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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The English Revolution

General Monck to the Committee of Safety 1 - Sir William Clarke, The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4 [1901]

Edition used:

The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, Secretary to the Council of the Army, 1647-1649, and to General Monck and the Commanders of the Army in Scotland, 1651-1660, ed. C.H. Firth (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901). 4 vols.

Part of: The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, 4 vols.

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General Monck to the Committee of Safety1

Right Honorable,

xxxi. f. 122.I am bound to acknowledge with great thankfulnesse the respectes you have bin pleased to vouchsafe mee soe largely manifested in your late lettre: and as I doe exceedingly rejoice that the management of soe weighty an affaire as the safety of the 3 nations is committed to persons of soe eminent worth and integrity, soe itt shall bee my greatest care and vigilancie to give you all due satisfaccion in the faithfull and diligent discharge of my trust heere. Blessed bee God, the army heere is very unanimous, and in as good a temper as I have knowne them, as their late application both to the Parliament and the Councill of officers att London doth, I hope, sufficiently manifest, and I trust alsoe the inhabitants of this nation will bee kept in good order, though I have already received intelligence that some emissaries of Charles Stuart’s are arrived among them. I shall nott bee negligent to my duty to my country in this day of itt’s greatest concernement. And I hope the forces heere, together with all the rest committed to your care, will reape great advantage by the seasonable provision you shall make for their supply, wherby they may bee incouraged in their duty, and the publique interest secured, and that this interest may prosper under your faithfull conduct shall bee the prayer of

Your very humble servant,

G. M.2

Dalkeith,
17 May 1659.

For the right Honorable the Committee
for Safety.

[1 ]Also in Clarke MSS. li. 68a.

[2 ]The army under Monck’s command had already signified its adherence to the new Government by two addresses. One, which is directed to the Speaker, is to be found in the Old Parliamentary History (xxi. 414), in Whitelocke’s Memorials (iv. 346), and in the Public Intelligencer for May 16-23. It was read in Parliament on May 18, and gave great satisfaction (Commons Journals, vii. 658). The other, which was directed to Fleetwood and the General Council of the Army, is printed in Thurloe (vii. 669). According to Phillips, Monck at first thought of resistance; but when he convened some of his officers at Edinburgh to ‘sound their temper, he perceived they had been wrought upon; and therefore he judged it most prudent to seem to approve of what had been done. And to that purpose he writ a letter, signed by himself and his officers, to the officers in London, which gave them assurance of his adherence to them (but if Richard had not dissolved his Parliament, Monck had then marched into England in favour of it).’ (Baker, p. 662.) According to Bordeaux, Monck in his first answer ‘had demanded to be told what the good old cause was, before he explained his intentions; but he has since sent a declaration by express that he would not desert the interest of the army.’ (Guizot, Richard Cromwell, i. 381.) Monck’s earlier letters on the subject are missing.