cowardly fear he that commanded these Men being in the Reer made them face about and march again into the Town where the next Day they were all taken Prisoners only 80 or thereabout of the Front that got through came all to Leeds mounted on Horses which they had taken from the Enemy where I found them when I came thither which was some joy to them all concluding I was either slain or taken Prisoner At Leeds I found all in great Distraction the Council of War newly risen where it was resolv'd to quit the Town and retreat to Hull which was sixty Miles off many of the Enemies Garrisons being in the way This in two Hours after was accordingly done least the Enemy should presently send Horse to prevent us for they had fifty or sixty Troops within three Miles But we got well to Selby where there was a Ferry and hard by a Garrison at Cawood My Father being a Mile before with a few Men getting over the Ferry word came to us that he was in danger to be taken I hasted to him with about forty Horse the rest following in some disorder He was newly got into the Boat when the Enemy with three Cornets of Horse entred the Town I was drawn up in the Market place directly before the Street they came down when they were almost half come into the Market-place they turn'd on the Right Hand with part of my Troop I charged them in the Flank and divided them we had the Chase of them down the long Street that goes to Brayton It hapned at the same time that those Men I left behind were coming up that Street but being in disorder and discourag'd with the Misfortunes of many Days before they turn'd about and gave way not knowing we were pursuing the Enemy in their Reer At the end of this Street was a narrow Lane which led to Cawood The Enemy strove to pass that way but it being narrow there was a sudden stop where we were mingled one among another Here I receiv'd a Shot in the Wrist of my Arm which made the Bridle fall out of my hand and being among the Nerves and Veins suddenly let out such a quantity of Blood that I was ready to fall from my Horse But taking the Reins in the other Hand in which I had my Sword the Enemy minding nothing so much as how to get away I drew my self out of the Crowd and came to our Men who turned about and seeing me ready to fall from my Horse they lay'd me on the Ground now when I was almost senseless my Surgeon came seasonably and bound up the Wound and stopt the bleeding After a quarter of an Hours rest I got a Horse-back again the other part of our Horse had beaten the Enemy back to Cawood the same way they came first to us Thus by the goodnesse of God our passage was made clear some went over the Ferry after my Father I my self with others went through the Levels to Hull but it proved a very troublesome and dangerous passage being often interrupted by the Enemy sometimes in our Front sometimes in our Reer I had been twenty Hours on Horseback after I was shot without any rest or refreshment and as many Hours before And as a further Affliction my Daughter not above five Years old being carried before her Maid endured all this Retreat a Horseback but Nature not being able to hold out any longer she fell into frequent Swoonings and in appearance was ready to expire her last Having now past the Trent and seeing a House not far off I sent her with her Maid only thither with little hopes of seeing her any more alive though I intended the next Day to send a Ship from Hull for her I went on to Barton having sent before to have a Ship ready against my coming thither Here I lay down to take a little rest if it were possible to find any in a Body so full of pain and a Mind yet fuller of anxiety and trouble Though I must acknowledge it as the infinite goodness of God that my Spirit was nothing at all discouraged from doing still that which I thought to be my Duty I had not rested a quarter of an Hour before the Enemy came close to the Town I had now not above a hundred Horse with me we went to the Ship where under the Security of her Ordinance we got all our Men and Horse aboard and crossing Humber we arriv'd at Hull our Men faint and tired I my self had lost all even to my Shirt for my Cloaths were made unfit to wear with Rents and Blood Presently after my coming to Hull I sent a Ship for my Daughter who was brought the next Day to the Town pretty well recovered of her long and tedious Journey Not many Days after the Earl of Newcastle sent my Wife back again in his Coach with some Horse to guard her which generous act of his gain'd him more Reputation than he could have got by detaining a Lady Prisoner upon such Terms Many of our Men who were dispersed in this long Retreat came hither again to us Our first Business was to raise new Forces and in a short time we had about 1500 Foot and 700 Horse The Town being little I was sent to Beverly with the Horse and 600 Foot but my Lord of Newcastle now looking upon us as inconsiderable was marched into Lincolnshire