Life
Monson was the third son of Sir John Monson of South Carlton, Lincolnshire. He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, on 2 May 1581 at the age of 14.
Monson ran away to sea in 1585, being then according to his own account sixteen. His first services were in a privateer in an action with a Spanish ship in the Bay of Biscay, of which he gives an account in his Naval Tracts. In the Armada year he served as Lieutenant of the "Charles," a small ship of the Queen's. There being at that time no regular naval service, Monson is next found serving with the adventurous Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), whom he followed in his voyages of 1589, 1591 and 1593. During the second of these ventures Monson was taken prisoner by the Spaniards in a recaptured prize after an engagement off Berlengas Islands, and was for a time detained at Lisbon in captivity. He was awarded MA at Oxford on 9 July 1594 and was also a student of Gray's Inn in 1594. His cruises must have brought him some profit, for in 1595 he was able to marry. The Earl offended him by showing favour to another follower, and Monson turned elsewhere. In the expedition to Cádiz in 1596, he commanded the Repulse. From this time till the conclusion of the war with Spain he was in constant employment. He was knighted at the sacking of Cadiz in 1596. In 1602 he carried out one of the last expeditions of Queen Elizabeth by defeating a Spanish and Portuguese fleet at Cesimbra Bay off Lisbon capturing a rich large carrack. He also took prisoner the same man who captured Monson at Berlengas nearly 10 years earlier.
Monson was elected Member of Parliament for Malmesbury in 1601. In 1602 he commanded the last squadron fitted out in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1604 he was appointed Admiral of the Narrow Seas, the equivalent of the Channel Fleet of modern times. In 1614 he was sent to the coasts of Scotland and Ireland to repress the pirates who then swarmed on the coast. Monson claimed to have extirpated these pests, but it is certain that they were numerous a generation later. After 1614 he saw no further active service till 1635. He was elected MP for Reigate in 1626. In 1635 he went to sea as vice-admiral of the fleet fitted out by King Charles I with the first ship money. He spent the last years of his life in writing his Tracts.
Monson died in February 1643 and was buried at St Martin in the Fields..
Read more about this topic: William Monson (Royal Navy Officer)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Death is an endless night so awful to contemplate that it can make us love life and value it with such passion that it may be the ultimate cause of all joy and all art.”
—Paul Theroux (b. 1941)
“The poem refreshes life so that we share,
For a moment, the first idea . . . It satisfies
Belief in an immaculate beginning
And sends us, winged by an unconscious will,
To an immaculate end. We move between these points:
From that ever-early candor to its late plural....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)