The decisive victory at Marston Moor gave the parliament the command of the entire north. The few scattered garrisons which still remained in the hands of the royalists were reduced by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who, on two occasions, in performing this service was in imminent peril of death. He was knocked down with the wind of a cannon ball fired from Pomfret castle, and in the assault of Helmsley he received a shot in the shoulder which threatened to prove fatal. The parliamentary generals, however, had so mismanaged matters in the west, as to lose in a great measure the advantages which they had gained by the battle of Marston Moor. They were all. Indeed, inclined to half measures, and "dreaded a decisive victory almost as much as a decisive overthrow." Their languid mode of conducting the war had lost them the confidence of their supporters; and after the surrender of Skipton in Cornwall, and the second indecisive battle of Newbury, the ardent and daring members of the parliamentary party resolved to choose more resolute and uncompromising commanders. The army was remodelled, and new officers were chosen. Fairfax was appointed commander-in-chief in the room of Essex. This measure speedily decided the fate of the war. The enthusiasm and courage of the new soldiers, combined with their rigid discipline, made them irresistible. The first service of Fairfax in his new capacity was the relief of Taunton, in which the heroic Blake was hard pressed by the royalists. He then sat down before Oxford; but on receiving intelligence that the king had taken Leicester by storm (May 31), he broke up the siege and marched in quest of the royal army. An encounter took place between them at Naseby—a hamlet on the north-western border of Northamptonshire—on the 14th of June, and terminated in the complete and decisive defeat of the royalists. Fairfax, whose impetuosity in the field presented a striking contrast to the quietness and saturnine gravity of his habitual character, displayed extraordinary courage and skill in this memorable conflict. He fought personally in the thickest of the fray, captured a standard, and slew with his own hand the ensign who carried it. He followed up his victory by the recovery of Leicester, which surrendered on the 18th. He then attacked and defeated the dissolute Goring at Langport in Somersetshire, took Bridgewater on the 22nd of July, Bath on the 30th, and Sherborne castle on the 15th of August. Bristol, of which Prince Rupert was the governor, and which was now the last hope of the royal cause in the west, after a feeble resistance capitulated on the 10th of September. After the fall of this important post, Cromwell, who had acted as lieutenant-general of the army throughout these brilliant successes, marched to the east, while Fairfax himself completed the reduction of the scattered garrisons in the west which still held out for the king. He took Dartmouth by storm on the 18th of January, 1646, defeated Lord Hopeton on the 16th of February, pursued him into Cornwall, and compelled him to capitulate. Exeter surrendered on the 13th of April, and thus completed the subjugation of the west. The victorious general then hastened to besiege Oxford (May 1st), from which the king had just withdrawn to take refuge with the Scottish army at Newark. Oxford surrendered on the 24th of July, and it is greatly to the credit of Fairfax t hat he showed the utmost solicitude to preserve uninjured the public buildings and books, and granted liberal terms to the garrison and citizens. Worcester and Wallingford both opened their gates on the 23rd of July; Pendennis castle submitted on the 16th of August; and Ragland castle, after a long and gallant defence by its owner, the aged marquis of Worcester, surrendered to Fairfax in person (August 19th) on favourable conditions, which, as in all other cases where Sir Thomas was concerned, were most honourably observed.
The war having now terminated in the complete overthrow of the royalists, Fairfax returned to London about the middle of November, where he was received with extraordinary honours, was publicly thanked for his services by both houses of parliament, and rewarded with a valuable jewel set with diamonds, together with a considerable sum of money.
The parliament in no long time discovered, that both the maintenance of their own power and the public safety demanded the disbanding of the army. They accordingly resolved to take measures for its reduction to a peace establishment. On the 5th of March, after a long and stormy debate, they voted that Fairfax should be general of the forces that were to be continued, and that no other officer should be retained of higher rank than that of colonel. But it was found impossible to enforce this resolution in the face of the opposition of the army, which had by this time been completely organized for political purposes. On the 12th of March Fairfax visited Cambridge, where the honorary degree of master of arts was conferred upon him. About this time he was elected member for Cirencester. The breach between the parliament and the army continued daily to widen, and Fairfax, though ill at ease in his position, seems to have concurred in all the measures adopted by the soldiers till the seizure of the king's person at Holmby by Cornet Joyce, on the 3rd of June, 1647. He instantly sent Colonel Whalley, at the head of two regiments "to set all things again in their due course and order," and to assure the king that "he had not the least knowledge of these insolencies before they were done;" but Charles, either distrusting Fairfax, or more probably deluded with an opinion that the army was more in his favour, refused to return to Holmby. "I have as good an interest in the army as yourself," he said to Fairfax. "By this," observes the general, "I plainly saw what broken reed he leaned on." Sir Thomas made an attempt to bring Joyce before a court-martial, but was baffled by the unseen, though powerful influence, which had probably instigated the cornet's exploit. He continued, however, still to act along with Cromwell and the other leaders of the independents, joined in the menacing march of the army towards London, and supported the charge made (15th June) by the soldiers against Hollis, Waller, and the other heads of the presbyterian party in parliament. When, shortly after, Manchester and Lenthal, the speakers of the two houses, along with the principal members of the independent party, under pretence of personal danger sought the protection of the army, they were cordially received by the general, who on the 6th of August entered London in defiance of the parliament's orders, replaced the speakers in their seats, and received the submission of the parliament. Thus, "though Fairfax wished for nothing that Cromwell did, he contributed to bring it all to pass." The houses at this period passed an ordinance appointing Fairfax governor of the Tower of London; and on the death of his father, 13th March, 1648, he succeeded to all his titles and estates. The policy of the republican party had now become apparent, and various risings took place in behalf of the king; but they were speedily suppressed by the energy and valour of Fairfax. His last important military service was against Goring, Waller, Capel, and Lucas, who headed an insurrection of the royalists in Essex and Kent. He defeated a considerable body of the insurgents at Maidstone, on the 2nd of June, and besieged the remainder in Colchester. After a gallant defence, which lasted eleven weeks, they were compelled to surrender, and Fairfax stained his reputation by causing Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle to be shot (28th August), alleging as an excuse that they were soldiers of fortune. He returned to London in December. He was accused by Colonel Pride of having authorized the exclusion from the house of all the moderate and presbyterian members, a measure—"Pride's purge"—which prepared the way for the king's trial; but he positively declared that he had not the least intimation of it till it was done. On the institution of the "High Court of Justice" for the trial of Charles, Fairfax refused to act upon it, though he attended its first meeting, and displayed a good deal of irresolution. His lady showed a far higher spirit. When the court assembled, and the name of Thomas Lord Fairfax was called by the crier, a female voice replied—"He has more wit than to be here." When the impeachment was read, running in the name of the people of England, the same voice exclaimed—"No, nor the hundredth part of them." The soldiers were ordered to fire at the box from whence these words issued, when it was discovered that Lady Fairfax was the courageous speaker. Fairfax, however, did not even yet break with the regicides. Fifteen days after the king's death he was nominated one of the new council of state; and although he refused to subscribe the test presented by the parliament for approving all their proceedings towards the king, he was, on the 31st of March, appointed general of all the forces in England and Ireland. In May he marched into Oxfordshire against the Levellers, whom he suppressed, and was made a doctor of laws by the university. He was now, however, thoroughly wearied of his office, and dissatisfied with much that had been done by his associates; and finding that he was powerless for good, he resigned his commission in June, 1650, when the Scots took up arms in behalf of Charles II. A pension of five thousand pounds a year was conferred upon him by the government, and he