with his whole Army leaving some few Garrisons He took in Gainsbrough and Lincoln and intended Boston which was the Key of the Associated Counties for his Orders which I have seen were to go into Essex and block up London on that side Having laid a great while still and being now strong enough for those Forces which remain'd in the Country we sent out a good Party to make an Attempt upon Stanford-Bridge near York but the Enemy upon the allarm fled thither which put them also in such a fear that they sent earnestly to my Lord of Newcastle to desire him to return or the Country would again be lost Upon this he returned again into York-shire and not long after came to besiege Hull I lay at Beverly in the way of his March and finding we were not able to defend such an open place against an Army I desired Orders from my Father to retire back to Hull But the Committee there had more mind of raising Money than to take care of the Soldiers and yet these Men had the greatest share in Command at this time and would not let any Orders be given for our Retreat nor was it fit for us to return without Order The Enemy marched with his whole Army towards us Retreat we must not keep the Town we could not So to make our Retreat more honourable and useful I drew out all the Horse and Dragoons towards the Enemy and stood drawn up by a Wood side all that Night Next Morning by Day our Scouts and theirs fired on one another They marched
any knowledg of till it was done The Reason why it was so secretly carried that I should have no notice of it was because I always prevented those Designs when I knew them By this purging of the House as they call'd it the Parliament was brought into such a consumptive and languishing Condition that it could never again recover that healthful Constitution which always kept the Kingdom in its Strength Life and Vigour This Way being made by the Sword the Trial of the King was easier for them to accomplish My afflicted and troubled Mind for it and my earnest Endeavours to prevent it will I hope sufficiently testify my dislike and abhorrence of the Fact And what will they not do to the Shrubs having cut down the Cedar After this Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland the Lord Capel and others were condemn'd to Death It is fit for me in this Place to say something for my own Vindication about my Lord Capel Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle who were Prisoners at Mercy upon the rendring of Colchester seeing some have questioned the just Performance of those Articles I laid Siege to the Town and made several Assaults But finding their Forces within much more numerous than those I had without I was forced to take another course in blocking them up and by cutting off all supplies to bring them to a Surrender which after four Months close Siege they were compelled to and that upon Mercy being in Number three or four thousand Men and delivering upon Mercy is to be understood that some are to Suffer the rest to go Free Immediately after our entrance into the Town a Council of War was called and those forenamed Persons were Sentenced to Die the rest to be Acquitted This being so resolved I thought fit notwithstanding to transmit the Lord Capel the Lord Norwich c. over to the Parliament being the Civil Judicature of the Kingdom consisting then both of Lords and Commons and so most proper Judges in their Case who were considerable for Estates and Families But Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle being mere Soldiers of Fortune and falling into our hands by chance of War were Executed and in this I did nothing but according to my Commission and the Trust reposed in me But it may be objected I went into the Court during the Trial to which I answer it was at the earnest request of my Lord Capel's Friends who desired me to explain there what was meant by surrendring to Mercy Otherwise I had not gone being always unsatisfied with those Courts For this I need say no more seeing I may as well be question'd for the Articles of Bristol Oxford Exeter or any other Action in the War as this I have now related the most remarkable Things that might be alledged against me during the prosecution of the War One thing more requires I should say something to before I conclude that is concerning Papers and Declarations of the Army that came out in my Name and the Council of Officers I say from the time they declared their usurped Authority at Triplow Heath I never gave my free Consent to any thing they did But being yet undischarged of my Place they set my Name in way of course to all their Papers whether I consented or not And to such failings are all Authorities subject Under Parliament Authority many injuries have been done so here hath a General 's Power been broken and crumbled into a Levelling Faction Yet even this I hope all impartial Judges will interpret as Force and Ravishment of a good Name rather than a voluntary