George Monck, 1608-1670
Professional soldier who fought for both sides during the Civil Wars. He attained high office under Cromwell's Protectorate as a soldier and General-at-Sea, then gained a dukedom by securing the Restoration of Charles II
Born at the manor house of Great Potheridge near Torrington in Devon on 6 December 1608, George Monck was the fourth child and second son of Sir Thomas Monck, an impoverished landowner, and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Smyth, a wealthy merchant of Exeter. Monck began his military career at the age of 16 when he volunteered to join the English expedition against Cádiz (1625), during which he may have served under his cousin Sir Richard Grenville. After his return to England, Monck and his elder brother beat up an under-sheriff who had arrested their father for debt. Monck pursued and stabbed the under-sheriff, who later died of his wounds. To escape prosecution, Monck joined the expedition for the relief of La Rochelle (1627) as an ensign in Sir John Burroughs' regiment. He distinguished himself by carrying the regimental colours in an unsuccessful attack on a French fort, and is also said to have taken a message from the King to the Duke of Buckingham, bravely passing through the lines of the French army besieging Rochelle. On the second expedition to La Rochelle (1628), Monck was captain of a company of foot, but the English army never disembarked and sailed straight back to England.
About 1629, Monck joined the English volunteers fighting for the Prince of Orange against the Spanish in the Thirty Years' War. He spent nine years in the Dutch service, and rose to the rank of captain-lieutenant in Colonel Goring's regiment. Monck was a hero of the siege of Breda in 1637, during which he led the storming of the breach that resulted in the city's surrender. However, he resigned his commission in a fit of rage following an argument with the Dutch authorities at Dordrecht, where some of his troops had been accused of misconduct. He returned to England and joined King Charles' army for the Bishops' Wars as lieutenant-colonel in the Earl of Newport's regiment. At the battle of Newburn (1640), Monck was one of the few English officers that did not flee headlong from the Scots. He saved the King's artillery by covering its withdrawal and retreated with his men in good order to Newcastle.
On the outbreak of the Confederate War in Ireland, Monck was appointed colonel of an infantry regiment raised by his kinsman the Earl of Leicester. He arrived at Dublin in February 1642 and commanded the infantry in the Earl of Ormond's victory over the Confederates at the battle of Kilrush (15 April 1642). As well as earning the trust and confidence of his troops, Monck gained a reputation for great energy and ruthlessness in the war of attrition that developed in Ireland. He gained his first experience as an artillery commander in March 1643 when he reduced the Confederate garrison at Timolin in County Kildare during Ormond's advance on Ross, and he played a prominent role in the defeat of the Leinster Confederates at the battle of Balinvegga later in the same month.
In September 1643, Ormond negotiated a one-year armistice with the Confederates, which freed the King's forces in Ireland for service against Parliament in the English Civil War. Monck refused to take the oath of loyalty to the King that Ormond imposed upon his officers. Amid suspicions that he might defect to Parliament, Monck was sent in custody to England. At a personal audience with King Charles at Oxford, Monck justified himself and persuaded the King of his loyalty. He rejoined the troops that had come over from Ireland at the siege of Nantwich under the command of Lord Byron but was taken prisoner when Sir Thomas Fairfax defeated Byron in January 1644. Having undertaken to serve the King, Monck refused to change sides and was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he remained until the end of the First Civil War. During his imprisonment Monck met his future wife, Anne Clarges, who was reputedly working as a seamstress. They married in 1653. Monck also wrote his book, Observations upon Political and Military Affairs, while he was a prisoner; it was published posthumously in 1671.
Following the defeat of the Royalists in England, Monck took an oath of loyalty to Parliament and was released from the Tower in November 1646 for service in Ireland. In 1647, he was appointed commander of Parliament's forces in Ulster, where he fought a successful defensive campaign against the Confederates in co-operation with Colonel Michael Jones in Leinster. When a faction of the Scottish Ulster army declared for King Charles in the Second Civil War, Monck acted swiftly to seize Belfast and Carrickfergus from his former allies (September 1648). He sent the Scottish commander Robert Monro as a prisoner to England and was rewarded by Parliament with £500 and the governorship of Carrickfergus.
