240 E. B. Reed, 



man. In 1637 he married the daughter of his commander, Anne 

 Vere, a woman of energy and courage, who followed her husband 

 to the field, shared his dangers (she was once taken prisoner by 

 the Royalists) and, in no small measure, determined his career.^ 



hi the two brief and inglorious Scottish compaigns, Fairfax joined 

 the King's army, but when in 1642 Charles came to Yorkshire to 

 seize the supplies at Hull, and raise troops against Parliament, the 

 Yorkshire gentry who opposed the King looked to Fairfax for leader- 

 ship. He was entrusted with a formal protest against the King's 

 actions, and, despite repulses, succeeded in laying this document 

 on the royal saddle at Heyworth Moor, where Charles was endeavo- 

 ring to win over the gentry of the shire. Fairfax thus showed 

 the world on which side he would be found, and in the Yorkshire 

 campaign that followed, he fought with the greatest courage. Un- 

 daunted by defeat, fearing no odds, on at least one occasion he 

 attacked a force that outnumbered his own by four to one. When 

 surrounded, he cut his wa}' through the enemy. At Marston Moor 

 he found himself carried by the tide of battle into the thick of the 

 enemy's ranks. Taking from his hat the white badge worn by the 

 Parliamentary forces, he calmly rode through the ranks of the Roy- 

 alists, regained his troops, and led another attack.^ So fearless was 

 he that on several occasions he narrowly escaped death. In 1644 

 a musket-ball pierced his shoulder, another broke his arm. Hardly 

 recovered from these wounds, he was again struck at the siege of 

 Pomfret Castle. His skill as a leader, his bravery in action, had 

 attracted the attention of all England, and in 1645, when but thirty- 

 three years of age, he was made Commander-in-chief of the Par- 

 liamentary forces, having as his first task the organization of the 

 New Model army. While in the popular opinion it was Cromwell 

 who was " the leading spirit of the war," to quote Sir Clements 

 Markham, the biographer of Fairfax, " it was Fairfax who organized 

 the new army without the smallest assistance from Cromwell. It 

 was Fairfax whose genius won the fight at Naseby, and whose 

 consummate generalship concluded the war, and restored peace. 

 Cromwell was his very efficient general of horse, but nothing more : 

 and indeed he was generally employed on detached duties of se- 

 condary importance." ^ At Naseby, Fairfax was conspicuous for his 

 daring; at the surrender of Oxford, he placed a guard about the 



1 Ibid., p. 108. 

 * Ibid., p. 171. 

 ' Ibid., Preface, p. iv. 