Consent which might make me equally Criminal with that Faction And if in a multitude of Words much more in a multitude of Actions there must be some Transgressions yet I can truly say they were never designedly or willfully committed by me All the Power being got into the Army they cut up the root of Kingly Government after this were Engagements made to abolish that Title Then was War declared against Scotland for assisting the King and several Leagues made with Foreign Princes to Confederate with their new Government which was now a Commonwealth against the Kingly Power All this I saw with grief and sorrow and though I had as much the Love of the Army as ever and was with great importunity solicited by that remaining Parliament and Soldiers to continue my Command and though I might so long as I acted their Designs have attained to what height of Power and other Advantages I pleas'd yet by the mercies and goodness of God I did so long as I continued in the Army oppose all those Ways in their Councils and when I could do no more I then declined their Actions Though I did not resign my Commission which I had from the Parliament till the remaining part of it took it from me Thus have I given you the Sum of the most considerable Things for which the World may Censure me during this unhappy War and I hope in all my Weakness and Failings there shall not be found Crimes of that Magnitude to make me be numbred with those who have done these Things through Ambition and Dissimulation FINIS THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX HIS EPITAPH Made by the Duke of BUCKINGHAM UNDER this Stone doth lie One born for Victory Fairfax the Valiant and the only He Who e're for that alone a Conqueror would be Both Sexes Vertues were in him combin'd He had the fierceness of the Manliest mind And all the meekness too of Womankind He never knew what Envy was nor Hate His Soul was fill'd with worth and Honesty And with another thing besides quite out of date Call'd Modesty He ne're seem'd Impudent but in the Field a place Where Impudence it self dares seldom shew its face Had any stranger spy'd him in a room With some of those whom he had overcome And had not heard their talk but only seen Their Gesture and their Mien They would have sworn he had the Vanquisht been For as they bragg'd and dreadful would appear Whilst they their own ill luck repeated His Modesty still made him blush to hear How often he had them defeated Through his whole life the part he bore Was wonderful and great And yet it so appear'd in nothing more Than in his private last Retreat For 't is a stranger thing to find One Man of such a glorious mind As can despise the Power he has got Than millions of the Poll's and Braves Those despicable Fools and Knaves Who such a pudder make Through dulness and mistake In seeking after Power and get it not When all the Nation he had won And with expence of blood had bought Store great enough he thought Of Fame and of Renown He then his Arms laid down With full as little Pride As if h' ad been o th' Conquer'd side Or one of them could do that were undone He neither Wealth nor Places sought For others not himself he fought He was content to know
THE Lord Fairfax's MEMORIALS SHORT MEMORIALS OF THOMAS Lord Fairfax Written by Himself LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell and are to be Sold at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. TO THE Right Honourable THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX MY LORD IT is with Your Lordship's leave that this short Manuscript of my Lord Fairfax Your Noble Predecessor is now Printed from the Original written in his own Hand and left in Your Study at Denton in Yorkshire for it was never intended by him to be Published but to remain for the Satisfaction of his own Relations But of late something has hapned which in the judgment of Your Lordship and many other Persons of Condition makes it necessary that these Papers should be sent to the Press which is now done without any Material Alterations from the Original but only by placing them in the natural order of Time Tho' no Copy was ever taken by Your Lordship's Consent yet I know not how some imperfect Ones are got into other Hands And this being an Age wherein every Man presumes to Print what he pleases of his own or other Mens we are plainly told That my Lord Fairfax's Memorials are ready to be Published and by the very same Person who has lately set forth some Memoirs wherein his Lordship is scarce ever nam'd but with Reproach not to be excused by what the Editor himself confesses That the Author was much out of humour when he writ the Book My Lord Fairfax's True Character is better known to many Wise and Good Men than to be blemished by such envious Detractions Nor can his Reputation thereby suffer with any who were acquainted with his Person and the true Intentions of his Actions and knew him in the latter part of his Life