After the execution of King Charles I in January 1649, Ireland became a rallying-ground for the Royalists as Ormond orchestrated a coalition against the newly-declared Commonwealth. Lacking men and supplies to hold Ulster, Monck withdrew to Dundalk in April 1649. There he was threatened by the Irish Ulster army led by Owen Roe O'Neill, who had not joined Ormond's coalition. Lacking the resources to fight, Monck negotiated an unauthorised three-month armistice with O'Neill. In a letter to Oliver Cromwell, Monck pleaded that he had taken this action out of military necessity, but many of his own officers repudiated the truce with O'Neill and went over to Ormond. Monck was forced to surrender Dundalk to Ormond's forces in July 1649. On his return to England, Monck was summoned to London to answer for his conduct. He received a public reprimand from Parliament for negotiating with O'Neill, but was exonerated from all accusations of disloyalty to the Commonwealth.
Monck was given command of a regiment of foot in Cromwell's army for the invasion of Scotland in July 1650. However, the soldiers of Colonel Bright's regiment — the first regiment to which he was appointed — refused to accept him because he had fought against them at Nantwich. Cromwell therefore took five companies from Fenwick's regiment and five from Haselrig's to form Monck's regiment of foot. Monck soon justified Cromwell's confidence in him, distinguishing himself in August 1650 by leading the attack on Red Hall, a Scottish outpost near Edinburgh. Cromwell appointed him to the council of war that planned the battle of Dunbar on 3 September, during which Monck led a brigade of infantry in an attack on the Scottish centre. He was employed in reducing fortresses in south-eastern Scotland during the winter of 1650-1, and was promoted to lieutenant-general of the ordnance (artillery) in May 1651.
When Cromwell advanced into Fife in July 1651, Monck secured the English position by capturing the Scottish strongholds of Inchgarvie Castle and Burntisland. His reputation had grown to the extent that he was appointed commander-in-chief of Commonwealth forces in Scotland when Cromwell pursued Charles II and the Scots-Royalist army into England in August 1651. Monck captured Stirling, and sent a force to arrest the provisional government left by Charles II. When Dundee refused to surrender to his summons, Monck made an example of the town, slaughtering the garrison and allowing his troops to plunder at will for 24 hours. By the end of 1651, Monck's troops controlled the Scottish Lowlands and had sealed off the Royalist clans in the Highlands. However, Monck's health had declined. He was obliged to resign his commission in February 1652 and return to England to recuperate.
In December 1652, Monck joined Blake and Deane as a General-at-Sea in the First Anglo-Dutch War. Although he had no previous naval experience, Monck's powers of leadership and his expertise as an artillery officer qualified him for command at sea. Relying upon the seamanship of his officers, Monck played a decisive role in the battle of Portland in February 1653. After Deane was killed at the battle of North Foreland and Blake was forced to return to England to recover from his wounds, Monck took command of the English fleet, imposing a total blockade on Dutch ports and bringing Dutch commerce to a standstill. When the Dutch attempted to break the blockade in July 1653, Monck was victorious at the battle of Scheveningen, the deciding battle of the war, during which the Dutch admiral Maarten Tromp was killed.
In the spring of 1654, Monck returned to his command in Scotland where a Royalist uprising had broken out. With his usual ruthless efficiency, he suppressed Glencairn's Uprising, then put down a Leveller conspiracy among his own troops apparently headed by his second-in-command, Colonel Robert Overton. This gave Monck an excuse to purge his army of all Quakers, Fifth Monarchists and other extremists. Maintaining control over the appointment of his officers and imposing firm discipline on his troops, Monck remained military governor of Scotland for the next five years. He supervised the construction of the great Cromwellian citadels and fortresses across Scotland and imposed law and order in the Highlands by making clan chiefs personally responsible for keeping the peace in their regions. He was genuinely interested in the welfare of Scotland and was generally well-liked, despite the unpopularity of the forced union with England. Although there were rumours of his involvement in various Royalist conspiracies, Monck stayed on friendly terms with Cromwell and remained loyal to the Protectorate.
