Continuing the discussion from Arlington National Cemetery is the only monument we need to Robert E. Lee: split off as OT:
Oh, yes Alcibiades was another one, except he was exiled (several times) and ended up being killed by his enemies (possibly).
The worst that happened to Monck on the other hand was that he spent two years in the Tower of London (still a luxury prison in those days) where he spent his time writing a book before he was let out by the side that captured him and sent off to fight the Irish.
He died of ill-health in 1670, incredibly rich.
Interestingly he appears to have met his wife while in the Tower. She was apparently his seamstress. There’s a lovely bit of character assassination:
“She became pregnant by him, though it is certain that he could not be fascinated either by her beauty or cleanliness. She never could lose the manners of her early life; but when of the highest dignity in the peerage gаvе way to the most violent bursts of rage, and when under their influence poured forth a most eloquent torrent of curse-sprinkled abuse. Her husband was unquestionably afraid of her; she was always a royalist, and as he had a high opinion of her mental qualifications, she probably influenced him considerably in the course he adopted. If this is doubtful, it is not at all so that she aided with the utmost care and natural rapacity in obtaining all the rewards she could for his services. — Skinner’s Life of the Duke of Albemarle — Sir P. Warwick’s Memoirs, 408, &c. — Continuation of Clarendon’s Life, ii. 25.”
Now her story is one I’d love to be able to read. A blacksmith’s daughter, elevated to the highest level of the peerage, apparently very intelligent and capable. A Royalist to boot.
