At first glance, Thomas Fairfax, son of the 2nd Baron Fairfax of Cameron, would not have appeared like soldier material. Born in 1612, he grew up in an England, which was worlds apart from the magnitude of wars and devastation, occurring in Europe. England was not however wholly unconnected, for the King’s son-in-law Elector Frederick of the Palatine had accepted the crown of Bohemia, after it rebelled against the Holy Roman Emperor. Fairfax would have grown up, seeing many men travel from England to take part in the wars which followed Frederick’s enthronement, between Catholic and Protestant’s, which ended with Frederick being forced out of both Bohemia and the Palatine. Fairfax had entered St John’s College, Cambridge aged fourteen, a lover of learning and showing himself good at study. A little later, he published his own book of poems and translations called, “The Employment of my Solicitude.” Fairfax at this time launched himself into his interests of Roman antiquities and cultivating roses. Then suddenly showing a tendency which he was forever to bear, he began to think of another career, which was totally different to the Fairfax he had behaved as previously. As he was leaving behind his seventeenth year, he was at the siege of Bois-Le-Duc. Fairfax had moved from the learned boy who quietly enjoyed his study, to a soldier, showing as if there were two “Black Toms”, each with a very different nature. One was retiring, irresolute and quiet, whilst the other was a man of action, with a brave military flair. Once he had returned from the continent, fighting Spain, Fairfax married the daughter of the English Commander Lord Horace de Vere in 1637. Anne was a spirited lady, proud of her ancestry and Fairfax was helped greatly by their relationship. When King Charles tried to bring all his kingdoms into the same religious outlook, Scotland rebelled and he was forced to call a Parliament to finance an army, which would quell this rebellion. Fairfax joined the King’s forces in the north and marched with them, commanding a company of dragoons. He fought so bravely in an assault with the Scots, that the King knighted him. Soon however, he was to prove that his religion was to be important to him, when he came to the fore in his locality as a strict and important Presbyterian. This brought him into loggerheads with the King’s religious aims and Fairfax was soon riding up to the Monarch in 1642, to carry out an act of audacity. At Heyworth Moor, a loyal crowd had gathered to meet the King, but some opponents of the Monarch had organised a group to interrupt this display of loyalty. Fairfax rode through the loyal people, to get close enough to the King to press a petition to the Royal saddle. As much as wanting to protest against the Royal policy, Fairfax also wanted to show the King how much opposition there was in the country. Fairfax at the end of the day was a Royalist at heart. Wheels of War Very soon matters had gone out of control as the wheels of war span on without mercy. England faced civil war, with Fairfax and his father supporting the Parliamentarian side in their native Yorkshire. Fairfax’s father was not a great soldier and it was left to him to pull their army out of many dangerous situations, which the great Royalist soldier-poet, the Marquis of Newcastle, had placed them in. At one point, it looked as though Yorkshire would be swallowed up in the Royalist advance, but just at the crucial moment, Parliament invited a foreign power to invade England in its support. This power was Scotland, which although part of Great Britain, was still legally and physically ruled separately. This advance helped Fairfax extricate his army and gradually the north gained Parliamentary garrisons. Then something cunningly extraordinary occurred. Parliament and some military leaders who were not satisfied with their superiors honourable attitude to the war, decided to get rid of the high command. Cromwell was the leading figure and he called for the Earls of Manchester, Essex and all other commanders who had a seat in Parliament, to resign. The House of Lord’s put up opposition, but soon it was forced into agreeing by the House of Commons. Soon the commanders who sat in the House of Commons resigned, all that is except one curious exception – Cromwell himself! It seemed that he thought he was an exception to the newly passed law and this removed all the opposition from Essex and Manchester to his determined aims and radical religion. It is curious that he proposed this new measure, yet remained with Parliament’s consent, in his post. A surprise to all, the man elected to command the whole of the newly formed army was Sir Thomas Fairfax, as he held no Parliamentary seat and had fought bravely for so long. After fighting effectively and reducing the Royalist strongholds, Fairfax found his army being ordered by Parliament, to disband. After the Royalist defeat, Parliament wanted a peace and the army refused to disband without full pay. This squabble between Parliament and their army caused the King to become a pawn, being seized unlawfully by the army, hoping to gain some power. Fairfax alleged he did