FAIRFAX, Edward, a poet of considerable note, who flourished in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I. . e was the second son of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton, in the county of Tork. The precise date of his birth is uncertain; and it has even been supposed that he was illegitimate; but there does not seem to be any good ground for such a supposition. The family of which he was descended had a strong propensity for the military profession; and his father having passed his youth in the wars of the Continent, was present at the sacking of Rome under Charles Duke of Bourbon, in the year 1527. In 1591 the poet s elder brother, Thomas, who afterwards became the first Lord Fairfax, received the honour of knighthood, before Rouen, on account of the bravery he had displayed whilst serving with the army sent to the assistance of Henry IV.; and the same individual afterwards signalized himself on many occasions in Germany. A younger brother, Charles, also distinguished himself in arms, having been present at the battle of Newport in 1600, and commanded at the famous siege of Ostend, where he received a wound in the face from a splinter of the skull of a marshal of France, who was killed near him by a cannon ball. But whilst his brothers were thus employed in military service abroad, Edward Fairfax devoted himself to the peaceful pursuits of literature at home, and the acquirements he made were such as would have qualified him to fill with credit any employment either in church or state. But an invincible modesty, joined to a love of retirement and a contemplative turn of mind, induced him to prefer the groves and cascades of Denton, and the forest of Knaresborough, to all the advantages of worldly distinction; and, accordingly, having fixed himself as a private gentleman at Fuyistone, he devoted his leisure to composition both in prose and in verse, and to the education of his own and the children of his brother, Lord Fairfax, who are said to have profited much by his instructions. In his book on Daemonology, Fairfax has given the following character of himself:—“I am in religion,” says he, “neither a fantastic puritan nor a superstitious papist, but so settled in conscience, that I have the sure ground of God’s word to warrant all I believe, and the commendable ordinances of our English church to approve all I practise; in which course I live a faithful Christian and an obedient subject, and so teach my family.” In these principles he persevered until his death, which took place about 1632, at Newhall, in the parish of Fuyistone, between Denton and Knaresborough. Fairfax’s first, and indeed his principal work, was his translation of Tasso, which he executed when very young, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. The merits of this performance were at one time much overrated; and, latterly, it has been in some measure superseded by the translation of Hoole, which, though not a little stiff and formal, possesses greater equality, and is perhaps also superior in point of accuracy: but it must at the same time be confessed, that the diction of Fairfax is remarkable for its purity, freedom, and elegance; that his numbers are often highly musical; and that he is one of the few writers, if not the only one, down to the time of Sir William Davenant, who does not require an apology to be made for him on account of the age in which he lived. “Fairfax,” says Hume, “has translated Tasso with an elegance and ease, and at the same time with an exactness, which for that age are surprising.” But the poetical exertions of Fairfax did not terminate with this translation. He also composed eclogues, twelve in number, relative to the manners, the characters, and the incidents of the times; compositions [7:9:478] most probably with the intention, of rendering himself really master As soon as Fairfax, who was then in the north of England, received the orders of parliament, he repaired to London, where he arrived on the 18th of February 1645, and was presented to the House of Commons on the following day, by four members, and complimented by the speaker, who handed him his commission. He had full powers to name all the generals under his orders; and, i∏ the month of April, he proceeded to Windsor, where he employed himself in organizing the new army which the parliament had just voted. But it was in reality Cromwell who, under the name of Fairfax, constantly acted; for the lieutenant-general had acquired so great an ascendency over his chief, that he did, or caused to be done, whatever he pleased; and having had the address to persuade Fairfax that he had only in view the good of religion and the commonwealth, he thereby disposed the latter to receive his counsels, and to place entire confidence in his character. Being appointed governor of Hull, and sent by parliament to succour Taunton in Somersetshire, then closely besieged by the royalists, Fairfax, at the latter place, to which he had proceeded with all possible diligence, received counter-orders to join Cromwell with the forces under his command, and to watch the motions of the king, who had just quitted Oxford. After various