If not exactly unknown, Fairfax has largely been passed over by British history. In public perception his role in the English revolution has been trumped by Cromwell, previously his number 2 in the parliamentary army. Fairfax's reputation as a statesman and politician has been downgraded, partly it seems because he supported the 1660 Restoration. But his achievement in building the New Model Army, the most respected professional fighting force in Europe, and in time the key political force in the Protectorate, should be better regarded. And his moral strength in remaining moderate and pragmatic at a time of intense radical factionalism marks him out as a special figure.
Early career
Fairfax was born on 17th January 1612 at Denton Hall, near Otley, Yorkshire. His father was the military commander Ferdinando, 2nd Baron Fairfax of Cameron. His mother Mary, was Lord Fairfax’s first wife. They were a Puritan family and Thomas was the eldest son. On leaving school he went at age 14 to St John’s College, Cambridge, then to Gray’s Inn. At 17 he volunteered for Sir Horace Vere’s force in the Netherlands to fight against the Spanish for the Protestant cause (1629-31). Years later, in 1637, he married Vere’s daughter Anne, who proved a formidable wife. They had two daughters, one of whom, Mary, survived to adulthood..
With some useful military experience behind him,
though still only 19, he returned home to become a cavalry commander for his
father’s Northern Army. It was in this role that he led a troop of Yorkshire
dragoons for King Charles I in Scotland during the First Bishops' War (1639). But
no fighting took place. In the Second Bishops' War (1640) Fairfax commanded 150
horse under Lord Conway. But the whole English army was routed at Newburn and
he fled in the general panic. Despite this defeat his service as a soldier was
appreciated by the king and Fairfax was knighted in January 1641.
Civil War
The dispute between King Charles and
Parliament was accelerating. Each side was digging in and when Charles left
London in 1642 people realised civil war was coming. Most of the Yorkshire
great and good supported the Royalists but the Fairfaxes, both father and son,
sided with Parliament. In June 1642 as the king gathered together Yorkshire’s gentry, Sir Thomas presented him with a petition urging a reconciliation with
Parliament. Charles refused to accept it and nearly ran Thomas down as
he moved away. When the war began in August 1642 Lord Fairfax commanded
Parliament’s small northern army, a glorified local militia, with his 30 year old son as deputy.
After October’s indecisive clash at Edgehill, (beyond
the Fairfax stamping ground) for the next year the war took on a pattern of
limited local sieges and skirmishes. Fairfax activities were confined
to Yorkshire and in June 1643 Thomas suffered a bad wrist wound at Adwalton Moor.
The Fairfaxes made for Hull, with its arms dump, which the Royalists never managed to take. By holding the port they kept their opponents busy, preventing any
advance on London. In October 1643 Thomas Fairfax first fought beside Oliver
Cromwell, colonel of an Eastern Association cavalry regiment, at Winceby,
Lincolnshire. Through all these actions Fairfax, often wounded, earned his men's respect - affectionately called ‘Black Tom’ due to his darkish complexion and black hair.
Turn of the tide
In late 1643 after checking the Royalists at Newbury, Parliament’s political leader, Pym, managed to secure the armed support of the Presbyterian Scots Covenanters. It was to change the balance of the war. At the start Parliament had expected a quick victory with its advantages in population, access to funds, logistics etc. It wasn’t to be. A stalemate ensued, but 1644 would see a difference. That summer three allied armies besieged Royalist held York. One was led by the Earl of Manchester, one (the Scots) by Alexander Leslie (Lord Leven) and the Yorkshire based contingent by Sir Thomas Fairfax (under his father’s notional control). And while they had to lift the siege and were forced back a few miles, around 7pm on 2nd July, seeing their Royalist opponents had gone for supper, they attacked them at Marston Moor.
This proved to be the largest and indeed most decisive battle of the whole Civil War. 45,000 men were involved. The Parliamentary and Scottish Covenanter allied troops outnumbered the Royalists by 27,500 to 17,500, and had more artillery. Cromwell with his Ironsides and the Scot David Leslie (son of Lord Leven) commanded the left flank. Fairfax had problems on the right, partly due to the number of streams in the terrain, and partly from enemy musket fire. Though wounded, and his force getting badly beaten, he fought on. Cromwell, having defeated the Royalist right flank was himself injured and left the field briefly for treatment. But then he and Leslie’s cavalry wheeled round across the battlefield to support Fairfax and charge the Royalist left from behind. In two hours, with both their cavalry wings routed, and their infantry overrun in the centre, the remaining Royalist forces fled toward York. Fairfax’s brother Charles was killed, as was Cromwell’s nephew.
Marston Moor was a huge victory for the allies in
what was probably the biggest battle ever fought in Britain. It destroyed the
Royalists in the North. Parliament was left in control of 75% of the country, with most of the key routes and population centres. The result effectively handed
it an unassailable position in the war. There were still numerous sieges and
skirmishes, and indeed in one action at Helmsley Castle Fairfax was severely
wounded by a musket ball that broke his shoulder. Still, by the end of 1644 he
had recovered to join his colleague John Lambert at the siege of Pontefract.
