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THE RESTORA TION IN ENGLAND. 1660
CHAP. Monk had overthrown the military clique which deposed
Richard Cromwell, had captured the most daring and ambitious
of the republican generals, and had so arranged the
distribution of the troops as to paralyse any opposition on
the part of the army. Montagu had discharged the easier but
still .essential task of gaining over the navy, and had thus
opened a safe journey from the Netherlands to < England.
But perhaps the most invaluable service had been rendered
by Hyde. In bitter opposition to the queen-mother and her
associates, he had restrained Charles from making promises
and concessions to foreign powers which would assuredly have
discredited the dynasty and weakened its hold on the loyalty
of the people. And it was he who, as early as 1656, had invented
the formula by which all conditions extorted from the
king were to be subject to the future approval of a free parliament.
By the adroit use of this phrase, to which no advocate
of parliamentary control could object, the declaration of Breda,
with its promises of amnesty, of religious toleration, and of
security of property, could be modified at will by a subservient
parliament. Thus Hyde secured, not only the restoration of
the king, but also the restoration of the monarchy.
For these services the three great actors in the Restoration
received substantial rewards. On the day after his landing
Charles admitted Monk to the privy council, and conferred
upon him the order of the garter and the office of master of
the horse. Six weeks later the general was raised to the
peerage as Duke of Albemarle. He was appointed captaingeneral
for life and lord-lieutenant in Ireland ; and in addition to
lands and pensions in England he received Irish estates to the
value of £4,000 a year. Montagu became Earl of Sandwich
and admiral of the narrow seas. Hyde had been chancellor
of the exchequer since 1643, and lord chancellor since 1658.
With the Restoration these became substantial instead of
nominal offices, and their holder was now the most influential
minister of the crown. In 1660 he was called to the house of
lords as Baron Hyde, and at the coronation he was promoted
to be Earl of Clarendon.
The first occupation of Montagu was to bring the royal
exiles to England. On May 23 Charles II., with his brothers
James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester, embarked