movements, the hostile armies met, on the 14th of June, at Naseby in Northamptonshire, and a battle took place, which ended in the total discomfiture of the royalists. The king was obliged to fly from the field, and retired into the country of Wales. On the 16th the victorious Fairfax laid siege to Leicester, which surrendered two days afterwards. On the 10th July he offered battle to Lord Goring, who had been obliged to raise the siege of Taunton; on the 22d he carried Bridgewater by assault, and thereafter took several other places; and on the 10th September he forced Bristol to capitulate. Having reduced to subjection the whole country to the west of London-, he next marched to the south; but finding it impossible, from the rigour of the season, to besiege Exeter, a well fortified city, in regular form, he converted the investment into a blockade, which lasted until the 13th of April 1646. In this interval he took several places, defeated and dispersed different bodies of royalists, and completely humbled, or rather annihilated this party in the provinces of the south and west, which had formed its great stronghold and constituted its principal resource in England. Having obtained these successes, Fairfax marched in all haste to Oxford, where was the most considerable garrison that yet remained to the king. But the latter, afraid of being shut up in the place, and thus falling into the hands of his mortal enemies, withdrew secretly, in disguise, and proceeded to Newark, to throw himself into the arms of the Scotch. Oxford capitulated, and by the end of September Charles had neither army nor garrison in England.Fairfax having arrived in London on the 12th November, was complimented and thanked for his successes by the two houses of parliament, who repaired to his residence for the purpose. But he had scarcely time to enjoy a little repose from the fatigues of war, when he received a commission to escort the two hundred thousand pounds, granted by the English parliament to the Scotch army, in name of arrears of pay, but, in reality, according to some, as the price 0 the king’s person, which that army had consented to g we up. Charles was delivered up to the commissioners of parliament on the 30th January 1646. Fairfax, who preceded the king, having met him beyond Nottingham, dismounted from his horse, kissed the royal hand, and haying resumed his seat, discoursed with the unfortunate pnnce during the journey to Holdenby. That Charles was satis which he seasoned with many fine touches of piquant satire, and dignified with useful lessons both in public and private morality. The fourth in order of these eclogues was printed in the Mused Library in 1737; but it is somewhat surprising that the whole of them should never have been published, and it is not improbable that the manuscripts are now lost. Of the prose writings of Fairfax, most of which related to the controversy with the church of Rome, none has ever appeared in print; and even his treatise on Daemonology, if yet extant, still remains in manuscript. This last production, which is entitled “ A Discourse on .Witchcraft, as it was acted in the family of Mr Edward Fairfax of Fuyistone, in the county of York, in 1621,” and of which a copy was in the possession of Mr Isaac Reed, would no doubt, if published, throw considerable light on the superstitious opinions and feelings of the age when it was written, and might also perhaps contribute indirectly towards the true exposition of those spectral illusions and phantasms which, while they commanded the unhesitating belief, exercised so powerful an influence over the minds of our forefathers. Fairfax left several children, sons as well as daughters, the eldest of whom, William, a scholar of much the same temper with his father, though rather more cynical, translated Diogenes Laertius from Greek into English.

Fairfax, Thomas Lord, who acted so conspicuous a part during the civil wars in the reign of Charles I., and at length became general of the parliamentary forces, was the eldest son of Ferdinand Lord Fairfax, by Mary, daughter of Edmund Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, and was born at Denton in the parish of Otley, Yorkshire, in the month of January 1611. After the usual school education, he entered St John’s College, Cambridge, where he studied some time, and imbibed that love of learning for which he was afterwards distinguished. Being of a martial disposition, he proceeded to Holland, where, in order to improve himself in the art of war, he served as a volunteer under Horatio Lord Vere. On his return to England he married a daughter of that officer, and retired to his paternal mansion at Denton, where he conceived an extreme aversion to the court, either by the instigation of his wife, who was a zealous Presbyterian, or by the persuasion and example of his father, who had become strongly disaffected towards the royal cause. Accordingly, when the king 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, he was employed by his party to present a petition to his sovereign, entreating him to hearken to the voice of his parliament, and to discontinue the raising of troops; and when Charles