His body, embalmed, and enclosed in lead, was carried by sea to Greenwich, where it lay in state for several days. Thence the remains were conveyed in a splendid barge to Westminster Abbey for interment. The imposing river procession embraced a large number of mourners of wide variety in rank and condition, including his relations and servants, Cromwell’s Council, the Commissioners of the Navy, admirals and generals, the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, and a large number of persons of distinction, in their barges and wherries,—the whole marshalled by the heralds at arms. At Westminster, the body had a guard of honour of several regiments of foot, and was landed amid salvoes of artillery. The remains were deposited in a vault in Henry Seventh’s Chapel. A few years later, after the Restoration, Blake’s remains, among those of some others, were rejected from the Abbey, and buried in the Abbey yard, where they have since, it is believed, remained undisturbed. “To their eternal infamy,” says his biographer, “the Stuarts afterwards disturbed the hero’s grave.... Blake had ever been for mild and moderate councils. He had opposed the late king’s trial.... The infamy belonged to Charles himself. Good men looked aghast at such atrocity....” Blake “had laid the foundations of our lasting influence in the Mediterranean, and, in eight years of success, had made England the first maritime power in Europe.”

Blake exhibited a combination of high excellences of character and disposition, and capabilities that are rarely met with in one man. As a leader and commander he was undauntedly brave, fertile in expedients, irresistible in action. Anxious only for the glory and interest of his country, he took no care for personal aggrandisement. “His contempt for money, his impatience with the mere vanities of power, were supreme. Bribery he abhorred in all its shapes. He was frank and open to a fault; his heart was ever in his hand, and his mind ever on his lips. His honesty, modesty, generosity, sincerity, and magnanimity were unimpeached. The care and interest with which he looked to the wellbeing of his humblest followers made him eminently popular in the fleet. He was one of England’s simplest, truest, bravest captains, one of her greatest naval heroes, and he was truly a knight sans peur et sans reproche.”

GEORGE MONK, K.G.,
DUKE OF ALBEMARLE.
CHAPTER X. THE FRIEND OF CROMWELL, AND THE RESTORER OF CHARLES II.

Among the distinguished heroes of the seventeenth century, men born to command, and qualified above their fellows, to achieve renown in the “profession of arms,” as general in the army or as admiral of the fleet, a foremost place has to be assigned to General and Admiral Monk.

George Monk, son of Sir Thomas Monk, was a scion of an ancient and honourable family, that had even by the female line been related to royalty, a pedigree being in existence that shows a descent of the family from Edward IV. The family were established at Potheridge, Devonshire, where George was born on the 6th December 1608. His father’s means were very limited; and, having no fortune to divide amongst his family, he designed George for a soldier of fortune, and proceeded to equip him with a “sword” with which to open “the world—his oyster.” His education was intended to prepare him for following the art of war. In his seventeenth year he joined, as a volunteer, a fleet that sailed to Cadiz with hostile intent, under the command of Lord Wimbledon. Two years later he accompanied an unfortunate expedition under Sir John Burroughs to the Île de Rhé. His earliest experiences in warlike adventure were the reverse of encouraging.

Sir Thomas had intended his son George to be a soldier rather than a sailor, but circumstances, that may be glanced at, diverted the young man’s course. Charles I., at the beginning of his reign, visited Plymouth to inspect the naval preparations in progress in view of an expected war with Spain. Sir Thomas wished to pay his duty to the king, and took this opportunity for carrying out his loyal purpose. His financial affairs were in a most unsatisfactory condition. So he sent a considerable present to the under-sheriff of the county, who, in return, gave him a promise of freedom from “molestation” while he paid his duty to the king. The creditors of Sir Thomas, having heard of this arrangement, sent a more considerable present to this official, who unblushingly arrested the old gentleman whom he had betrayed. George, his devoted and plucky son, proceeded to Exeter to expostulate with the sheriff, and procure, if possible, his father’s release. He employed his rhetorical powers with much energy, but scant patience. His arguments and appeals were made in vain, and, finding that no redress was to be obtained, he proceeded to give the sheriff a thorough beating, and, without wasting time in leave-taking ceremonies, escaped to Cadiz.

Monk remained connected with the navy till 1628, when he went to Holland, and served with valour under the Earl of Oxford. He returned to England, and from 1641 did military duty in Ireland. In 1643, when the disputes between Charles I. and the Parliament were at their height, Monk was arrested by Fairfax, and imprisoned in the Tower. The king sent to Monk from Oxford a hundred pounds in gold as an expression of his esteem; considering the king’s circumstances, the gift in coin was certainly evidence of his generosity.

GENERAL MONK.

Early in 1647, the royal cause being hopeless, Monk obtained his liberty by accepting a commission to serve under his relative Lord Lisle, who was appointed by Parliament to the government of Ireland. He incurred the displeasure of Parliament by entering into a treaty with Owen O’Neile. This he had felt to be the only means by which he could save the remnant of troops left under his command, and preserve the interest of the Parliament in the country. In 1650, Monk accepted a commission to serve under Cromwell in Scotland. These engagements seem to have been inconsistent in a loyalist. He was only, it may be, keeping his hand in as a combatant, until the king should “enjoy his own again.” Leaving out of consideration his inconsistency, it may be said with truth that, in Scotland Monk rendered Cromwell most important service, by counsel as well as action.