Thomas, third Lord Fairfax.
Short Memorials
of some things to be cleared
during my Command in the Army.
[1645 to 1650 A.D.]
[From the holograph, now Fairfax MS. 36, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]
[These Memorials are not written in a strictly chronological sequence. They are of surpassing interest: being the recollections, about 1665, of many stirring events in England between 1642 and 1650, by a chief Actor in the same; whose personal motto was, Mon DIEU, je servirai tant que je vivrai.]
NOw when GOD is visiting the nation [? an allusion to the Plague of London in 1665] for the transgressions of their ways, as formerly he did to one sort of men so doth he it to another sort; so that all may see their errors and his justice: and as we have cause to implore his mercy, having sinned against him; so must we still vindicate his justice, who is always "clear when he judgeth." [Ps. li. 4.]
Now therefore, by his grace and assistance, I shall truly set down the grounds my actions moved upon during that unhappy War; and those actions which seemed to the World the more questionable in my steering through the turbulent and perilous seas of that time.
The first embarking into the sad calamities of War was about the year 1641 when the general distemper of the Three Kingdoms had kindled such a flame even in the hearts (I mean the Difference between the King and Parliament), as every one sought to guard his own house by the authority of both these. But the different judgements and ways were so contrary that, before a remedy could be found out, almost all was consumed to ashes.
I must needs say my judgement was for the Parliament, as the King's, and Kingdom's, great and safest Council; as others were for the King, and averse to Parliament, as if it could not go high enough for the Perogative.