The New Model
Parliament was clearly in the ascendancy now. But finally to force the issue it was decided to re-organise the army. There was no
national force - different units were recruited locally. This meant control
of logistics was difficult and army training, equipment, leadership and
planning was haphazard. Politicians with local interests were too often
involved. Under the influence of the more radical Independents in the Commons a
Self-Denying Ordinance was passed preventing Members of Parliament from being
army officers (though Cromwell was an exception at Fairfax’s request). Figures
like the Earl of Manchester and the Earl of Essex were therefore displaced.
The Parliamentary forces were re-built into the New
Model. Fairfax was the clear choice as its head, with the title of Lord
General. He would be assisted by Philip Skippon, 12 years older than Thomas,
but another professional soldier who’d distinguished himself first in the
Netherlands then in the Civil War. With their combination of detailed knowledge
and experience, they were clearly the right people for the job. They started
work in late February 1645.
The army would have 22,000 men - 24 regiments - with 12
of infantry and 12 cavalry/dragoons. Smaller additions from elsewhere could be
used as needed. Each infantry, cavalry and artillery component had a
proven general at its head. Below them was a body of staff officers covering
different areas, including intelligence, under Leonard Watson, a major reason
for the army’s success. It had a strict disciplinary code in return for regular
pay, a positive point when soldiers were billeted among the local population,
and where looting and pillaging had often caused suffering to ordinary folk. At
first Parliament tried to direct Fairfax’s strategy, ordering him to Taunton,
then Oxford. But from May onward Fairfax was granted independent operational
control to decide things as he judged best in the field.
Fairfax, and Cromwell, his cavalry commander and No.
2, put great store by their soldiers’ motivation. In an age of religious
fervour, they wanted men of strong Puritan faith to fight for ‘King Jesus’.
Officers were appointed and promoted on merit rather than on their social
position. This, with a central high command, was quite new. Several high
ranking New Model officers had humble origins. Col Pride, for instance, had
been a brewer, and Col Hewson a shoemaker. Larger army units meant fewer
officers, with each carrying more responsibility. So hundreds of poorer performers were in
practice weeded out. With training, equipment, resources and organisation, Fairfax
and Skippon, almost incredibly, created a real fighting force in only three
months.
Army success - end game
On 14th June 1645 the army defeated the Royalists at Naseby. Some have labelled it the decisive battle of the Civil War. This is hard to justify. Fewer than half the number of troops at Marston Moor were engaged here, with only some 1500 killed or wounded. At Naseby the Royalists lost all their artillery but their army had already been broken by the allied forces the year before, in the contest outside York.
But if it was not the
strategic event of 1644 it was the last major battle of this conflict and the
first key trial of the New Model under Fairfax. Bar some mopping up in the
south and west, and the capture of Bristol, it was the end for the Royalists.
4,500 prisoners were paraded through London. Charles’ papers were seized, revealing
his plans to bring the Irish Catholic Confederation and foreign mercenaries
into the war. When published this greatly boosted the parliamentary cause. Fairfax
was feted in London.
In 1646 Charles surrendered to the Scots, who in
January 1647 turned him over to Parliament. The king engaged in fruitless, duplicitous negotiations. He still refused to accept his defeat. At the same
time he persuaded a Scottish army to invade, in what was later termed the
Second Civil War (1648). In July 1647 Fairfax had been appointed Lord-General of
all Parliament’s land forces. He served in the political crisis of
1647-48 when Parliament’s Presbyterians tried to disband the army before having settled pay arrears. Fairfax hugely respected Parliament’s authority but was
in a difficult position when the influence of religious and political factions - Levellers and
Agitators - grew among soldiers. He was too ill to chair the 1647 Putney Debates.
Rebel eruptions and Pride's Purge
In March 1648 Fairfax’s father died, so he inherited the family title, a Scottish peerage. He put down Royalist rebel eruptions in Maidstone and Chelmsford, the latter with some severity, cutting off the water supply and starving the population into surrender. He had the Royalist leaders, who he deemed had broken their parole, shot for high treason.This was uncharacteristic of him and may perhaps have been due to loss of equanimity from his recurrent problems of being ill with gout. Meanwhile Cromwell defeated a combined Scots and Royalist force at Preston.
After this short war Charles, despite having lost again, was still alive and scheming. The army, increasingly radical, generally saw him as an untrustworthy liar, and a war criminal. They hadn’t fought and suffered for years just to keep him on the throne. Some in Parliament still favoured negotiating with the king, while others wanted to put him on trial. The Presbyterian party wanted the increasingly radical forces disbanded, but in December 1648 the army marched on London against this and to force payment of the arrears it was owed. ‘Pride’s Purge’ was the result when soldiers prevented members of Parliament hostile to the army from entering the House of Commons. Filleted of army opponents it amounted to a coup d'état. This Parliament was then known as the Rump.
