Bloody Assizes

The Bloody Assizes were a series of treason trials held in the West of England in the late summer of 1685, after the defeat of the Monmouth Rebellion at the Battle of Sedgemoor. They opened at Winchester on 25 August 1685 before a bench of five judges led by Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys, and then moved as an assize circuit through Salisbury, Dorchester, Exeter, Taunton and Wells. More than 1,400 prisoners were dealt with; most were sentenced to death, though fewer than 300 were actually executed, and some 800 to 850 men were transported to the West Indies as labour. The first notable case was that of Dame Alice Lisle, who was beheaded after a jury reluctantly convicted her. Jeffreys was rewarded with the office of Lord Chancellor and became remembered as the hanging judge.