Monk

He switched sides twice, outmaneuvered every faction, and handed England back its king. George Monk was the most indispensable man in seventeenth-century Britain, and somehow he's been forgotten. Born into West Country gentry, he spent his youth fighting as a mercenary across Europe, learning his trade in the wars of Spain, France, and the Netherlands. When civil war erupted, he backed the King, then found himself a prisoner in the Tower of London. He emerged to serve Parliament, grew close to Cromwell, and was left to conquer Scotland. But it was after the Protector's death that Monk performed his masterwork: with an army at his back, he played every faction against each other, marched south, and restored the monarchy in 1660. Charles II rewarded him with a dukedom, lands in America, and command of the fleet against the Dutch. Julian Stafford Corbett's 1904 biography restores this slippery, brilliant figure to his proper place. For anyone who thinks English history is just roundheads and cavaliers, Monk is the uncomfortable truth: the real game was played by men who believed in nothing but survival, and none played it better.