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Fairfax and the Lifeguard's Colors*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

J. Mark Heumann
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Extract

On Wednesday, 23 February 1647/8, General Sir Thomas Fairfax received a petition from his Lifeguard protesting the terms under which they were ordered to be disbanded. Finding the General unsympathetic, some of the soldiers went to the cornet's lodgings at the Bell in Gray's Inn Lane and carried away the troop colors, hiding them at the Lamb on Snow Hill. The Council of War regarded this act “as a great Disrespect and Dishonor to the General” and interrogated members of the Lifeguard. On Friday, the Council condemned one Master William Clarke to be shot to death for mutiny and disobeying the commands of superior officers. On Saturday, the Lifeguard presented another petition, begging pardon for Clarke and submitting to the General's authority in the most abject terms. Clarke himself also petitioned for pardon, asserting as his motives “the not punctually performing of the Agreement made at Windsor, and to vindicate the General's Honor therein. After some consideration, Fairfax called Clarke in, pardoned him, and set him free.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , Fall 1994 , pp. 443 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1994

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Footnotes

*

This paper was prepared originally for the 1990 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers entitled “The Protestant Imagination” and conducted by Professor John N. King at Ohio State University. I thank Professor King, Professor Phoebe Spinrad, and the members of the seminar.

References

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53 Displaying, p. 11.

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58 Clarke Mss, 2/4; Heads of Chief Passages, no. 8, [23] Feb-[1 Mar] 1647/1648, p. 54Google Scholar; Moderate Intelligencer, no. 154, 24 Feb-2 Mar 1647/1648Google Scholar; Perfect Occurrences, no. 61, 25 Feb-3 Mar 1647/1648, p. 501Google Scholar. The text of the substitute petition is given in Appendix 2.

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61 Clarke Mss, 2/4; Gentles, , New Model Army, p. 233Google Scholar; Displaying, p. 13. On Saturday, 4 March, Fairfax pardoned Mallosse and Latham, but left the death sentence on Gethings, who was ultimately spared.

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67 Gentles, , New Model Army, pp. 232-33, 244-45, 248Google Scholar.