attempted to avoid receiving it, Fairfax followed him with the petition, which he presented upon the pommel of his saddle, in Heyworth-moor, before an assemblage of nearly a hundredthousand persons. Shortly afterwards, upon the breaking out of the civil war, his father having received from the parliament a commission appointing him general-in-chief of the forces in the north, Fairfax was at the same time made general of the horse under him. In this war both father and son distinguished themselves by their bravery, intelligence, and activity, particularly at the battle of Marston-Moor and the taking of York; Thomas Fairfax having been twice severely wounded, and having frequently exposed his life in the most daring manner. His exploits, therefore, gained him the confidence of his party; and, in 1645, when it was judged expedient to new-model the army, and to deprive Essex of the command, the parliament, knowing that Fairfax was a zealous Presbyterian, unanimously appointed him as successor to Essex. In this command Cromwell was joined with him in the capacity·, and with the title, of lieutenant-general; but the latter only accepted the inferior grade in the hope, and [7:9:479]fied with the conduct of Fairfax, appears from the observation which he addressed to one of the parliamentary commissioners. “The general,” said he, “is a man of honour, and keeps his word which he had pledged to me a remark, the precise import of which, however, is not understood, as the circumstances to which the king evidently alludes have not been ‘stated by any historian. Fairfax was received at Cambridge with the greatest honours, and created master of arts. By this time the parliament, after long debates, had appointed him general of the forces, which were still to be kept on an effective footing; for it was now intended to disband the greater part, and send the remainder to Ireland. But the soldiers being extremely dissatisfied with a project which threatened to deprive them of all the advantages they had reaped from the war, Cromwell, who had hitherto allowed Fairfax to enjoy in appearance the honours of supreme command, resolved, in concert with Ireton, his son-in-law, a man not less crafty than himself, but a better speaker and a more able writer, to profit by this disposition of the army, in order to foment a revolt against the parliament. Accordingly, they circulated a report among the soldiers, that the parliament, having the king in its power, intended to disband the greater part of the army, in order to deprive them of their arrears of pay, and to send the rest into Ireland, to be exterminated by the fierce inhabitants of that island. Inflamed by these rumours, the army, on the suggestion of Ireton, appointed a committee of its own number, to consult for its wellbeing, assist at the councils of war, and watch over the peace and security of the kingdom. Fairfax now observed with regret, that these agitators, as they called themselves, had usurped the power which he should have exercised over the army; he discerned that they were the forerunners of anardhy, and that their design was to raise their own fortune on the ruin of the state. He therefore resolved to resign his commission; but the chiefs of the Independents, whose projects were not fully matured, persuaded him to retain it. He then, with culpable weakness, co-operated in all the proceedings of the army, which had for their object to destroy the power of parliament. In vain did the two houses enjoin him to leave his troops at the distance of at least fifteen miles from London; he entered that city in triumph, with the speaker and sixty members of the House of Commons, who, betraying the privileges of parliament, had retired to the camp, and whom he now re-instated in their places. For this proceeding, which in any view deserved a halter, he was rewarded with the thanks of both houses, and the office of governor of the Tower. But having soon afterwards learned that the king had been removed by violence from Holdenby, Fairfax, indignant at this proceeding, repaired to the place where this unfortunate prince was detained near Cambridge, conducted himself towards the royal captive in the most respectful manner, and caused him to follow all the movements of the army, in order that the parliament might not obtain possession of his person, for which purpose commissioners had already been named by both houses. The credit of Fairfax with the troops, however, diminished daily; he had neither firmness of will nor force of character sufficient to oppose himself to a power which had long overtopped his own; and although he had in view none of the objects which Cromwell cherished, he contributed to render them all successful. It was doubtless in consequence of this inconceivable weakness that he concurred in the manifesto of the army, published in the month of January 1648, which adhered to the vote of the commons, that no more addresses or messages should be presented to the king, and protested that it would obey parliament in every thing which might hence-θrth be necessary for the government of the kingdom and the safety of parliament, whether with the king or against him.

