Charles Fairfax (soldier)

Sir Charles Fairfax (fl. 1604), was an English soldier.

Fairfax was the fourth son of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Denton and Nun Appleton in Yorkshire, and brother of Thomas, first lord Fairfax. He was born in or about 1567, and when very young he went with his brother to serve under Sir Francis Vere in the Low Countries. Charles became a distinguished commander. At the battle of Nieuport he rallied the English companies at a critical moment with distinguished gallantry, and he was one of the defenders of Ostend. By desire of Sir Francis Vere he went to the camp of the Archduke Albert as a hostage, and he fought in the breach when the Spanish forces assaulted the works in December 1601. In 1604 Fairfax was at the siege of Sluys, commanding troops which routed the Spanish general Velasco. The date and manner of his death have not been ascertained. The notice of the Sir Charles Fairfax in the ‘Fairfax Correspondence’ (i. xix) is erroneous. He was never governor of Ostend, and he certainly was not slain in the manner and at the time there stated, for he was afterwards at the siege of Sluys.