Anne, Lady Fairfax (born Anne Vere, also known as Anne Fairfax; 1617/1618 – 1665) was an English noblewoman. She was the wife of Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, commander-in-chief of the

New Model Army The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...

. She followed her husband as he fought and she was briefly taken prisoner. It is said that she was ejected after heckling the court at the trial of Charles I.

Life

Anne Vere was born in 1617 or 1618 in the Netherlands. Her parents were Mary and Horace Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury (1565-1635). Her father served as a commander during the

Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) ( c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Refo ...

and the Thirty Years War. In 1637 Anne married Thomas Fairfax, who rose to lead (1645-1650) the

during the English Civil War. Anne was a woman of influence and she accompanied her husband to battles. Taken prisoner near Bradford by William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, she was released a few days later and given an escort back to her husband's army. left, Nun Appleton in 1656 Her husband was placed at the head of the judges who were to try Charles I, but convinced that the King's death was intended, he refused to act. Fairfax did not attend the King's trial (January 1649) but Anne did. When the court called the name of Fairfax, it is said that his wife, Anne Fairfax, said "he had more wit than to be there". Later when the court said that they were acting for "all the good people of England", she shouted ‘No, nor the hundredth part of them!". This resulted in an investigation and Anne was asked or required to leave the court.Jacqueline Eales, ‘Fairfax , Anne, Lady Fairfax (1617/18–1665)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 10 April 2017
/ref> Wedgwood, C.V. ''The Trial of Charles I'' (1964) It was said that Anne could not forbear, as Bulstrode Whitelocke says, to exclaim aloud against the proceedings of the High Court of Justice. In February 1649 Fairfax was elected Member of Parliament for Cirencester in the Rump Parliament. In January 1649

John Geree John Geree ( – February, 1649) was an English Puritan clergyman preacher, and author of several tracts engaging in theological and political issues of the day, who was silenced for nonconformism but later reinstated. His elder brother Stephen Ge ...

asked Anne and her mother to intercede on the King's behalf to prevent his execution. Anne's daughter Mary married the royalist George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham when he returned to England in 1657. This was despite her betrothal to Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield.Bruce Yardley, ‘Villiers, George, second duke of Buckingham (1628–1687)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009, accessed 10 April 2017
/ref> Anne and her husband had to negotiate a £20,000 surety to allow the release of their son-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, from the Tower of London in 1659 after he was arrested. Lady Anne Fairfax died in Nun Appleton Hall in 1665. Her husband died there six years later.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fairfax, Anne 1610s births 1665 deaths Women in the English Civil War Daughters of barons Ladies of Parliament Wives of knights