Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/152

 consequences of putting force on the parliament. He was appointed one of the king's judges, and attended the preliminary meeting of the commissioners (8 Jan. 1649), but that meeting only. When the name of Fairfax was read out at the head of the list of judges, on the first day of the trial, Lady Fairfax is said to have protested that her husband was not there, nor ever would sit among them, and that they did wrong to name him as a sitting commissioner (, vii. 1395;, xi. 235). Fairfax says himself of the king's death: ‘My afflicted and troubled mind for it and my earnest endeavours to prevent it will sufficiently testify my dislike and abhorrence of the fact’ (Short Memorials, p. 9). What the precise nature of those endeavours was is uncertain. According to Brian Fairfax, ‘on the night of 29 Jan. some of the general's friends proposed to him to attempt the next day to rescue the king, telling him that twenty thousand men were ready to join with him; he said he was ready to venture his own life, but not the lives of others, against the army united against them’ (, Life of Buckingham, p. 7). On 30 Jan. itself Herbert describes Fairfax as ‘being all that morning, as indeed at other times, using all his power and interest to have the execution deferred for some days, forbearing his coming among the officers, and fully resolved with his own regiment to prevent the execution or have it deferred till he could make a party in the army to second his design (Memoirs, ed. 1702, p. 135). Prince Charles wrote to Fairfax urging him to save and restore the king, and the queen begged his pass to come to her husband, but their communications remained unanswered (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 5;, Memorials of the Civil War, ii. 101). Clarendon concludes his account of the conduct of Fairfax during this period by saying: ‘Out of the stupidity of his soul he was throughout overwitted by Cromwell, and made a property to bring that to pass which could very hardly have been otherwise effected’ (Rebellion, xi. 235). But the truth is, Fairfax and Cromwell alike were carried away by the army, and he was their instrument rather than Cromwell's. He marked his disapproval of the king's death by the reservations which he made in his engagement to be faithful to the Commonwealth. Like the other peers who became members of the council of state, he declared that he had served the parliament faithfully, and was willing to do so still, there being now no power but that of the House of Commons, but could not sign the engagement because it was retrospective (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 9). Besides sitting in the council of state Fairfax also entered the House of Commons as member for Cirencester (7 Feb. 1649). He was also reappointed commander-in-chief of all the forces in England and Ireland (ib. p. 62, 30 March 1649). In that capacity Fairfax was immediately called upon to suppress a mutiny of the levelling party in the army, which he effected at Burford on 14 May 1649 (A Declaration of his Excellency concerning the Present Distempers; A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Lord-General in the Reducing of the Revolted Troops, 1649). After the suppression of the mutiny, Fairfax visited Oxford and was created a D.C.L. on 19 May 1649, while so many of his officers received honorary degrees that this was termed the Fairfaxian Creation (, Fasti, 1649). In the summer of 1650 war with Scotland became imminent, and the council of state determined to anticipate the expected attack of the Scots by an invasion of Scotland. Fairfax was willing to command against the Scots if they invaded England again, but resigned rather than attack them. ‘Human probabilities,’ he said, ‘are not sufficient grounds to make war upon a neighbour nation, especially our brethren of Scotland, to whom we are engaged in a solemn league and covenant.’ A committee of the council of state was sent to persuade him to retain his post, but he adhered to his conscientious scruples (, ff. 460–2). His letter of resignation is dated 25 June 1650 (, Diary, ed. Parsons, p. 340). Whitelocke, Ludlow, and Mrs. Hutchinson agree in attributing Fairfax's scruples to the influence of his wife and the presbyterian clergy (, ed. 1751, p. 121;, ed. 1885, ii. 166). For the rest of the Commonwealth and during the protectorate Fairfax lived in retirement at Nun Appleton, Yorkshire, although he was M.P. for the West Riding of Yorkshire in the parliament of 1654. His leisure was devoted chiefly to literature. He made a collection of coins and engravings, which afterwards came into the hands of Ralph Thorseby. He translated ‘Vegetius’ from the Latin, and ‘Mercurius Trismegistus’ from the French. He also composed a history of the church to the Reformation, a treatise on the breeding of horses, a metrical version of the psalms and other portions of the Bible, and much original verse (, p. 368).

Throughout the protectorate Fairfax was continually reported by Thurloe's spies to be engaged in the intrigues of the royalists against the government. In 1655, on Penruddock's rising, in 1658, at the time of