have it both ways. And on that other curious question of the deterioration in James during the course of his life-a deterioration which appears to take visible form from the striking difference in the portraits of the man at twenty-five and at fifty-five given in this book-Dr. Ashley has virtually nothing to say. He considers that Turner's view of a premature mental decline in James resulting from chronic syphilis 'scarcely warrants examination', but he offers no alternative hypothesis. On this and on most of the other problems of the man and the reign we must still await an adequate up-to-date biography. C.D.CHANDAMAN Lampeter. MONMOUTH'S REBELS: THE ROAD TO SEDGEMOOR, 1685. By Peter Earle. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1977. Pp. ix, 236, 8 plates, 5 maps. £ 7.95. Even before we open this book, the author performs a skilful sleight of hand before our very eyes. The main title holds out the promise that, in contrast to the numerous other books on the Monmouth rebellion, this one intends to concentrate on the rebels themselves, on the sort of people they were. In our surprised gratification at this new approach to a well-worn theme, we hardly notice the sub-title which carries the impli- cation that the rebels, whoever they turn out to be, are also going to be compelled to re-enact the whole over-written story of the rebellion itself. But so it proves. The material for an analysis of the rebels turns out to be quite inadequate to occupy the whole book and is in fact largely confined to the opening chapter and a fairly substantial Appendix. The rest of the book traverses the familiar ground of the rebellion and its aftermath in the Bloody Assizes. This is not to say that the account of the rebellion itself is not very well done. Dr. Earle draws upon various collections of letters which have not been used before in this connexion and which provide him with an abundance of vivid quotations (although we may well regret his decision to confine his footnote references almost entirely to the quota- tions in the book). He also writes elegantly and with something of the imaginative insight of the born novelist. Indeed, his account of the