10 MAY 1935, Page 6

Whether it becomes me to question a statement in a

Spectator leading article is perhaps rather doubtful. All the same—did General Monk ever fight Charles I? Strictly speaking, I believe not. He fought for Cromwell; there is no doubt about that. He fought Charles' supporters, and had a lot to do with their defeat at Dunbar. But that was after Charles himself was dead. He did not take the field at Marston Moor or Naseby, and, to be severely accurate, never, I think, actually fought his former master.