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 adopted Monck's suggestions, but by Hyde's advice referred to the ultimate decision of parliament the interpretation and execution of his general promises. With the declaration, Charles sent Monck a commission as captain-general, authority to appoint a secretary of state, and letters for the city, the council of state, and the parliament (, pp. 783-91;, xvi. 166-74). Monck silently laid them aside until the meeting of parliament. His negotiation with the king meant, as Charles told Grenville, 'the king's restoration without conditions.' Monck's apology for thus anticipating the action of parliament lay in the belief that he could not guarantee the peace of the nation during the time that a treaty would require (, Own Time, i. 161, ed. 1833). Parliament met on 25 April, and the next day Monck was solemnly thanked by both houses. The king's letters were presented on 1 May, and the restoration of the monarchy was voted the same day.

On 25 May the king landed at Dover. Monck met him on the shore with expressions of humility and devotion. Charles 'embraced and kissed him' (cf., p. 383). Next day at Canterbury Monck was knighted, invested with the order of the Garter and made master of the horse (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1659-60, p. 447). On 7 July he was raised to the peerage by the titles Baron Monck of Potheridge, Beauchamp, and Teyes, Earl of Torrington, and Duke of Albemarle, granted a pension of 700l. a year, and given the estate of New Hall in Essex. The selection of these titles was an implicit admission of the claims set forth in the pedigree which his panegyrists had lately published, representing him as descended from Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, and from Arthur Plantagenet, a natural son of Edward IV (Complete Peerage, by G. E. C., i. 58). But his paramount merit was that set forth in Sir Richard Fanshawe's Latin preamble to his patent, whose recital of his services closes with the words, 'hsec omnia, prudentia ac felicitate summa, victor sine sanguine, perfecit' (, Desiderata Curiosa, ii. 514). For the moment the king's obligations made Monck's influence enormous, but he used it with moderation. He presented Charles with a list of about seventy persons recommended for office, but greatly to the king's relief explained that it was a mere formality. Of his kinsmen, Morice became secretary of state, Nicholas Monck bishop of Hereford, 'and Clarges was knighted and made commissary-general of the musters. He never wearied of advancing the interests of Grenville and his family, and Ashley Cooper owed to Monck's special recommendation his immediate admission to the privy council (, Continuation, §13; Cat. State Papers, Dom. 1664-5, p. 436).

Monck's influence was naturally greatest in military affairs. His position as captain-general was confirmed by a patent for life (3 Aug. 1660). While the rest of the army was disbanded, his own regiment of foot was continued as the king's guards, and a large part of his horse regiment was reenlisted in the horse guards. Their necessity had been shown by Venner's insurrection (7 Jan. 1661).

In purely political questions Monck's influence was far less powerful. His views as to the details of the restoration settlement are contained in a paper sent to the king about 9 May 1660 (, Life of Clarendon iii. 500). He proposed that five persons only should be excepted from the Act of Oblivion ; that the sales of church lands and crown lands by the late authorities should be confirmed as leases for a term of years ; and that those who had bought lands belonging to private persons should have the usufruct of them until the purchase-money was repaid. The solution which the royalist zeal of the convention preferred was far more sweeping. Monck himself sat among the judges of the regicides, but cannot fairly be blamed. He was not, like some of his colleagues, partly responsible for the policy which prepared the way for the king's execution ; he had endeavoured to limit the number of victims, and he faithfully observed his personal pledges to Heselrige and others, whose lives he had promised to save (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. p. 212).

In ecclesiastical matters also the policy adopted was not that which he advocated. All the evidence tends to prove that Monck was at heart a moderate presbyterian, just as his wife was a violent one. 'Moderate, not rigid, presbyterian government, with a sufficient liberty for consciences truly tender,' was his definition of the settlement he desired the 'secluded members' to establish. It was with great difficulty that Price induced him to promise not to engage himself against bishops (Old Parliamentary History, xxii. 142 ;, p. 774 ; , Church History, ed. 1828, i. 5-19). The compromise Monck proposed to the king was that an assembly of divines should be called to settle, in conjunction with parliament, the future government of the church. As an advocate of comprehension he was present at the Worcester House conference (22 Oct. 1660), and two years later intervened in sup-