Rogues Gallery Uncovered
Bad behaviour in period costume
A non-judgmental smash n grab into the scandalous lives of history’s greatest libertines’ lotharios and complete bastards
This podcast contains adult themes and a touch of colourful language – This one also has scenes of a brutally violent nature and lashings of gore so there’s something for everyone.
Duel Personality
“All the action, as it happens, from the Bad Boy of unnecessary 18th century swordplay”
With
CHARLES MOHUN, 4TH BARON MOHUN
A quick note on the pronunciation of this rogues name.
Its spelt M O H U N and all the research ive done indicates that its pronounced Mohun but I have read somewhere that its actually pronounced “Moon”
If there are any Mohuns listening and ive just butchered your surname – as your ancestor did to his opponent’s then I humbly apologize.
I will not accept any kind of formal challenge as im a cad with no honour – and proud of it.
Anyway
The following tale is written in the present tense of the period in which its set…. and as such, may contain attitudes and opinions of the protagonists and their times which would today be considered unacceptable.
As I’m not a fictitious 18th century sports caster with an unhealthy enthusiasm for blood letting, those attitudes and opinions are OBVIOUSLY NOT MINE.
LONDON 1712
Its six AM, welcome to a glorious November morning here in London’s Hyde Park for what promises to be a truly honourable meeting of two gentlemen, settling their differences in a respectable way.…. by duelling.
To my left is James Douglas, 4th Duke of Hamilton , Peer of Scotland and “Master of the Great Wardrobe” accompanied by his “Second”, Colonel John Hamilton.
For those of you not familiar with duelling (perhaps you work on a farm) “A Second” is a close friend of each combatant who makes sure the duel is fair and honourable and who is permitted to cross swords with his opposite number should both be inclined.
On my right (indeed on everybody’s right) is duelling legend, rake, politician and murderer, Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun.
He has arrived here directly from a brothel in the company of his “Second”… ruffian and convicted rapist, General George McCartney.
Mohun has ordered his coachman to wake up a local innkeeper so he can enjoy a jug of ale before the fight, so while we wait, let’s look back at his remarkable career.
1689
Affairs of honour run in Mohun’s family.
His father was killed in a duel when Charles was a baby (a sword thrust through the stomach) leaving his mother a widow with a mass of debts.
As a result, young Charles was never schooled and, in his teens, wisely turned to gambling to pay for an increasingly frivolous lifestyle.
Married at fourteen, Charles was disappointed to learn that his new wife came with no dowry so he prudently divorced her and began frequenting bagnio’s and taverns.
The stage had been set for some truly remarkable seasons of fatal swordplay.
1692
A young man’s first duel is a very special moment, Mohun was sixteen when he became embroiled in a heated argument with John Kennedy,7th Earl of Cassilis, over a gambling issue.
They decided to settle “blade to blade” but each only received superficial wounds from the other before honour was deemed satisfied.
A promising start, but it was later that year when Charles’s potential really started to show through.
A hot-blooded army officer of his acquaintance, Captain Richard Hill, was smitten with a respected actress by the name of Anne Bracegirdle[1].
This beautiful and virtuous young woman was the toast of the Drury Lane stage and a close friend of a fellow actress named Mrs Mountford.
As she would entertain none of the young rakes who regularly swarmed about her, rumour had it that she must surely be on intimate terms with Mrs Mountford’s husband, William (She was not)
When she refused Captains Hill’s proposal of marriage, he immediately assumed it was Mountford’s doing ( It was not) and swore vengeance.
Mohun and Hill adjourned to a tavern, and loudly planned to kidnap Miss Bracegirdle (taking her by force to Totteridge, of all places) and kill Mountford if he stood in their way.
They hired some disreputable soldiers and lay in wait for the beautiful actress as she left a female friend’s home, late one evening.
It was only the prompt action of this lady who screaming, clung grimly to Miss Bracegirdle’s neck as she was being dragged to a waiting carriage, that saved her from being spirited away.
Bracegirdle was then helped back inside the safety of the house, outside which they could see Mohun and Hill pacing with swords drawn. Two hours later Mountford innocently walked past on his way home from the theatre, totally unaware of the kidnapping attempt and completely innocent of any impropriety with the terrified woman who sheltered inside.
Despite this, harsh words were exchanged and in a ft of misplaced jealousy Hill drew his sword and ran the unfortunate fellow through.
