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Thomas Fairfax: The General Who Defeated the King
Paperback
Series: Empire, Rebellion and Power
Historical FiguresGeneral Military HistoryBritish History
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Aug 16 2026
Pages: 258
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.64 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
He commanded the army that defeated a king. Then he recoiled from the revolution his victories made possible.
Thomas Fairfax was one of the greatest soldiers of the English Civil Wars, yet his name has long stood in the shadow of Oliver Cromwell.
Born into a powerful Yorkshire family in 1612, Fairfax learned the art of war in the Netherlands before serving Charles I during the Bishops' Wars. When England fractured, however, he chose Parliament. What followed was an extraordinary military career through the brutal campaigns of Yorkshire, defeat at Adwalton Moor, recovery at Selby, victory at Marston Moor and ultimately command of Parliament's revolutionary new national army.
In 1645 Fairfax became commander-in-chief of the New Model Army.
At Naseby he led that army to the decisive victory that shattered Charles I's principal field force. Campaigns through western England followed, destroying organised Royalist resistance and bringing the First Civil War to an end. Fairfax had become the general who defeated the king.
Victory brought a more difficult struggle.
The army Fairfax commanded was no longer merely a military instrument. Unpaid soldiers demanded justice from Parliament. Officers debated the political future of England. The king manoeuvred for restoration, civil war erupted again, and military power increasingly entered politics. Fairfax found himself caught between Parliament, Cromwell, radical soldiers and a monarch he had defeated but did not wish to see executed.
Thomas Fairfax: The General Who Defeated the King follows Fairfax from his Yorkshire upbringing and continental military education through Marston Moor, the creation of the New Model Army, Naseby, the western campaign, Putney, Colchester and the trial of Charles I. It then explores his resignation, retirement and remarkable return to public life as England moved toward the Restoration of Charles II.
Fairfax was neither a reluctant bystander nor a simple revolutionary. He could be ruthless in war, severe toward defeated enemies and willing to use military pressure in politics. Yet he also believed that victory required limits.
He helped create the army that made revolution possible, then stepped away when he could no longer accept where that revolution was leading.
Part of the Empire, Rebellion and Power series - the lives, conflicts and ambitions that reshaped Britain and the Atlantic world.
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