400 years ago today, on 6 December 1608, General Sir George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, was born.

He was the most successful of the "political" generals from the English Civil War. He served the Parliamentarians in Ireland 1646-49 before turning his talents to the Navy under Cromwell's Commonwealth 1652-54. He was appointed Commander in Scotland in 1654 where he remained for six years.

He is best remembered as the General who, in late 1659, realized that the Commonwealth that had ruled the country under Oliver Cromwell could not survive after his death. On New Year's Day 1660 he led an army south to occupy London and begin negotiations for the Restoration of the Monarchy.

A grateful King Charles II created him Duke of Albemarle and made him commander of the English fleet in the Dutch Wars of the 1660s.