As the watch[2] were fetched from the tavern in which they had been meeting, Hill fled and didn’t stop fleeing until he reached Amsterdam. Mohun however stood his ground and was arrested.
His trial for murder was attended by the highest and mightiest in the land. Hill was charged in his absence but Mohun was acquitted by an overwhelming majority.
Some said this was only because he was of the aristocracy and if he had been a commoner (or had been tried by commoners) he would have gotten the noose.
Others simply said that the fairest thing about the proceedings were the pretty young ladies of quality, fascinated by the latest celebrity scandal, who filled the public gallery - special scaffolding had to be built to accommodate them all.
1694
After a brief spell in the army during which the seeds of discipline and respect for authority spectacularly refused to take root, Mohun celebrated his return to London by attacking a coachman on Pall Mall.
He then drew his sword upon a passing Member of Parliament who tried to intercede - Obviously Mohun offered him out for a duel afterwards but the expected meeting never took place.
He later stormed into a London coffee house and beat a writer named Dyer around the head with a stout wooden cudgel for scribbling unflattering things about him in a pamphlet.
1697
His second official duel (accessory to murder doesn’t count) took place in St James Park with a Captain Bingham. Unfortunately, it was stopped by park officials before blood could be spilled.
A drunken brawl in a tavern followed later the same year in which his opponent, another military man by the name of Captain William Hill ( no relation) of the Coldstream Guards, found himself fatally stabbed.
This time it really was murder, so Mohun did the honourable thing ….and went into hiding.
Just before his 21st birthday however, King William awarded the lucky fellow a royal pardon in order to secure his political support.
To celebrate escaping the noose a second time, Mohun, his good friend Edward Rich, the 6th Earl of Warwick and yet another army officer named Captain William Coote, drank heavily at a Charing Cross hostelry.
Much later (on some pretext known only to Rich) they proceeded to engage in a drunken night-time duel upon the pitch black expanse of Leicester Fields.
Captain Coote fell by the sword of the Earl of Warwick, Mohun was arrested again and tried for accessory to murder …again.
He was acquitted….again.
He was however sent to The Tower of London for manslaughter, where he behaved so unpleasantly he was placed in close confinement before receiving a royal pardon….again.
The Earl was also found guilty of manslaughter but pleaded “Peer Privilege[3]” so was symbolically burnt with a cold iron - which stings and leaves quite a vivid mark.
This lenient sentence did not stop him prematurely dying in 1701 at the age of twenty-seven.
After yet another narrow escape from the hangman, it seemed that Mohun’s duelling days were over as he vowed with the utmost sincerity to become a respectable member of his majesty’s government.
1712
So “Huzzah” for Charles Gerard, second earl of Macclesfield.
A wealthy patron of Mohun’s, he conveniently passed away in 1701 with no heir, leaving much of his estate to the mildly reformed swordsman.
James Douglas, 4th Duke of Hamilton however claimed that he also left some of it to him and the two men have been locked in a legal battle for the past eleven years.
Following a harsh exchange of words (Mohun being the instigator) a challenge was issued (by Mohun) and that legal battle is now set to become a lot more physical.
This should be an elegant and refined settling of differences by two respectable gentlemen.
Let’s join the action
As this intricate dance of skilful swordplay begins it could look to the untrained eye like the two men are slashing and hacking at each other in a brutal, sweaty frenzy.
Notice that the two seconds are also engaged in conflict.
They did have the option to merely observe, but Mohun’s second, General Mc Cartney insisted that he was keen to “take his share” – what a sportsman.
A savage rush by Hamilton there, opening a six inch gash in Mohuns side, that’s got to hurt.
A wild slash in return from Mohun and Hamilton’s got a bad cut on his right leg – and now another on his right elbow.
A superb “One Two” there from Mohun and I think he’s severed one of Hamilton’s arteries. That blood loss may be a deciding factor in this morning’s proceedings.
Hamilton’s not giving up, now he’s run Mohun through the body, just below the right side of his rib cage. Look closely and you can see his sword point there, cheekily poking out of Mohun’s left hip.
What an elegant display.
Mohuns falling, but as he stumbles, he makes a powerful chopping motion with the last of his strength and cuts deep into the left side of Hamilton’s chest – right across the lung.
That looks fatal.
But Hamilton’s not finished yet.
With blood pouring from two gushing wounds, he’s leaning over Mohun who is lying, bleeding on the ground.
