Ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion remembered 340 years on in Somerset

Exhibition opens this week in Taunton Castle, where mass death sentences were infamously issued during Bloody Assizes

A fresh look at an ill-fated 17th-century uprising that haunts the English West Country - and may hold lessons for the world today - is taking place close to the spot where many of the rebels were condemned to death.

An exhibition at the Museum of Somerset tells the story of the Monmouth Rebellion, which ended with defeat for the rebels who fought alongside the charismatic Duke of Monmouth, with many condemned to death at the notorious Bloody Assizes led by George Jeffreys, the Lord Chancellor.