Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/780

Rh 752 MONK more congenial employment, and in February 1641 he landed at Dublin as colonel of Lord Leicester s regiment. Here he greatly increased his reputation. Under the most difficult circumstances he was ever cool, patient, vigorous. A rigid disciplinarian, he was always attentive to the wants of his men, and completely won their confidence and affec tion. All the qualities for which he was noted through life, the calculating selfishness which kept him ever on the winning side and by which he accomplished his great historic success, the imperturbable temper and impene trable secrecy, were fully displayed in this employment. He had but one interest, that of George Monk ; and to secure that interest he laboured, while retaining his free dom from party ties, to make himself indispensable as a soldier. The governorship of Dublin was vacant, and Monk was appointed by Leicester. But Charles I. overruled the appointment in favour of Lord Lambert, and Monk, with great shrewdness, gave up his claims. Ormond, however, who viewed him with suspicion as one of the two officers who refused the oath to support the royal cause in Eng land, sent him under guard to Bristol. He now deemed it safest to affect Royalist views. His value caused him to be received at once into Charles s confidence ; he was appointed major-general of the Irish brigade, and served under Byron at the siege of Nantwich. Here he was taken prisoner by Fairfax, on 25th January 1644, in one of the most skilful operations of the war. After a short captivity in Hull he was placed in the Tower, where he remained for three years (during which his father died), beguiling his imprisonment by writing his Observations on Military and Political Affairs. So long as the war lasted Monk could not be released. Charles, however, became a prisoner ; the troubles in Ireland made the parliament anxious to secure Monk s services, and he was told that if he would take the Cove nant he might have an important command. With some show of hesitation the terms were accepted, and, after a service of two months in Lord Lisle s abortive expedition, Monk was placed in command of the British forces in the north of Ireland. Compelled in 1649 to conclude a pacifi cation with the rebel O Neill, he returned to England after the king s execution. In the same year he succeeded, by his elder brother s death, to the family estate. His idleness lasted but a short while. Cromwell gave him a regiment and the command of the ordnance in the Scotch war of 1650, and after the battle of Dunbar, in which he led the attack, h e was -left with 6000 men to subdue the country, which, after taking Edinburgh, Tantallon, and Stirling castles, he did most completely in a few weeks. In 1651 he was seized with fever, but recovered at Bath, and in the same year was appointed on the commission for pro moting the Union. In 1653, with Admiral Dean, he commanded the British fleet against the Dutch, and on 2d and 3d June and 29th July fought two of the most sanguinary naval battles on record, in which both his colleague and Van Tromp were slain. A peace on very humiliating terms to the Dutch was concluded, but policy shortly led Cromwell to allow milder conditions, a conces sion against which Monk strongly remonstrated. On his return he married his mistress, Anne Clarges, a woman of the lowest extraction, &quot;ever a plain homely dowdy,&quot; says Pepys, who, like other writers who mention her, is usually still less complimentary. Monk was now sent to quell the revolt headed by Middleton in Scotland, and, when this service was over, settled down to a steady government of the country for the next five years. For fanaticism in any shape he had no sympathy, and he set himself to diminish the influence of the Presbyterian clergy Cromwell s chief opponents, taking from them the power of excommuni cation and their general assemblies, but allowing them to retain their presbyteries. Equal repression was exercised against the nobility and gentry. The timely discovery of a plot fomented by Overton for killing Monk on New Year s Day gave him an excuse for thoroughly purging his army of all Anabaptists, Fifth Monarchy men, and other danger ous enthusiasts. It is doubtful whether at this time Monk had proposed to himself the restoration of the king. He probably had it always in his mind as a possibility, but he would run no risks. His very reticence, however, caused alarm on one side and hope on the other. In 1655 he received a letter from Charles II., a copy of which he at once sent to Cromwell, whom, however, we find writing to him in 1657 in the following terms : &quot;There be that tell me that there is a certain cunning fellow in Scotland called George Monk, who is said to lye in wait there to introduce Charles Stuart ; I pray you, use your diligence to appre hend him, and send him up to me.&quot; During the confusion which followed Cromwell s death Monk remained silent and watchful at Edinburgh, careful only to secure his hold on his troops. In July 1659 direct and tempting proposals were again made to him by the king. His brother Nicholas, a clergyman, was em ployed by Sir J. Grenvil to bring to him the substance of Charles s letter. No bribe, however, could induce him to act one moment before the right time. He bade his brother go back to his books, and refused to entertain any proposal. But when Booth rose in Cheshire for the king, so tempting did the opportunity seem that he was on the point of joining forces with him ; and a letter was written to the Rump parliament threatening force if it did not at once fill up its numbers. His habitual caution, however, induced him to wait until the next post from England, and the next post brought news of Booth s defeat. On 17th October he heard of Lambert s coup d etat. From that moment his plan of action seems to have been settled. In most vehement language he dis carded the idea of restoring Charles, and, with admirable perception of the state of English feeling, took for his principles that in all cases the army must obey the civil government, and that the civil government must be parliamentary. At present the Rump was crushed by the military party ; the first thing, therefore, to be done was to free it. His army underwent a second purging of dis affection, and he then issued a declaration embodying the principles mentioned above, and wrote to Lenthall the speaker, and to the military party to the same effect. In a treaty with the Committee of Safety his commissioners, who were to treat only on the basis of the restoration of parliament, were outwitted. Monk at once refused to accept the terms proposed, and marched to Berwick, having received an offer from Fairfax of assistance if he would promise that the secluded members should be restored. Meanwhile Lambert had marched northwards to oppose his advance. Monk s action gave fresh heart to the adherents of the parliament. The old council of state met, and named him general of all the forces ; the fleet and the Irish army, hitherto hostile, came round to his side, and so did Whetham at Portsmouth. Monk now, in the depth of winter, crossed the Tweed at Coldstream and marched by Morpeth to Newcastle, receiving letters on his way from the lord mayor and corporation of London urging him to declare for a free parliament. On his approach Lambert s army fell away from their general, and no obstacle re mained on the path to London. At York, when urged by Fairfax, he refused to declare for the king, and is said to have caned an officer who affirmed that such was his design. The parliament now ordered him to come to London. Fleetwood s army which occupied the city was, however, a great obstacle ; and it was not until the parlia-