His great Misfortune and so he accounted it was to be engaged in the Unhappy Wars whereof he desired no other Memorial than the Act of Oblivion which few that ever needed better deserved It cannot be denied but as a Soldier his Life would furnish as Noble a Memoir as the Age has produced from the time that he began with a Troop of Horse and a few undisciplined Forces in the North to his being General of a Victorious Army in the South which he Governed not as a Cypher but with great Prudence and Conduct in Councils of War as well as animated by his Personal Courage in the Field as long as they had any Enemy to oppose them But after that they broke into Factions and were over-run with Enthusiasm and became Vngovernable by their General when they chose their own Agitators and were managed by Men of the deepest Dissimulation and Hypocrisie by whose fair but treacherous Promises some Greater than Himself were deceived to their own Ruin That most Tragical and Deplorable part of the Civil War the Death of the King he utterly from his Soul abhorred and lamented to his dying day and never mentioned it but with Tears in his Eyes The retired part of his Life gave him greater Satisfaction than all his former Victories when he lived quietly at his own House at Nun-Appleton in Yorkshire always earnestly wishing and praying for the Restitution of the Royal Family and fully resolved to lay hold on the first good Opportunity to contribute his part towards it which made him always lookt upon with a jealous eye by the Usurpers of that time As soon as he was invited by General Monk to assist him against Lambert's Army he cheerfully embraced the Occasion and appeared at the Head of a brave Body of Gentlemen of Yorkshire and upon the Reputation and Authority of his Name the Irish Brigade of Twelve Thousand Horse forsook Lambert's Army and joyned with him the Consequence was the immediate breaking of all Lambert's Forces which gave General Monk an easy March into England This was always acknowledged not only by General Monk but by the King himself as a signal Testimony of his Zeal to make amends for what was past and of the very considerable Assistance he gave towards the restoring the Royal Family After he had waited on his Majesty in Holland as one of the Commissioners sent to invite him home and had seen the King establish'd on his Throne he retired again into his own Country where he died in Peace in the 60th Year of his Age Anno 1671. leaving behind him his only Daughter the Lady Mary Dutchess of Buckingham I shall now say no more of him but That so long as Unfeigned Piety towards God Invincible Courage joyned with wonderful Modesty and exceeding Good Nature Justice and Charity to all men in his private Life and an Ingenuous Acknowledgment of his Publick Error with hearty Endeavours to make Reparation as soon as he was convinced of it shall be esteemed in the World So long shall the Name of my Lord Fairfax be honoured by good Men and be had in perpetual Remembrance Your Lordship had the good fortune to be born after the Storms and Tempests of that Age But you have had the Honour to appear eminently in defence of our Religion and Civil Rights in this last happy Revolution as your Noble Predecessor did at the Restoration My LORD Apr. 22. 1699. I am Your most affectionate Uncle and humble Servant Brian Fairfax A short MEMORIAL of the Northern Actions in which I was engag'd during the War there from the Year 1642 to the Year 1644. IN Gratitude to God for his many Mercies and Deliverances and not to deprive my self of the Comfort of their Remembrance I shall set down as they come into my Mind those things wherein I have found the wonderful Assistance of God to me in the Time of the War in the North though not in that methodical and polish'd Manner as might have been done being intended only for my own Satisfaction and help of my Memory My Father was call'd forth by the Importunity of his Country to join with them in their own Defence which was confirm'd by a Commission from the Parliament The first Action we had was at Bradford We were about three hundred Men the Enemy seven or eight hundred and two Pieces of Ordnance They assaulted us We drew out close to the Town to receive them They had the Advantage of the Ground the Town being encompassed with Hills which exposed us more to their Cannon from which we receiv'd some Hurt but our Men defended those Passages by which they were to descend so well that they got no ground of us and now the day being spent they drew off and retired to Leeds A few days after Captain Hotham with three Troops of Horse and some Dragoons came to us Then We march'd to Leeds but the Enemy having Notice of it quitted the Town and in haste fled to York We advanc'd to Tadcaster eight Miles from York that we might have more room and be less burthensome to Our Friends and being increased to one thousand Men it was thought fit that we should keep the Pass at