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 was severely defeated by General Goring on Seacroft Moor, as he was engaged in covering the retreat of Lord Fairfax and the main body of his army from Selby to Leeds (Mercurius Aulicus, 4 April 1643; Short Memorial, p. 16). Nicholas, in relating this event to Prince Rupert, terms Fairfax ‘the man most beloved and relied upon by the rebels in the north’ (, ii. 150). The capture of Wakefield on 21 May following amply compensated for this misfortune. No more remarkable success was gained by any general during the civil wars. With fifteen hundred men Fairfax stormed a town held by twice that number, taking General Goring himself, twenty-eight colours, and fourteen hundred prisoners. Looking back on it many years later he described it as ‘more a miracle than a victory’ (, v. 270; Short Memorial, p. 18). May compares it to ‘a lightening before death,’ for it was followed almost immediately by the total defeat of the two Fairfaxes at Adwalton Moor (30 June). In that fatal battle Sir Thomas led the right wing, and, escaping from the rout with a portion of his troops, he threw himself into Bradford, and when Bradford could resist no longer cut his way through Newcastle's forces, and succeeded in reaching his father at Leeds (, v. 279; Short Memorial, p. 19). During the flying march to Hull which now took place he commanded the rear-guard, and was severely wounded. When Hull was besieged he was sent into Lincolnshire with twenty troops of horse to join Cromwell and Manchester, and took part with them in the victory of Winceby on 11 Oct. 1643. ‘Come let us fall on, I never prospered better than when I fought against the enemy three or four to one,’ said Fairfax when he first viewed the royalists, and marked their numbers. Manchester, in his despatch to the lords, writes: ‘Sir Thomas Fairfax is a person that exceeds any expressions as a commendation of his resolution and valour’ (, God's Ark, p. 47; Old Parliamentary Hist. xii. 423). On 29 Jan. 1644 Fairfax defeated Lord Byron and the English troops recalled from Ireland at Nantwich in Cheshire, took fifteen hundred prisoners, and followed up the victory by capturing three royalist garrisons.

In March 1644 he returned into Yorkshire, and shared in the victory at Selby, to which his own leading of the cavalry very greatly contributed, 10 April 1644 (, v. 617). According to Clarendon, ‘this was the first action Sir Thomas Fairfax was taken notice for’ (Rebellion, vii. 400). At Marston Moor Fairfax commanded the horse of the right wing, consisting of fifty-five troops of Yorkshire cavalry and twenty-two of Scots, in all about four thousand men. The regiment under his immediate command charged successfully, but the rest of his division was routed, and he reached with difficulty, wounded and almost alone, the victorious left of the parliamentary army (Short Memorial, p. 29).

At the siege of Helmsley Castle, during the following August, Fairfax was dangerously wounded by a musket-ball, which broke his shoulder, and a royalist newspaper exultingly prophesied for him the fate of Hampden (Mercurius Aulicus, 10 Sept. 1644). While he was slowly recovering from his wound parliament undertook the reorganisation of its army. Fairfax had stronger claims than any one, now that members of the two houses were to be excluded from command. It was at first rumoured that he was to command merely the cavalry of the new army, but on 21 Jan. 1645, by 101 to 69 votes, the House of Commons appointed him to command in chief (Commons' Journals, iv. 26). The ordinance for new modelling the army finally passed on 15 Feb., and on 19 Feb. Fairfax was solemnly thanked by the speaker for his past services, and informed that parliament ‘had thought fit to put upon him the greatest trust and confidence that was ever put into the hands of a subject.’

Fairfax received his appointment, if his later apologies can be trusted, with some diffidence: ‘I was so far from desiring it that had not so great an authority commanded obedience, being then unseparated from the royal interest, besides the persuasions of nearest friends not to decline so free and general a call, I should have hid myself among the staff to have avoided so great a charge’ (Short Memorials, p. 3). A dispute arose between the two houses concerning the appointment of the officers, whom Fairfax was empowered to nominate subject to their approval. The terms of his commission gave rise to long discussions. The commission, as finally passed, differed in one important particular from that of Essex: in spite of the opposition of the lords the name of the king and the clause requiring the preservation of his person were left out (Old Parliamentary Hist. xiii. 422, 432, 436). The new army and its general were scoffed at by foes and distrusted by many of their friends. ‘When I went to take my leave of a great person,’ says Fairfax, ‘he told me he was sorry I was going out with the army, for he did believe we should be beaten’ (Short Memorials, p. 3). In his letters to the queen the king styled Fairfax ‘the rebels' new brutish general,’ and