Thomas Fairfax , 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron Thomas Fairfax , 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron ( 17 January 1612 – 12 November 1671 ) was a general and parliamentary commander - in - chief during the English Civil War . An adept and talented commander , Fairfax led Parliament to many victories , but was eventually overshadowed by his subordinate Oliver Cromwell , who was more politically adept and radical in action against Charles I . Fairfax became unhappy with Cromwell ' s policy and publicly refused to take part in Charles ' s show trial . Eventually he resigned leaving Cromwell to control the republic . Honourable battlefield conduct and his role in the Restoration after Cromwell ' s death spared him from cavalier retribution . His dark hair and eyes and a swarthy complexion earned him the nickname Black Tom . Early life . Thomas Fairfax was born at Denton Hall , near Ilkley , Yorkshire , on 17 January 1612 , the eldest son of Ferdinando , Lord Fairfax . He studied at St John ' s College , Cambridge , and Gray ' s Inn ( 1626 – 28 ) , then volunteered to join Sir Horace Vere ' s expedition to fight for the Protestant cause in the Netherlands . In 1639 he commanded a troop of Yorkshire dragoon s which marched with King Charles I against the Scots in the First Bishops ' War which ended with the Pacification of Berwick before any fighting took place . In the Second Bishops ' War the following year the English army was routed at the battle of Newburn . Fairfax fled with the rest of the defeated army but was nevertheless knighted for his services in January 1641 . Pre - Civil War events . The Fairfaxes , father and son , though serving at first under King Charles I , were opposed to the arbitrary prerogative of the Crown , and Sir Thomas declared that " his judgment was for the Parliament as the king and kingdom ' s great and safest council " . When Charles endeavoured to raise a guard for his own person at York , intending it , as the event afterwards proved , to form the nucleus of an army , Fairfax was employed to present a petition to his sovereign , entreating him to hearken to the voice of his parliament , and to discontinue the raising of troops . This was at a great meeting of the freeholders and farmers of Yorkshire convened by the king on Heworth Moor near York . Charles evaded receiving the petition , pressing his horse forward , but Fairfax followed him and placed the petition on the pommel of the king ' s saddle . The Civil War . When the civil war broke out in 1642 , his father , Lord Fairfax , was appointed general of the Parliamentary forces in the north , and Sir Thomas was made lieutenant - general of the horse under him . Both father and son distinguished themselves in the campaigns in Yorkshire . Sometimes severely defeated , more often successful , and always energetic , prudent and resourceful , they contrived to keep up the struggle until the crisis of 1644 , when York was held by the Marquess of Newcastle against the combined forces of the English Parliamentarians and the Scots , and Prince Rupert hastened with all available forces to its relief . A gathering of eager national forces within a few square miles of ground naturally led to a battle , and Marston Moor ( 2 July 1644 ) proved decisive for the struggle in the north . The younger Fairfax bore himself with the greatest gallantry in the battle , and though severely wounded managed to join Oliver Cromwell and the victorious cavalry on the other wing . One of his brothers , Colonel Charles Fairfax , was killed in the action . But the Marquess of Newcastle fled the kingdom , and the Royalist s abandoned all hope of retrieving their affairs . The city of York was taken , and nearly the whole north submitted to the Parliament . In the south and west of England , however , the Royalist cause was still strong . The war had lasted two years , and the nation began to complain of the contributions that were exacted , and the excesses that were committed by the military . Dissatisfaction was expressed with the military commanders , and , as a preliminary step to reform , the Self - denying Ordinance was passed . This involved the removal of the Earl of Essex from the supreme command , along with other Members of Parliament . This was followed by the New Model Ordinance , which replaced the locally raised Parliamentary regiments with a unified army . Sir Thomas Fairfax was selected as the new lord general with Cromwell as his lieutenant - general and cavalry commander . After a short preliminary campaign the " New Model " justified its existence , and " the rebels ' new brutish general " , as the king called him , proved his capacity