George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (6 December 1608 – 3 January 1670) was an English Royalist general during the English Civil War and a Parliamentarian General-at-Sea during the Anglo-Dutch Wars. In 1660, he played a major role in the Restoration by reconvening the Long Parliament and having it vote in favor of the restoration of King Charles II of England.
Biography[]
George Monck was born to a political family in Merton, Devon, England on 6 December 1608, and he served in the 1626 expedition to Cadiz during the Thirty Years' War and at the 1637 Siege of Breda during the Dutch Revolt. In 1638, he returned to England and became a Lieutenant-Colonel in the English Army, and he served in the Bishops' Wars against Scotland and in the Irish Confederate Wars. During the English Civil War, he sided with King Charles I of England and was given command of the army brought over from Ireland, and he was captured at the Battle of Nantwich in January 1644 and spent the next two years in the Tower of London. His experience in Ireland led to his release, and he was sent to Ireland as a Lieutenant-General, swearing loyalty to the Parliamentarian cause only because of the Royalists and Parliamentarians' shared opposition to the Irish rebels. In 1650, he was named commander-in-chief in Scotland after fighting at the Battle of Dunbar, and he completed the subjugation of the country; he was sickened at the sight of the massacre in Dundee, which he had failed to prevent. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars, he was made a General-at-Sea, and, in 1653, he beat down a Royalist insurrection in the Scottish Highlands. He served as Governor of Scotland until 1659, when, during the crisis following Oliver Cromwell's death and the rise of his incompetent son Richard Cromwell to the Protectorate, Monck marched on London to oppose Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert for rising against Parliament. On 24 November 1659, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the English Army, and he entered London on 3 February 1660 and allowed for the Presbyterian MPs expelled from Parliament in Pride's Purge in 1648 to return to Parliament, dissolved the Long Parliament on 16 March 1660, became MP for Devon and Cambridge University, disbanded the New Model Army, and invited Charles II of England to be the English king on 1 May 1660, leading to "the Restoration". Monck was rewaded by King Charles with the title "Duke of Albemarle", and he also served as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland from 1660 to 1662. In 1665, he returned to the sea during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. He fought in the Four Days' Battle and the St. James' Day Battle in 1666, and his last service occurred during the Raid on the Medway in 1667. He died of edema in 1670 at the age of 61.