When Cromwell died in 1658, Monck declared his allegiance to his successor Richard Cromwell and wrote to Richard offering comprehensive advice on managing the Church, Parliament and the Army. When Charles Fleetwood and the Council of Officers overthrew the Protectorate and re-established the Rump Parliament in May 1659, Monck received no appeal for help from Richard so did nothing to intervene. He declared his allegiance, and that of the army in Scotland, to Parliament. Representatives of Charles II approached Monck in the summer of 1659 regarding a possible restoration of the monarchy, but Monck refused to commit himself. In October 1659, he declared that he would uphold Parliament's authority after Sir Arthur Haselrig appealed for support against the Council of Officers' forcible dissolution of Parliament, which Monck regarded as a radical step that threatened the Church and his own moderate Presbyterianism. Monck maintained his control over the army in Scotland by sending a task force of loyal soldiers around the garrisons to arrest unreliable officers. Around one hundred officers were purged and replaced by trusted men.
Meanwhile, Major-General Lambert marched north to confront Monck, reaching Newcastle in mid-November. Monck's representatives were engaged in protracted negotiations with the interim Committee of Safety in London, which hoped to reach an agreement without bloodshed. Faced with severe weather conditions and lack of pay, Lambert's troops began to desert. When Vice-Admiral Lawson threatened to blockade London in December 1659, the leaders of the deeply unpopular military junta were obliged to step down. The Commonwealth was restored and Monck was appointed commander-in-chief of all land forces in England and Scotland. On 1 January 1660, at Parliament's invitation, Monck marched south from Coldstream on the Scottish border with a force of 5,000 foot and 2,000 horse. The last remnants of Lambert's army disintegrated before his advance. Monck insisted that the regiments stationed in London should be dispersed to garrisons around the country in order to make way for his own troops, thus forestalling any possibility of a united opposition against him. Monck's army occupied London on 3 February 1660. Recognising the deep unpopularity of the "Rump" Parliament, he supported calls for the re-admission of the MPs excluded from Parliament by Pride's Purge in 1648, to great popular acclaim.
Monck kept firm control over the army and was vigilant for signs of disaffection amongst his officers. Although he continued to proclaim his support for the Commonwealth in public, he entered into secret negotiations with representatives of Charles Stuart during March 1660, resulting in the formulation of Charles' manifesto the Declaration of Breda. Meanwhile, the restored Long Parliament voted to dissolve itself on 16 March 1660 and to call new elections. The pro-Royalist Convention Parliament duly assembled on 25 April 1660 and the Restoration of the monarchy became inevitable. When the restored King landed at Dover on 25 May, Monck was the first to greet him as he came ashore. He was invested with the Order of the Garter the following day.
Amongst other honours for his part in the Restoration, Monck was appointed Captain-General of the Army, Master of the King's Horse and created Duke of Albemarle. Monck's regiment of foot — originally formed by Cromwell in 1650 — was the only New Model Army regiment to be incorporated into Charles II's standing army, where it became known as the Coldstream Guards. Monck played an active naval role in the Second Dutch War (1665-7) but generally kept out of politics. During the emergencies of the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666, Monck took charge of governing London. As one of the Lords Proprietor of Carolina, Albemarle Sound was named in his honour, as was Albemarle County, Virginia. He died on 3 January 1670, receiving a state funeral at the King's expense, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Sources:
Maurice Ashley, Cromwell's Generals (London 1953)
Godfrey Davies, The Restoration of Charles II, 1658-60 (San Marinio 1955)
C.H. Firth, George Monck, first Duke of Albemarle, 1894
Ronald Hutton, George Monck, first duke of Albemarle, Oxford DNB, 2004
Links:
generalmonck.com includes C.H. Firth's biography of Monck and excerpts from his book Observations Upon Political and Military Affairs