Monk had hardly time to weary of his inactivity before a new storm burst in the north. Scotland had taken to herself a covenanted King, and an invasion was resolved upon by the English Parliament. Cromwell was recalled from Ireland, and in June, 1650, to the confusion of the Presbyterian opposition, he was voted to the command of the army. He at once sent for Monk to assist him in the organisation of his forces, and promised him a regiment. The significance of this it is hard to exaggerate. When we remember how fastidious Cromwell was about the private character of the men he worked with, it cannot but impress us with the extraordinary sense he must have had of his obligations to Monk. The highest military abilities would never have induced him to employ a man who was living in open contempt of the seventh commandment. It was an offence of such gravity at that time that it had been recently made capital. Yet Cromwell was determined his trusty friend should have his reward, and that in spite of the difficulty of finding him a regiment. The command of Bright's, which lay at Alnwick, was vacant, but a dangerous spirit of democracy and autonomy was growing in the army. Bright's had been one of the victorious regiments at Nantwich. They had to be asked if they would accept Monk for colonel, and they refused. "We took him prisoner," they cried, "at Nantwich not long since, and he will betray us," and ominously enough Lambert, with whom the last great struggle was to be, was chosen in his stead. From that moment the two most celebrated of Cromwell's lieutenants were doomed to an incessant rivalry. But Cromwell was not to be thwarted. As there was no regiment for his friend, he made one. At Newcastle lay Sir Arthur Haslerig's renowned Blue-Coats, and at Berwick was Colonel Fenwick with his newly raised Northumberland regiment. The field-force which had been voted for Cromwell was complete, but in his masterful way he drew five companies from each of these regiments and made up a new one for Monk. Then he laconically informed the House what he had done, and coolly requested that the new regiment should be taken on the establishment and the two weakened garrisons recruited. Like lambs the Government consented, and so in lawless birth, a reward for service that none dared name, began the famous Coldstream Guards.