as commander - in - chief in the decisive victory of Naseby ( 14 June 1645 ) . The king fled to Wales . Fairfax besieged Leicester , and was successful at Taunton , Bridgwater and Bristol . The whole west was soon reduced . Fairfax arrived in London on 12 November 1645 . In his progress towards the capital he was accompanied by applauding crowds . Complimentary speeches and thanks were presented to him by both houses of parliament , along with a jewel of great value set with diamonds , and a sum of money . The king had returned from Wales and established himself at Oxford , where there was a strong garrison , but , ever vacillating , he withdrew secretly , and proceeded to Newark to throw himself into the arms of the Scots . Oxford capitulated following the final siege of Oxford , and by the end of September 1646 Charles had neither army nor garrison in England , following the surrender of Thomas Blagge at Wallingford Castle after a siege conducted by Fairfax . In January 1647 he was delivered up by the Scots to the commissioners of parliament . Fairfax met the king beyond Nottingham , and accompanied him during the journey to Holdenby , treating him with the utmost consideration in every way . " The general " , said Charles , " is a man of honour , and keeps his word which he had pledged to me . " With the collapse of the Royalist cause came a confused period of negotiations between the Parliament and the king , between the king and the Scots , and between the Presbyterians and the Independent s in and out of Parliament . In these negotiations the New Model Army soon began to take a most active part . The lord general was placed in the unpleasant position of intermediary between his own officers and Parliament . To the grievances , usual in armies of that time , concerning arrears of pay and indemnity for acts committed on duty , there was quickly added the political propaganda of the Independents , and in July the person of the king was seized by Cornet Joyce , a subaltern of cavalry — an act which sufficiently demonstrated the hopelessness of controlling the army by its articles of war . It had , in fact , become the most formidable political party in the realm , and pressed straight on to the overthrow of Parliament and the punishment of Charles , something Fairfax was increasingly uncomfortable with . Fairfax was more at home in the field than at the head of a political committee , and , finding events too strong for him and that his officers were rallying around the more radical and politically shrewd Cromwell , he sought to resign his commission as commander - in - chief . He was , however , persuaded to retain it . He thus remained the titular chief of the army party , and with the greater part of its objects he was in complete , sometimes most active , sympathy . Shortly before the outbreak of the Second Civil War , Fairfax succeeded his father in the barony and in the office of governor of Hull . In the field against the English Royalists in 1648 he displayed his former energy and skill , and his operations culminated in the successful siege of Colchester , after the surrender of which place he approved the execution of the Royalist leaders Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle , holding that these officers had broken their parole . At the same time Cromwell ' s great victory of Preston crushed the Scots , and the Independents became practically all - powerful . John Milton , in a sonnet written during the siege of Colchester , called upon the lord general to settle the kingdom , but the crisis was now at hand . Fairfax was in agreement with Cromwell and the army leaders in demanding the punishment of Charles , and he was still the effective head of the army . He approved , if he did not take an active part in , Pride ' s Purge ( 6 December 1648 ) , but on the last and gravest of the questions at issue he set himself in deliberate and open opposition to the policy of the officers . He was placed at the head of the judges who were to try the king , and attended the preliminary sitting of the court . Then , convinced at last that the king ' s death was intended , he refused to act . Fairfax had never desired the death of the King . In calling over the court , when the crier pronounced the name of Fairfax , a lady in the gallery called out that the Lord Fairfax was not there in person , that he would never sit among them , and that they did him wrong to name him as a commissioner . This was Lady Fairfax , who could not forbear , as Bulstrode Whitelocke says , to exclaim aloud against the proceedings of the High Court of Justice . In February 1649 Fairfax was elected Member of Parliament for Cirencester in the Rump Parliament . Fairfax ' s last service as commander - in - chief was the suppression of the Leveller mutiny at Burford in May 1649 . He had given his adhesion to the new order of things , and had been reappointed lord general . But he merely administered the affairs of the army ; when in 1650 the Scots declared for Charles II , and the Council of State resolved to send an army to Scotland in order to prevent an invasion of England , Fairfax resigned his commission . Cromwell desired to see him continue as commander - in - chief , as did those planning the war , but Fairfax could not support the war . Cromwell was appointed his successor , " captain - general and commander - in - chief of all the forces raised or to be raised at authority of Parliament within the Commonwealth of England . " After the fighting . In 1654 Fairfax was elected MP for the newly created constituency of West Riding in the First Protectorate Parliament . He received a pension of £5 , 000 a year , and lived in retirement at his Yorkshire home of Nunappleton until after the death of the Lord Protector in 1658 . Nunappleton and Fairfax ' s retirement there are the subject of Andrew Marvell ' s country house poem , " Upon Appleton House " . The troubles of the later Commonwealth recalled Lord Fairfax to political activity , and in 1659 he was elected MP for Yorkshire in the Third Protectorate Parliament . For the last time his appearance in arms helped to shape the future of the country , when George Monck invited him to assist in the operations about to be undertaken against John Lambert ' s army . In December 1659 he appeared at the head of a body of Yorkshire gentlemen , and such was the influence of Fairfax ' s name and reputation that 1 , 200 horse quit Lambert ' s colours and joined him . This was speedily followed by the breaking up of all Lambert ' s forces , and that day secured the restoration of the monarchy . For these actions , along with his honourable conduct in the Civil War , he was spared from the wave of Royalist retributions . In April 1660 Fairfax was re - elected MP for Yorkshire in the Convention Parliament . He was put at the head of the commission appointed by the House of Commons to wait upon Charles II , at the Hague and urge his speedy return . Fairfax provided the horse on which Charles rode at his coronation . The remaining eleven years of the life of Lord Fairfax were spent in retirement at his seat in Yorkshire . Fairfax died at Nunappleton , and was buried at Bilbrough , near York . Bibliography . Fairfax had a taste for literature . He translated some of the Psalm s , and wrote poems on solitude , the Christian warfare , the shortness of life , etc . During the last year or two of his life he wrote two Memorials which have been published – one on the northern actions in which he was engaged in 1642 - 1644 , and the other on some events in his tenure of the chief command . At York and at Oxford he endeavoured to save the libraries from pillage , and he enriched the Bodleian with some valuable manuscripts . His correspondence , were edited by GW Johnson , and were published in 1848 - 1849 in four volumes . The metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell authored " Upon Appleton House , To My Lord Fairfax " , nominally about Fairfax ' s home , but also his character as well as England during his era . Family . He married Hon . Anne de Vere , daughter of Horace Vere , 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury and Mary Tracy , on 20 June 1637 . They had a daughter , Hon . Mary Fairfax ( b . 30 July 1638 - d . 20 October 1704 ) , who married George Villiers , 2nd Duke of Buckingham . Sir Thomas was succeeded as Lord Fairfax by a cousin , Henry Fairfax , 4th Lord Fairfax of Cameron . Analysis . As a soldier he was exact and methodical in planning , in the heat of battle " so highly transported that scarce any one durst speak a word to him " , chivalrous and punctilious in his dealings with his own men and the enemy . Honour and conscientiousness were equally the characteristics of his private and public character . But his modesty and distrust of his powers made him less effectual as a statesman than as a soldier , and above all he is placed at a disadvantage by being both in war and peace overshadowed by his associate Cromwell , who was politically talented and able to manipulate public antipathy against Charles to lead to his execution , something Fairfax never wanted . In fiction . Fairfax is a pivotal character in the 2003 Film " To Kill A King " , as well as in Rosemary Sutcliff ' s historical fiction " Simon " , being portrayed as inspiring and fair . He is also a central character in Sutcliff ' s novel " The Rider of the White Horse " ,