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Early Life and CareerHe was born at Potheridge, near Torrington, in Devon, second son of Sir Thomas Monck, a gentleman of a good Devon family but in straitened financial circumstances. Having assaulted the under-sheriff of the county in revenge for a wrong done to his father, he was forced to go abroad. Becoming a soldier, he served as a volunteer in the expedition to Cádiz (1626), and the next year fought well at the siege of the Île de Ré (an abortive attempt to aid French Protestants in the city of La Rochelle).
Service in the Royalist CauseDuring the operations on the Scottish border in the Bishops' Wars (1639–1640) he showed his skill and coolness in the dispositions by which he saved the English artillery at the Battle of Newburn (1640), though he had little ammunition. At the outbreak of the Irish rebellion (1641) Monck became colonel of Lord Leicester's regiment. All the qualities for which he was noted through life—his talent of making himself indispensable, his imperturbable temper and his impenetrable secrecy—were fully displayed in this post. The governorship of Dublin stood vacant, and Leicester appointed Monck. Charles I, however, overruled the appointment in favour of Lord Lambart, and Monck with great shrewdness surrendered the appointment without protest. The Duke of Ormonde, however, viewed him with suspicion as one of two officers who refused to take the oath to support the Royal cause in England, and sent him under guard to Bristol.
Career under the RepublicMonck's experience in Ireland, however, led to his release. He was made major general in the army sent by parliament against the Irish rebels. Making a distinction like other soldiers of the time[citation needed] between fighting the Irish and taking arms against the king, he accepted the offer and swore loyalty to the parliamentary cause. He made little headway against the Irish and concluded an armistice (called then a "convention") with the rebel leaders upon terms which he knew the parliament would not ratify[citation needed]. The convention was indeed a military expedient to deal with a military necessity, and although most of his army went over to the Royalist cause, he himself remained faithful to his employers and returned to England. Although parliament, as expected, disavowed the terms of the truce, no blame was attached to Monck's recognition of military necessity. He next fought at Oliver Cromwell's side in Scotland at the Battle of Dunbar, a resounding victory. Made commander-in-chief in Scotland by Cromwell, Monck completed the subjugation of the country. In February 1652 Monck left Scotland to recover his broken health at Bath, and in November of the same year he became a general at sea in the First Anglo-Dutch War, which proved a devastating victory for the Commonwealth's fleet and marked the beginning England's climb to supremacy over the Dutch at sea. On his return to shore Monck married Anne Clarges, a woman said to be of "low extraction", described by Samuel Pepys, among others, in less than complimentary terms. Next year he returned to Scotland, methodically beating down a Royalist insurrection in the Highlands. This having been done, Monck, at Cromwell's request, remained as governor. The timely discovery of a plot fomented by Robert Overton, his second in command, in 1654, gave Monck an excuse for purging his army of all dissident religious elements, then called "enthusiasts", deemed "dangerous" to the Cromwell regime. In 1655 he received a letter from Charles II, a copy of which he at once sent to Cromwell, who is said to have written to him in 1657 in the following terms: "There be [those] that tell me that there is a certain cunning fellow in Scotland called George Monck, who is said to lye (sic) in wait there to introduce Charles Stuart; I pray you, use your diligence to apprehend him, and send him up to me." Monck's personal relations with Cromwell were those of sincere friendship on both sides. Restoration of the MonarchyDuring the confusion which followed Cromwell's death on 3 September 1658, Monck remained silent and watchful at Edinburgh, careful only to secure his hold on his troops. At first he contemplated armed support of Richard Cromwell, but gave up this idea on realising the young man's incapacity for government, and renewed his waiting policy. In July 1659 direct and tempting proposals were again made to him by the king. Monck's brother Nicholas, a clergyman, brought to him the substance of Charles's letter. He bade his brother go back to his books, and refused to entertain any proposal. No bribe could induce him to act one moment before the right time. That right time came when Gen. John Lambert declared against the Rump Parliament. On 23 October 1659, Monck at once took measures of active opposition to this repetition of Pride's Purge. Holding Lambert in play without fighting until his army began to melt away for want of pay, Monck received the commission of commander-in-chief of the parliamentary forces on 24 November 1659. He entered the capital on 3 February 1660. In all this his ultimate purpose remained mysterious. At one moment he secretly encouraged the demands of the Royalist City of London, at another he urged submission to the existing parliament, then again he refused to swear an oath abjuring the house of Stuart, and further he hinted to the rump of Long Parliament the urgent necessity of a dissolution. He forced the dissolution of the Rump parliament, while at the same time breaking up, as a matter affecting discipline, the political camarillas that had formed in his own regiments. He was now master of the situation. Though he protested his adherence to republican principles, it was a matter of common knowledge that the new parliament would have a strong Royalist colour. Monck himself, now in communication with Charles II, accepted the latter's Declaration of Breda, which was largely based on Monck's recommendations. The new parliament met on 25 April 1660, and on 1 May voted the restoration of the monarchy. Soldier though he was, he had played the difficult game of politics in a fluid and uncertain situation with incomparable skill. That he was victor sin sanguine, i.e. "without blood", as the preamble of his patent of nobility stated, was felt by every one to be the greatest service of all, especially given the violence of the Civil Wars. Charles II's GratitudeCharles II rewarded Monck suitably for his services in restoring him to his throne. He became gentleman of the bedchamber, Knight of the Garter, master of the horse. Charles raised him to the peerage with the titles of Baron Monck, Earl of Torrington and Duke of Albemarle, and he received a pension of £7,000 a year, a huge fortune for the time. He entirely concurred in the army's disbandment, and only the regiment of which he was colonel, the Coldstream (Guards), survives to this day, one of the oldest military formations in the world and the last representing the army of the English Civil War. As further token of Charles II's gratitude, in 1663, Monck, now the Duke of Albemarle, was one of eight Lords Proprietors given title to a huge tract of land in North America which became the Province of Carolina, the present-day American states of North and South Carolina. End of CareerHis last military services to England were rendered in the Second Anglo-Dutch War when he was appointed commander-in-chief of the English fleet [1]. After that war's dismal conclusion, [2], he lived privately (although he officially served as First Lord of the Treasury) and died of edema on 3 January 1670, "like a Roman general with all his officers about him"[citation needed]. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. His dukedom became extinct on the death of his son Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (1653–1688). Notes
References
es:George Monck fr:George Monck nl:George Monck pl:George Monck, 1. książę Albemarle
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