Mohun is desperately hacking at his foot but Hamilton’s lost too much blood to notice.
Hamilton is going for a thrust and Mohun’s frantically gripping the blade of his sword trying to stop him.
There go his fingers, cut right through, he’ll never play the harpsichord again.
Hamilton’s done it!
He’s just stabbed Mohun through the groin as he lay on the floor.
The blade has come out of his buttocks…..another artery brilliantly severed.
The seconds are on the field, they think it’s all over….
“General Mc Cartney has just run away to Holland.”
….It is now.
What an afternoon of entertainment, It looks like both protagonists will be honourably dead before the end of the day.
Some people may say that a bloodthirsty boorish thug and a reputation obsessed, aristocratic buffoon have just killed each other over an argument.
But, those people would be poor, so they don’t count.
Join us again tomorrow for more refined action.
There’s not much more to tell as Mohun really didn’t last out the day.
And neither did his opponent.
Apparently, a crowd of onlookers gathered as the two men hacked each other to pieces and when Mohun staggered bleeding to a nearby tree before collapsing, many of them ran over and stripped it of its blood-stained bark – to take home as souvenirs.
They’d have been better off with a t shirt – visit my shop.
There was however some controversy as to who had actually killed Hamilton.
Mohan’s supporters insisted that he had delivered the fatal thrust.
However, Hamilton’s friends insisted that Mohuns second – McCartney had in fact finished off the duke as revenge for Hamilton’s imminent victory
And that wasn’t the end of the confusion
Some witnesses claimed that neither of the seconds had engaged in the fighting.
Others said that both had attempted to join in but were overpowered by the crowd and had their swords taken away.
Several said that not only were both actively involved but that one of Mohuns footmen got a few good cuts in as well.
There were even rumours that far from being a duel between two honourable men – the whole affair was actually a politically motived assassination.
Mohun you see was a Whig supporter and Hamilton was a Tory – and a Jacobite.
In 1712 a Tory government were in charge in England and Queen Anne had tasked Hamilton with going to France to broker a peace in the War of Spanish Succession – which had been dragging on for 10 years
For Mohun that is would have been disastrous as peace would have meant that the dynasty of James “ The Old Pretender” - whom he supported - would never have any chance of returning to power.
So, it was imperative from a Whig point of view that Hamilton did not make the journey.
A last-minute fatal meeting would then have settled the issue nicely.
The actual reasons for the dual will remain a mystery.
What we do know is that the brutality of the fight had far-reaching repercussions.
The government passed laws banning the use of swords in the settling of affairs of honour and the pistol became the new weapon of choice for aggrieved parties.
Illegal sword duels however took place for at least another century.
Actually, the initial bill called for making all duels illegal but that was thrown out after two readings – and the sword ban was the next best compromise.
As for the seconds – both Hamilton jnr and Macartney legged it once the duel was over.
Hamilton Jnr was finally brought to trial and found guilty of manslaughter.
Several years later McCartney was also tracked down to a Dutch hidey-hole and brought back to England.
He too was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
There will be more stories of roguish duellists in upcoming episodes but in case you think that the practice was the preserve of short-tempered men - ill refer to an example of two women duelling – which was perhaps more common that n you might think.
Known as “petticoat duels” these meetings were rarely as bloodthirsty as their male counterparts but were just as ridiculous.
In 1792 – 80s years after the mohun affair – One, Mrs Elphinstone visited the London home of Lady Almeria Braddock.
Three, over a sedate cup of tea she made a disparaging remark to Lady Almeria about her age.
A furious Lady A called her out on the spot and the two women met in Hyde Park – still a popular duelling venue
Starting with pistols, Lady A got in a good shot and knocked off Mrs Elphinstone’s hat.
The two then switched to swords and Lady A again came out on top by inflicting a small cut to her opponent’s shoulder.
Honour satisfied they then called it a day and went home.
Much more civilized
Next time on Rogues Gallery Uncovered
“IF IT’S NEW, DIFFERENT OR FOREIGN…I HATE IT!!”
Ill-informed, bigoted and proud.
Get whipped into a terrified frenzy by Victorian England’s most reactionary politician.
CHARLES DE LAET LAT WALDO SIBTHORP
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Im off to a bare-knuckle boxing match with a doxy on each arm or to a bank holiday trip to the dump with a car full of garden refuse – you decide.
Have a great week stay roguish and ill see you yesterday.
