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

General Monck to the Council of State - 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 Council of State

Right Honourable,

lii. f. 71b.I was determined this morning to have waited on you myselfe, to have manifested the reallity of my intencions to you, that they were for noe other ends then the publick, and that upon the same accompt yourselves assert in a Commonwealth. And as for the other particulars mentioned in your letter, they were accidents emergent from the suddennesse of my removeall, and are nowe past, and I thinke better to be forgotten then to be taken notice of. But my officers, comeing to me just now in order to the execution of resolutions, have soe importun’d mee, not onely in relation to themselves and their forces, being not yett well and orderly setled in their quarters, but in relation to the peace of this great cittie and nations, and indeed have urged mee with such reasons as not being able sufficiently to answere, [I] am content to submit thereunto, and those also seconded by some eminent cittizens and constant friends of yours.1 Whereupon, I earnestly intreat you to dispense with my absence for a weeke or ten dayes, within which tyme I hope you will soe setle all things as this distance will be taken away, and the present dissatisfaccion removed from the spirits of all men, when they once see they shall be fully represented, and themselves made sharers in the government, as well as in obedience, which commending to your speedy care, I remayne

Your, etc.,

G. M.

Bread Street, London,
13 Febr. 1659.

To the Council of State.

[1 ]Monck was sent into the City on Thursday, February 9, with orders to arrest certain persons, to take down the gates and portcullises, and to take away the posts and chains which had been put up for the defence of the City (Commons’ Journals, vii. 837). His letter to the Council of State, of the same date, giving an account of his fulfilment of part of his orders and of his reasons for not fulfilling the rest, is printed in the Old Parliamentary History (xxii. 92), and is No. 22 in Toland’s collection. Parliament thereon ordered him to complete his task, and on Friday, the 10th, he did so, returning again that night to Whitehall. On the morning of Saturday 11th, Monck sent a long letter to the Speaker, from Whitehall, signed by himself and his officers, in which he demanded the issue of writs for new elections, &c., and manifested openly his opposition to the policy of the prevailing party in the House (Old Parliamentary History, xxii. 98; Toland, No. 23). After sending the letter, he marched again into the City (Baker, pp. 706-709).

On February 12 the Council of State wrote to Monck, complaining of ‘the tumultuous assemblies and outrageous disorders’ which had taken place the previous night, and inviting him to return to Whitehall (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1658-59, p. 358). He returned the answer printed above. Their reply, dated February 13, is also calendared amongst the State Papers (p. 360). Monck’s rejoinder is amongst the Clarke Papers.