not know about this event and was certainly furious about it, threatening to hang some people, but he soon accepted the situation and kissed the King’s hand, showing his loyalty in front of his slightly less enthusiastic subordinates. Second Civil War After a second Civil War when the Scots this time invaded in the Royalist’s favour and lost, Fairfax saw his grip on command loosen. Parliament was anxious for peace with the King and when it looked tantalisingly close, some army commanders intervened without Fairfax’s knowledge – again. Colonel Pride, stood outside Parliament and stopped every member who entered, turning away or imprisoning any known Royalist or moderate, until the pro-army group left, declared the recent peace treaty invalid. The army had overran Parliament and the democracy which so many men had fought for, but despite the uproar, Fairfax sunk into one of his deepest melancholia moods and became darkly irresolute. Not lifting a finger to re-instate the excluded members and Parliamentary freedom, he sat back and watched while his subordinates decided the fate of the country in his name. His position was very dangerous and complicated, to give him his due, but there is no doubt he had the power to stop this injustice and slight on his character. Very soon the King was on trial for his life, with a forgone conclusion and in January 1649, preparations sped ahead for the state trial. Fairfax was in a bleak mood and his inertia sprung from that. Attending the first meeting of the commissioners appointed to try the King, Fairfax soon picked up on what their aim was, the murder of their own King – Regicide. Making no protest and no display of disagreement, he simply did not turn up for any further meetings, although he would have been well informed as to the proceedings. On 17th January, Fairfax and his wife received a letter from the Presbyterian clergy in London, complaining about the army’s actions and Fairfax’s army’s plea’s for support. They had refused support they told Fairfax, not wishing to be associated with people who arrested Members of Parliament and who imprisoned the King. They took time to remind Fairfax of the Parliamentary resolutions of 1641, which were made to protect them from a King’s rule, in which it was forbade to arrest an MP. The clergy were to be disappointed, as the only man in the kingdom who could stop the out of control train, did nothing. During the King’s trial, Fairfax’s name was called out as one of the commissioners, which met with a cry from the public gallery of, “No nor a hundredth part of them!” to the charge that the King was being tried in the name of the people of England. The lady was Fairfax’s wife. She interrupted several times in the course of the trial, showing clearly what the Fairfax’s views were and certainly Sir Thomas shared these views, if less vocally. At the very last minute, after the sentence of death, Fairfax met Cromwell for prayers in Whitehall Palace. It was a last ditch attempt by Fairfax and a half hearted one, but he tried. Listing the disadvantages of killing the King, he saw hope, but he was simply drunk on over-optimism. Cromwell had shouted down opponents in the trial, so Fairfax’s protest was easily brushed aside. After the axe had fallen, it caused the crowd to groan with disgust, sorrow and apprehension, for the King was brave to the end and was standing for all the ideals, which the people now craved back. They were now at the mercy of common men squabbling for power, who held an army at their fingertips to do as they pleased. After the execution, Fairfax asked Bishop Juxon, Charles’s only comfort in the dark days, how the King did. Juxon in later years was still unsure as to whether Fairfax actually thought the King had not been executed, or whether he was asking how he had performed on the scaffold. To this day it will never be known what Fairfax meant, but what he himself would have been tormented with, was the knowledge that he if anyone, could have affected the fate of the King and the kingdom that day. As said earlier, if the other Black Tom, the brave, courageous one had come to the fore, events may have been very different. Fairfax had been a great leader in battle, securing victory and earning the respect of his men. He had no fear in battle and observers claimed he turned into a wild beast. He was also a kindly and generous man, with endless patience. As it was, Fairfax eventually threw in the towel when Cromwell proposed to invade and conquer Scotland, resigning and retiring to his Yorkshire estates. He welcomed the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, but continued to live in quiet solitude, dying on 12th November 1671 of a fever. Fairfax was one of the Parliamentary leaders who fought most honourably and he should be remembered for his battle honour, bravery and loyalty to his Parliament and his King, for he was a moderate man, who saw that both were needed to govern England. Back to Table of Contents -- King or Parliament #3 Back to King or Parliament List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Mark Turnbull. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com