Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/194

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Monro
188
Monro

had one daughter, Margaret, married to Kenneth Mackenzie of Scotwell,and by his second wife, Mary Haynes, an English lady, he had a daughter Elizabeth. As he left no male issue, he was succeeded in the barony of Foulis by his brother Hector, who also obtained the rank of colonel in the service of Oustavus Adolphus, and on his return to Scotland was on 7 June 1634 created by Charles I a baronet of Nova Scotia.

[Monro his Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment, called Mackay's, 1637; particulars concerning the Munros in Doddridge's Life of Colonel Gardiner; Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, pp. 83-4.]

T. F. H.

MONRO or MUNRO, ROBERT (d. 1680?), general, was of the family of Foulis Castle in Ross-shire, and followed his cousin, Robert Monro of Foulis, the 'Black Baron' [q. v.], the then head of the house, to the continental war. Thither also went his nephew, Sir George Monro [q. v.] The nature of his service there may be gathered from the title-page of the narrative which he published in London in 1637: 'Expedition with the worthy Scots Regiment called Mackey's Regiment, levied in August 1626 … for His Majesty's service of Denmark and reduced after the Battle of Nerling [Nordlingen] to one company in September 1634 at Worms … afterwards under the invincible King of Sweden … and since under the Director-general, the Rex-chancellor Oxenstiern and his Generals.' Munro served thus for seven years, beginning as lieutenant and ending as colonel. His first service was in Holstein, in 1627, and he notices that 'the Danish king was of absolute authority in his kingdom, as all Christian kings ought to be.' Denmark made a separate peace in 1627, and Munro, with his fourteen hundred Scottish comrades, transferred his allegiance to Gustavus Adolphus, whom, like Dugald Dalgetty, he is fond of calling 'the lion of the North.' In the Swedish king's service there were at one time, it is said, not less than three generals, eight colonels, five lieutenant-colonels, eleven majors, and above thirty captains, all of the name of Munro, besides a great number of subalterns (cf. Anderson, Scottish Nation, iii. 215). He visited Sweden in 1630, missed the battle of Lützen (16 Nov. 1632), and continued in the service after that fatal day. He was in Scotland recruiting in 1634, but returned to the continent. From a letter preserved at Dunrobin it appears that he was at Hamburg in October 1636 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. p. 178).

When the troubles began between Charles I and the Scots, Munro sided with his own countrymen, and was soon employed. In June 1639 he commanded a division of the army which repulsed Holland from Kelso (Baillie, i. 210). At the end of May 1640 he was sent with about eight hundred men to Aberdeen, where he acted with severity. Spalding, who is full of lamentations, particularly mentions that 'he caused set up between the crosses ane timber mare, whereupon runagate knaves and runaway soldiers should ride. Uncouth to see sic discipline in Aberdeen, and more painful to the trespasser to suffer.' His troops were ill-paid, but he maintained order, and even killed a mutineer with his own hand. In September, much to Spalding's disgust, he and his officers were made burgesses of Aberdeen, and soon afterwards they marched to Edinburgh. On the breaking out of the Irish rebellion the Scots estates offered ten thousand men with three thousand stand of arms to the English parliament. The offer was accepted, and the command given to Alexander Leslie [q. v.], with Munro as his second, but only about four thousand really landed in Ireland. Leslie did not go over until some time after his vanguard, and then only for a short visit, so that the leadership of the new Scotch, as they were called, really devolved upon Munro, who was called major-general.

Munro was wind-bound for a month on the Ayrshire coast and in Arran, but reached Carrickfergus on 15 April 1642 with about 2,500 men. Lord Conway and Colonel Chichester retired to Belfast, but acknowledged him as their general, and he was soon in command of 3,500 men. On 30 April, having dispersed Lord Iveagh's forces near Moira, he attacked Newry, plundered the town, and put all in the castle to the sword. Several women were killed by the soldiers, some of whom were punished by the general, but little quarter was given anywhere during the war (Pike; Turner). A week later Munro tried to surprise Sir Phelim O'Neill [q. v.] near Armugh, but the latter burned the town and retired to Charlemont. Munro withdrew to Carrickfergus, where he lay inactive for some time, losing many men by Irish ague, and complaining that he could not get provisions (Letter to Leslie in Contemp. History, i. 419). No help could be given to the garrison of Londonderry, who were threatened by Sir Phelim, but early in June Munro was strong enough to capture Randal Macdonnell, second earl of Antrim [q. v.] at Dunluce. The earl attempted to stand neuter, with the usual result, but there were eight hundred MacDonnells in arms on the Irish side, and Munro was probably justified in making him a prisoner. He escaped by a stratagem some months later (War of