the latter to adopt a more moderate course, and defined his own attitude: ‘I intreat you that there may be ways of love and composure thought upon. I shall do my endeavours, though I am forced to yield something out of order, to keep the army from disorder or worse inconveniences’ (Old Parliamentary Hist. xv. 383–90). Three days later the seizure of the king by Joyce took place, 3 July, an act which showed how completely the army had thrown off the control of the general. Fairfax states that he immediately sent Colonel Whalley and a couple of regiments to remove Joyce's force and conduct the king back to Holmby, but the king refused to return, and when Fairfax himself attempted to persuade him to do so said to him, ‘Sir, I have as good interest in the army as you.’ The general's proposal to punish Joyce for insubordination was rejected by a council of war (Short Memorial, p. 7). In the account which Fairfax gave to the parliament of these events he explains his unwilling assumption of the charge, and states that he has placed a trusty guard round the king ‘to secure his majesty's person from danger, and prevent any attempts of such as may design by the advantage of his person the better to raise any new war in this kingdom’ (Old Parliamentary Hist. xv. 411). In the general rendezvous at Newmarket on 5 June the army established a council for its own government, consisting of the general officers who had composed the old council of war and representatives of the officers and soldiers of each regiment. By this body the army was governed till the outbreak of the second civil war, and by it the political manifestos of the army were drawn up. Fairfax states ‘from the time they declared their usurped authority at Triploe 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’ (Short Memorial, p. 9). The declarations of the army are usually signed ‘John Rushworth, by the appointment of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Council of War.’ With parts of the policy followed by the council of war Fairfax seems nevertheless to have entirely agreed. In a long letter of 8 July he vindicates the conduct of the army in treating with the king, and their policy towards him. He recommends ‘all kind usage to his majesty's person,’ and urges ‘that tender, equitable, and moderate dealing towards his majesty, his royal family, and his late party, so far as may stand with safety to the kingdom, is the most hopeful course to take away the seeds of war or future feuds amongst us for posterity, and to procure a lasting peace and agreement in this now distracted nation’ (Old Parliamentary Hist. xvi. 104). At the end of July the army marched on London, ostensibly to protect the parliament from the violence of the city. The general professed himself ‘deeply afflicted with the late carriages towards the parliament,’ and promised to use all his power ‘to preserve them, and in them the interest of the nation’ (ib. p. 188). Nine lords and about one hundred commoners joined the army, and engaged to live and die with Fairfax and the army in vindication of the honour and freedom of parliament, 4 Aug. 1648. On 6 Aug. he brought them back to Westminster, and received the thanks of parliament for his services. There is little doubt that in the negotiations of the following months Fairfax continued to side with those who desired to make terms with the king, but he confined himself mainly to his military duties, and his name appears hardly ever in the accounts of the negotiations.
To a considerable extent he succeeded in restoring the discipline of the army. Early in September he was able to report to parliament that six thousand foot and two thousand horse were ready to serve in Ireland if their arrears were satisfied. He never ceased to urge on parliament the necessity of providing for the pay of the soldiers (Rushworth, vii. 795, 815). In the great reviews which took place in the following November the mutinous regiments were reduced to obedience, and the levellers for a time suppressed. ‘Without redress of these abuses and disorders,’ announced Fairfax, ‘his excellency cannot, nor will any longer undergo or undertake, further to discharge his present trust to the parliament, the army, and the kingdom.’ In the second place, ‘though he is far above any such low thoughts as to court or woo the army to continue him their general, yet to discharge himself to the utmost and to bring the business to a certain and clear issue,’ he promised to adhere to the army in the endeavour to obtain the satisfaction of their claims as soldiers, and the reform of parliament. Other political questions were to be left to parliament. Every regiment solemnly engaged to accept this compromise (Old Parliamentary Hist. xvi. 340). It was more easy, however, to restore order in the ranks than to moderate the political zeal of the council of war. According to Fairfax, that body resolved at one time ‘to remove all out of the house whom they conceived to be guilty of obstructing the public settlement.’ Cromwell and others pressed him urgently to sign orders for that
