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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The English Revolution

[ Ld. Fairfax to Col. Thomlinson. ] - Sir William Clarke, The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 2 [1894]

Edition used:

The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, Secretary to the Council of the Army, 1647-1649, and to General Monck and the Commanders of the Army in Scotland, 1651-1660, ed. C.H. Firth (Camden Society, 1894). 4 vols.

Part of: The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, 4 vols.

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[Ld. Fairfax to Col. Thomlinson.]

Sir

You are on sight hereoff to repayre to Windsor Castle, where you are to shew unto Lt. Col. Cobbett, Captain Merriman, and Captain Brayfield this lettre, with the instruccions to your selfe and them heere inclosed concerning the secureing of the King’s person, and you are with them to imploy your utmost care and indeavour for the immediate secureing of the King’s person from escape, and are hereby impowered in all things necessary to that end. In pursuance where off the said instruccions here inclosed are to be observed by your selfe and them untill further orders; I remayne

Your very assured freind

T. Fairfax.

For Colonel Thomlinson.a

[a ]I conclude from this vote and letter that Fairfax, disapproving of the proposal to try the King, had absented himself from the meetings of the Council, in order not to be implicated in the preparations for the King’s trial; but was held nevertheless to be bound by the decisions of the majority of the Council in political matters. From the time when the Council of the Army was first set up, May 1647, the attachment of his signature to the declarations and political manifestos of the army was a mere matter of form. In his “Short Memorial” he says: “From the time that they declared their usurped authority at Triplow Heath, I never gave my free consent to anything they did: but being yet undischarged of my place they set my name in a way of course to all their papers, whether I consented or not.” It is certain that Fairfax in writing this, much over-states and ante-dates his opposition to the proceedings of the Army. During 1647 he seems to have been in perfect agreement with the other leaders of the Army. Their differences began in 1648. At some period in the beginning of 1648, probably about April, if the statement of Fairfax himself may be trusted, he prevented a forcible purgation of the Parliament which Cromwell and some others advocated (Short Memorial, ed. Maseres, p. 446; cf. Life of Col. Hutchinson, ii., 149, ed. 1885; Rushworth, vii., 1070). In November, 1648, his objections to the acceptance of Ireton’s draft Remonstrance led to a last negotiation between the Army leaders and the King (Gardiner, Great Civil War, iv., 237). Now, in December, 1648, after giving his support to the Remonstrance, playing the most prominent part in the occupation of London and the interruption of the Newport treaty, he accepted the responsibility of Pride’s Purge, but parted company with the Council of Officers on the question of the King’s trial.