Monitoring Receiver

MONITORING RECEIVER is a receiver so arranged as to enable an operator to check the operation of a radio trans mitting set.

MONK

(or MONCK), GEORGE, 1ST DUKE OF ALBE MARLE (1608-1669), second son of Sir Thomas Monk, was born at Potheridge, near Torrington, in Devonshire, on Dec. 6, i6o8. In 1626 he served in the expedition to Cadiz, and the next year in the Isle of Re. At the outbreak of the Irish rebellion he was made colonel of Lord Leicester's regiment. All the qualities for which he was noted—his talent for making himself indispensable, his imperturbable temper and his impenetrable secrecy—were fully displayed in this employment. Monk was appointed governor of Dublin by Leicester, but Charles I. overruled the appointment in favour of Lord Lambert. Ormonde, who viewed Monk with suspicion as one of the two officers who refused the oath to sup port the Royal cause in England, sent him under guard to Bristol. But he justified himself to Charles in person, and his soldierly criticisms on the Irish War impressed the king, who gave him a command in the corps sent over from Ireland during the English Civil War. He was taken prisoner, at Nantwich and spent the next two years in the Tower, where he wrote his Observations on Military and Political Affairs.

Monk's Irish experience led to an invitation to serve parlia ment against the Irish rebels. At first as adjutant-general to the Parliamentary lord-lieutenant, his old friend Lord Lisle, and after wards as governor of Ulster, he rendered great services to his new masters. He made head against the rebels for two years, but in the third (1649) the Parliamentarians, weakened by defections brought about by the execution of the king, lost one place after an other, and Monk concluded an armistice with the rebel Owen Roe O'Neill upon terms which he knew would not be ratified. Having been exonerated by parliament, his next command was in Crom well's army in Scotland. He commanded a brigade at the victory of Dunbar, and when in 1651 Cromwell hurried into England to pursue Charles II., Monk was left to complete the subjugation of the country. After taking Dundee, he retired to Bath in 1652, broken in health.

In Nov. 1651 Monk was appointed one of the three generals of the fleet. He was engaged with Blake and Deane in the battle of Portland (Feb. 18, 1653), and in the action of June 2-3 exer cised the general command after Deane's death. A third battle on July 29 and 3o, was a decisive victory for the Commonwealth's fleet (see DUTCH WARS). On his return he married Anne Clarges, a woman of low extraction, and next year was back in Scotland. After suppressing the Royalist insurrection in the Highlands, he settled down to a steady government of the country for the next five years. In 1655 he received a letter from Charles II., a copy of which he sent to Cromwell, who is said to have replied in 1657: "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." During the confusion which followed Cromwell's death Monk remained watchful at Edinburgh, careful only to secure his hold on his troops. In July 1659 tempting proposals were again made to him by the king, but he would not entertain them. When Booth rose in Cheshire for the king, Monk was on the point of joining forces with him, and a manifesto was prepared. His habitual

caution, however, induced him to wait until the next post from England, and the next post brought news of Booth's defeat.

When Fleetwood and Lambert declared against the parlia ment, Monk refused to join them, and (Oct. 20, 1659) at once took measures of active opposition. Securing bis hold on Scot land by a small corps of occupation, he crossed the border with the rest of his army. Holding Lambert in play until his army began to melt away for want of pay, Monk became commander in-chief of the parliament's forces (Nov. 24). The navy, some of the English garrisons and the army in Ireland declared for the parliament, and the army from Scotland crossed the Tweed on Jan. 2, 166o. Monk entered London on Feb. 3. In all this his ultimate purpose remained mysterious. At one moment he se cretly 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 attenuated Long Parliament the necessity of a dissolution. Lastly, acting as the military agent of the infuriated parliament, he took away the gates and portcullises of the city. This angered not only the citizens but his own army, and gave him the lever that he desired to enforce the dissolution of parliament. He was now master of the situation, and though he proclaimed his republican sympathy, it was well known that the new parliament, which Monk was imposing on the remnant of the old, would have a strong Royalist colour. Monk himself was now in communication with Charles II., whose declaration of Breda was based on Monk's recommendations. The new parlia ment met on April 25, and on May ist voted the restoration of the monarchy.

With the Restoration the historic interest of Monk's career ceases. Soldier as he was, he had played the difficult game of diplomacy with incomparable skill, and had won it without firing a shot. He was made gentleman of the bedchamber, knight of the Garter, master of the horse and commander-in-chief, raised to the peerage with the titles of Baron Monk, earl of Torrington and duke of Albemarle, and received a pension of £7,000 a year. Monk had been appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland but he would not leave England. He concurred in the disbandment of the army, and only the regiment of which he was colonel, the Cold stream (Guards), survives to represent the army of the Civil Wars. In 1664 he had charge of the admiralty when James, duke of York, was in command of the fleet, and when in 1665 London was deserted on account of the plague, Monk remained in charge of the government of the city. In the following July, with Rupert, he defeated the Dutch fleet, and in the autumn main tained order in London during the Great Fire. His last service was in 1667, when the Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames, and Monk, though ill, hastened to Chatham where he was unable to oppose their progress. From that time he lived in privacy, and died of dropsy on Jan. 3, 167o. The dukedom became extinct on the death of his son Christopher, and duke of Albemarle (1653-88).

See the Life of Monk, by Dr. Gumble, his chaplain (1671), and the memoir and bibliography by C. H. Firth in the Dict. Nat. Biogr.