continued pursuit would cause Holkar to disband his army. But he had no sooner reached the village of Peeplah than Holkar, with an overwhelming force, estimated at seventy thousand strong, retraced his steps and took up a strong position at Rampoorah, on the banks of the Chumbul. Monson advanced up to the Mahratta camp in battle array. But Holkar gave no sign of alarm, and the English commander, losing his presence of mind, determined to retreat. The Mahrattas, flushed with triumph, started in pursuit. They annihilated his cavalry detachment, under Lieutenant Lucan, near Peeplah, but Monson, with the infantry, managed to escape. He marched by Mokundra and Tonk Rampura to Hindown, which was reached on 27 Aug. Monson's little force had been hotly pursued the whole way by Holkar's numerous cavalry, and owing to the bad state of the roads they had been compelled to abandon all their guns and baggage. A final and determined attempt was made by Holkar to bar Monson's path outside Hindown, but Monson's sepoys held firm, and the Mahrattas drew off. The remnant of Monson's corps straggled into Agra on 29 Aug. Only a few hundred out of the original force seem to have survived.
Monson's retreat inflicted a severe blow on English prestige. He himself was to blame, first for the advance beyond Kotah, and secondly for the movement up to the Mahratta camp, followed by a sudden retreat, which had the natural result of drawing the Mahrattas after him. On the other hand, Lake has been censured for sending Monson out with so small a force, and for not coming to his assistance the moment the retreat began. In spite of his defeat Monson was again employed by Lake in the final operations against Holkar in Northern India. At the battle of Deeg, 14 Nov. 1805, he acted as second in command to General Fraser, and on his superior being wounded Monson obtained the chief command, and the privilege of writing a report of the victory to Lord Wellesley. On 21 Feb. 1806 Monson was chosen by Lord Lake to head the last of the four unsuccessful assaults on Bhurtpoor. Monson now returned to England. In December 1806 he entered parliament as member for Lincoln. He died at Bath in December 1807.
Monson married at Calcutta, 10 Jan. 1786, Anne, youngest daughter of John Debonnaire. She died 26 Feb. 1841. Their only son, William John (1796–1862), became sixth Baron Monson in 1841, and the sixth baron's son and successor, William John, was created Viscount Oxenbridge in 1886, and was master of the horse in Mr. Gladstone's fourth ministry.
[Collins's Peerage, ed. 1812; Gent. Mag. 1807, pt. ii. p. 1235; Philippart's East India Military Calendar; Thorn's Last War in India against the Mahrattas; Grant Duff's Hist. of the Mahrattas; Cornwallis Corresp.; Wellesley Despatches (Owen's selections); Army Lists; Mill's Hist. of India; Malleson's Essay on Lord Lake, Calcutta Review, May 1866.]
MONT, MOUNT, MUNDT, or MONTABORINUS, CHRISTOPHER (d. 1572), English agent in Germany, was a native of Cologne. He seems from a passage in a letter of Melanchthon to have been brought up as a lawyer, and to have received the degree of D.C.L. He was made a denizen of England on 4 Oct. 1531, and entered Cromwell's service. Cromwell employed him, according to Chapuys, as a German servant, doubtless as an interpreter, and he spent his spare time in translating German chronicles into Latin, for which on one occasion he received 6l. 13s. 4d. (cf. Letters and Papers Henry VIII, ed. Gairdner, vi. 717 and 1448).
In July 1533 Mont and Vaughan, another of Cromwell's men, were sent by Henry VIII to Germany to report on the political situation there. They arrived at Nuremberg on 22 Aug., and thence Mont went to Augsburg to confer with the heads of the Suabian League or their deputies. Vaughan wished to go home, remarking that Mont could do as well as both. From this time onwards Mont was constantly employed in Germany, and only returned to England for short periods. He gave satisfaction to his masters from the outset (cf. ib. iv. 1374), and his salary was for some time more punctually paid than that of Henry's other servants. In January 1534 Nicholas Heath [q. v.] was sent out to join him (ib. vii. 166), and their instructions, which have been preserved, are obviously Henry's own composition. Their mission was to the German princes, to whom, the king said, they had to declare the whole progress of his great cause of matrimony, the intolerable injuries done him by the pope, and the means by which he intended to maintain his just cause (cf. Froude, ii. 199). As an advanced Lutheran Mont found the work congenial. On 26 June 1534 he was granted an annuity of 20l. for life. In July 1535 he was instructed with Dr. Simon Heynes [q. v.] to go unofficially into France, and there to counteract the influence which the French were bringing to bear on Germany; above all to invite Melanchthon to England. Contrary to expectation, Melanchthon was still in Germany, whither Mont went to find him, and though he could not induce Melanchthon to come to England, he induced him to abstain from visiting France. They became friends,