Soon afterwards the monarchy was abolished and the Commonwealth born. Fairfax claimed he had no knowledge of Pride’s Purge until it had taken place. He was unhappy at the drift of events towards military dictatorship. While appointed a commissioner of the High Court of Justice, Fairfax did not attend Charles’ trial in January 1649 and was reluctant to consider the consequences of a guilty verdict. Indeed he tried unsuccessfully to get the king’s execution postponed.
Role in the Commonwealth and resignation
Despite his qualms over recent events Fairfax agreed in March to being re-appointed Lord-General of Commonwealth land forces in England and Ireland. He dealt severely with the Leveller mutinies in April and May 1649, executing Lockier in Bishopsgate and three Leveller ringleaders at Burford. He stayed in England during Cromwell’s invasion of Ireland.
Black Tom’s tipping point came not with Charles' execution but 18 months later in 1650. The Scots Covenanters had recognised Charles II as king. And while Fairfax was willing to lead the army in a defensive engagement, he couldn't in good conscience lead a pre-emptive invasion of a nation linked by the Solemn League and Covenant. This was central to the terms of his new commission. His wife, Anne, and the Presbyterian clergy, probably influenced his decision. On 25th June 1650 blaming ‘debilities of body and mind’, he resigned. He was 38. A sudden announcement, though Fairfax’s unease at the speed and direction of events had been growing for a while. Commonwealth leaders tried to change his mind, worried not only at losing a fine soldier, but a ’symbol of conciliation’ between moderate Presbyterians and Independents.
Command of the Commonwealth army passed to Cromwell, who
was initially reluctant, but whose reputation has surpassed Fairfax’s. His note
at the time to Parliament read: "The
general served you with all faithfulness and honour: and the best commendation
I can give him is that I dare say he attributes all to God and would rather
perish than to assume to himself, which is an honest and thriving way, and yet
so much for bravery may be given to him in this action as to a man".
Role in the Protectorate, then Restoration
Fairfax then retired to live at his Yorkshire
estate, Nunappleton. Much of his time was spent in prayer and psalms, but he also bred racehorses. He wrote extensively
(there are four volumes of his papers), including some poetry. He employed the
poet Andrew Marvell as tutor to his surviving daughter Mary. She was later married
to the Duke of Buckingham, whose estate Parliament had earlier granted to Fairfax. The
Protectorate government disliked the marriage, given Buckingham’s contacts with
the exiled Charles II. It ordered Buckingham’s arrest in 1658. Trying to
intercede for him in London, Fairfax quarrelled with Cromwell just before the Protector’s
death.
Fairfax was MP for Yorkshire in the Third Protectorate
Parliament. He opposed military rule. In the chaos after the Protectorate’s
collapse in 1659, he helped facilitate Gen Monck’s march from Scotland to
secure Parliament’s rule. He brought most of the army over to Monck as support
for Gen Lambert’s military junta evaporated. Restoration was in the air, if not
yet decided. Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester were among those seeking to
impose conditions on Charles before allowing his return. But Monck, in a strong
position though politically inexperienced, decided he alone would conduct
negotiations. In May 1660 Charles returned from Holland as the Stuarts were
restored.
Final years
Fairfax took no further part in politics, remaining quietly
in Yorkshire for the rest of his life. Quite a sickly man, he resorted to a wheelchair
as the fevers and gout he suffered recurred. Kidney stones plus his numerous war
wounds unsurprisingly caused him frequent pain. Historian Andrew Hopper says “In
his Short Memorials Fairfax was
meticulous in acknowledging the hand of God’s providence in explaining his
unlikely survival”. He died aged 59 on 12th November 1671 at his Nunappleton estate.
His wife had died a few years earlier and Fairfax was buried next to her at St James Church, Bilborough - co-incidentally within the parish of Marston Moor. His simple tomb carries this fine epitaph:
He might have been a king,
But that he understood
How much it is a meaner thing
To be unjustly great than honourably good.
Place in British history
Why should Fairfax earn a place among figures undervalued by history? His role in building and leading the New Model Army might alone justify his inclusion. But there's far more. If widely recognised as ‘a man of courage, integrity and principle’, he was inarticulate and very religious. So hardly life and soul of the party. Maybe not politically adroit, either, but not out of his depth as often claimed. Never one to blow his own trumpet he was modest and self effacing. There were just some red lines he would not cross.
A straight shooter in an age of schemers, a moderate against extremists, and a soldier against military rule. Black Tom fought determinedly against an authoritarian king but resolutely supported Parliament and a constitutional monarchy. He was against military dictatorship. Brave and committed as a warrior and military tactician, Fairfax was also a writer, poet and racehorse breeder. Throughout his life he did not bend against his conscience.
Acknowledgements - main sources:
Andrew Hopper - many fine books and papers by a true specialist
BCWProject - David Plant - sound narrative of Fairfax and his period
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