While not referring directly to Lord Fairfax, the famous subject of Andrew Marvell's “Upon Appleton House,” these words from the poem's nunnery episode identify central issues involved in contemporary evaluations of Fairfax's career. In this episode, and by way of a fictionalized account of the dissolution of the nunnery, Marvell described the general's ancestor, William Fairfax, as a thoughtful, action-oriented hero about to gain possession of the Nun Appleton estate. Depicting him as worthy of emulation by future generations of Protestants, Marvell presented William's storming of the nunnery as both lawful and religiously motivated. Indeed, the contemplative moment that precedes his struggle with the nuns – “What should he do?” – dissipates as soon as the poem establishes that the proposed action is not unlawful: “The Court him grants the lawful form; / Which licens'd either Peace or Force, / To hinder the unjust Divorce” of his destined spouse from him (lines 234–6).

We can detect a playful defensiveness in these lines, as if Marvell were responding to an actual need to justify William's acquisition of church property.