Religious language and commercial interests coexisted within the parliamentary cause. Sir Thomas Fairfax, Cromwell's superior officer, was a lord and an important commander at Naseby, Nantwich, Marston Moor, Oxford, Maidstone, and Colchester. Other noble officers also supported Parliament. Some nobles looked towards French or other continental models of government, while others valued Dutch and German models in which merchants had greater importance. Overseas trade enriched many nobles, giving them practical reasons to oppose royal policies that obstructed commerce.
Notable Point · 40:25-43:14
Civil War coalitions crossed class lines
Sir Thomas Fairfax and trade-connected nobles complicate any simple story of Parliament's middle class fighting a unified aristocracy.