At this period Fairfax lost his father, whom he succeeded in his titles and employments; but still he remained, as before, the docile instrument of the ambition of Cromwell. He displayed the greatest activity in putting down insurrections, and took Colchester, whither the remains of the royalist party had betaken themselves. At the end of the year he returned to London, in order to keep in check that city and the parliament; and he took up his head-quarters in the palace of Whitehall. Here, being struck with a sort of moral stupefaction, which prevented him from reflecting on the character or tendency of his own actions, all his proceedings served to accelerate the crisis of the king’s fate; but although placed at the head of the judges before whom Charles was to be tried, he refused to act, probably at the instigation of his wife, who on this occasion displayed a boldness and intrepidity worthy of all admiration. He even exerted himself to prevent the execution of the sentence, and tried to persuade his regiment to rescue the king from the hands of those who had condemned him to death. But Cromwell and Ireton, ably assisted by Harrison, imposed on the pious credulity of Fairfax; and, whilst these hypocrites kept the imprudent general engaged in prayer, the fatal blow was struck. A few days after the execution of Charles, he was appointed a member of the council, but refused to sign the form of oath by which all that had been done relative to the king and to the royal authority was approved of. Towards the end of March he received the title of general of the troops in England and in Ireland; but he no longer possessed any real power. He marched against the levellers, who having become numerous, had occasioned considerable uneasiness, and would soon have rendered themselves formidable, and completely routed them at Burford in Oxfordshire. He then repaired to Oxford, where he received the degree of doctor of laws; after which he proceeded to allay the troubles in Hampshire, assembled the army at Guildford, exhorted it to obedience, and returned to London, where he was presented with a basin and ewer of beaten gold. In June 1650, when the Scotch had declared for Charles II., the council of state in England having resolved to send an army to Scotland, in order to prevent an invasion, Fairfax was consulted respecting the design, which he appeared at first to approve; but afterwards, by the persuasion of his lady and the presbyterian ministers, he declared himself satisfied that the parliament of England had no just ground for sending an army to invade Scotland; and, in terms of this declaration, he resigned his commission. The supreme command of the army was then conferred upon Cromwell, who saw with pleasure the retirement of a man who, being no longer necessary to his ambitious projects, now formed an obstacle to their entire accomplishment. The parliament, however, in some measure indemnified Fairfax, by granting him a pension of five thousand pounds sterling.

Being thus released from all public employment, Fairfax retired to Nunappleton, Yorkshire, where he passed his time in tranquillity, earnestly praying, it is said, for the restoration of the royal family, and resolved to seize the first opportunity which offered to contribute towards its accomplishment. Accordingly, when General Monk inyited him to assist in the operations about to be undertaken against Lambert’s army, he promptly obeyed the call, and on the 3d December 1659 appeared at the head of a body of Yorkshire gentlemen; and such was the influence of his name and reputation, that the Irish brigade, consisting of twelve hundred horse, quitted Lambert’s colours and joined him; an event which was speedily followed by the breaking up of all Lambert’s forces. On the 1st January 1660 he made himself master of York, and on the 2d he was chosen by the Rump Parliament, one of the council of state, an appointment which was renewed on the 23d of February ensuing[7:9:480]. On the 29th of March he was elected one of the knights of the county of York in the healing parliament; and he was put at the head of the commission appointed by the House of Commons, on the 3d of May, to wait upon Charles II. at the Hague, and urge his speedy return. After the dissolution of the healing parliament, which was of short duration, he again retired to his seat in the country, where he lived, in a manner strictly private, till his death, which happened on the 12th of November 1671, in the sixtieth year of his age. In person Lord Fairfax was tall, but of a gloomy and melancholy disposition. He was, however, of a meek and humble demeanour, and of few words in discourse or council; but when his judgment had once been satisfied, he remained unalterable, and frequently acted in opposition to the opinions of his council. His valour was unquestionable, though not of a cool and steady, but rather of a passionate and excited kind; in battle he seemed transported beyond himself, and appeared like one distracted and furious. In a word, Fairfax would have been considered as the greatest of the parliamentary commanders, had not his exploits been eclipsed by the more brilliant achievements of Cromwell; and he would have been thought one of the greatest heroes of the rebellion, if the extreme narrowness of his genius in every thing but war had not disqualified him for shining as a statesman.

Lord Fairfax had some taste for literature, and both at York and at Oxford endeavoured to save the libraries from pillage. He also presented twenty-nine ancient manuscripts to the Bodleian library, including a beautiful one of Gower’s Confessio Amantis. Lord Orford has introduced him not only as an historian, but as a poet, among his royal and noble authors; and in Thoresby’s Museum the following pieces were preserved in manuscript, viz. 1. the Psahns of David; 2. the Song of Solomon; 3. the Canticles; 4. Songs of Moses, and other parts of Scripture, versified; 5. a Poem on Solitude; 6. Notes of Sermons; and 7. a Treatise on the Shortness of Life. But of all his productions, the most curious was a copy of verses written on the horse which Charles II. rode at his coronation, and which had been bred and presented to the king by his lordship; a strange tribute, no doubt, from the veteran hero of republicanism and the covenant. Besides these, several of his manuscripts are preserved in the library at Denton, of which a list has been published in Park’s edition of Lord Orford’s Royal and Noble Authors.