George Monck

From Scott's "Woodstock":

At length Cromwell died, his son resigned the government, and the various charges which followed induced Everard, as well as many others, to adopt more active measures in the king's behalf...After this, although the estate was terribly unsettled, yet no card seemed to turn up favorable to the royal cause, until the movement of General Monk from Scotland.

George Monck (or Monk), who died on January 3, 1670, is notable for having maneuvered politically through several regimes.  One constant in his life was his military success.  Monck fought against the Scots (1639-1640) and Irish (1641) under Charles I, again against the Irish under Cromwell, and at Cromwell's side against the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar (1650).  Charles II appealed to Monck while he was in Cromwell's employ, but Monck was too close to the Protector to switch sides at this time.  After Cromwell's death, Charles again approached Monck, who now saw an advantage in supporting Charles and the ultimate Restoration.  Charles raised Monck to Duke of Albemarle in gratitude for his support, and gave him the Province of Carolina in America.

Marshal Michel Ney

"Le brave des braves", as Napoleon called him after commanding the rear guard in the retreat from Moscow, Michel Ney was killed this day in Paris, in 1815. It was no stray bullet that felled one of Napoleon's elite marshals, but the work of a firing squad. Soon after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and subsequent exile, Ney was charged with treason, tried, and found guilty by the Chamber of Peers.

The Chamber of Peers consisted of nobles under the Bourbon reign, which was restored to power following Napoleon's first defeat; at Paris. Ney facilitated Napoleon's abdication after this defeat, for which King Louis XVIII raised him to the level of Peer. When Napoleon returned from exile, Ney intercepted him with the stated intent of supporting Louis. Napoleon convinced him otherwise, and the 100 days campaign ensued. Marshal Ney was in charge of the left wing of the French army at Waterloo, which became trapped; a direct cause of the French defeat.

True to his Napoleonic sobriquet, Ney faced his firing squad without a blindfold, and in fact issued the orders to fire upon himself.

Scott includes the Marshal Ney in his "Life of Napoleon", his name appearing in the text more than 50 times.