159-712: The English Army existed while England was an independent state and was at war with other states, but it was not until the Interregnum and the New Model Army (raised by Parliament to defeat the Royalists in the English Civil War ) that England acquired a peacetime professional standing army . At the Restoration of the monarchy , Charles II kept a small standing army, formed from elements of
318-613: A Celtic kingdom in what is now southwest Scotland and Cumbria. In doing so, he annexed what is now the county of Cumbria to England. In 1124, Henry I ceded what is now southeast Scotland (called Lothian ) to the Kingdom of Scotland , in return for the King of Scotland's loyalty. This final cession established what would become the traditional borders of England which have remained largely unchanged since then (except for occasional and temporary changes). This area of land had previously been
477-632: A Council of the North was set up for the northern counties of England. After falling into disuse, it was re-established in 1537 and abolished in 1641. A very short-lived Council of the West also existed for the West Country between 1537 and 1540. In the Anglo-Saxon period, the geld or property tax was first levied in response to Danish invasions but later became a regular tax. The majority of
636-506: A peerage on such basis, meaning a right to sit in the House of Lords , were not to be revived, nor any right of succession based on them. The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 followed the conquest of Wales by Edward I of England . It assumed the lands held by the Princes of Gwynedd under the title " Prince of Wales " as legally part of the lands of England, and established shire counties on
795-496: A pot helmet , back- and breastplates over a buff coat, and often also armoured tassets to protect the upper legs. They carried a sixteen-foot pike, and a sword. The heavily burdened pikeman usually dictated the speed of the Army's movement. They were frequently ordered to discard the tassets, and individual soldiers were disciplined for sawing a foot or two from the butts of their pikes, although senior officers were recommended to make
954-529: A Regiment of Foot) was appointed Lieutenant General of the Ordnance. The establishment of the New Model also included at least two companies of "firelocks" or fusiliers , who wore " tawny coats" instead of red, commanded initially by Major John Desborough . The artillery was used to most effect in sieges , where its role was to blast breaches in fortifications for the infantry to assault. Cromwell and
1113-572: A Scottish invasion force at the Battle of Preston in August. Many of the Army's radicals now called for the execution of the King, whom they called " Charles Stuart, that man of blood ". The majority of the Grandees realised that they could neither negotiate a settlement with Charles I, nor trust him to refrain from raising another army to attack them, so they came reluctantly to the same conclusion as
1272-617: A drink after perfunctory drill. In 1642, at the start of the English Civil War both the Royalists ( Cavaliers ) and Parliament ( Roundheads ) raised men when and where they could, and both claimed legal justification. Parliament claimed to be justified by its own recent " Militia Ordinance ", while the king claimed the old-fashioned " Commissions of Array ". For example, in Cornwall the Royalist leader Sir Ralph Hopton indicted
1431-469: A foreign expedition, while various Militia Acts directed that (in theory) the entire male population who owned property over a certain amount in value, was required to keep arms at home and periodically train or report to musters. The musters were usually chaotic affairs, used mainly by the Lord Lieutenants and other officers to draw their pay and allowances, and by the troops as an excuse for
1590-541: A group that included moderates like Sir William Waller as well as radicals like Cromwell. In December 1644, Sir Henry Vane introduced the Self-denying Ordinance , requiring those holding military commissions to resign from Parliament. As members of the House of Lords , Manchester and Essex were automatically removed, since unlike MPs they could not resign their titles, although they could be re-appointed, 'if Parliament approved.' Although delayed by
1749-469: A heavy price at Clonmel when Cromwell ordered them to attack a well-defended breach. The New Model did not use tents, instead being quartered in whatever buildings (houses, barns etc.) were available, until they began to serve in the less populated areas of the countries of Ireland and Scotland. In 1650, their tents were each for six men, a file, who carried the tents in parts. In campaigns in Scotland,
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#17327657827151908-543: A local noble or bishop. The last such, the County Palatine of Durham , did not lose this special status until the 19th century. Although all of England was divided into shires by the time of the Norman Conquest, some counties were formed considerably later, up to the 16th century. Because of their differing origins the counties varied considerably in size . The county boundaries were fairly static between
2067-523: A lower rank. Essex and Manchester raised objections to around 30% of those on the list, for reasons that are still debated, but ultimately only five changes were approved. In addition, several Scots officers refused to take up their appointments, including John Middleton , originally colonel of the Second Regiment of Horse. The standard daily pay was 8 pence for infantry and 2 shillings for cavalry, who also had to supply their own horses, while
2226-449: A major European war. A Treaty of Union was agreed on 22 July 1706, and following the Acts of Union of 1707 , which created the Kingdom of Great Britain , the independence of the kingdoms of England and Scotland came to an end on 1 May 1707. The Acts of Union created a customs union and monetary union and provided that any "laws and statutes" that were "contrary to or inconsistent with
2385-601: A measure originally introduced to replace some high-ranking officers who were suspected of disloyalty or defeatism), and created the New Model Army , the first professional standing army in Modern English history. An experienced soldier, Sir Thomas Fairfax , was appointed its Lord General. The New Model Army proved supreme in field, no more so than in the Second English Civil War which was succinctly described by Sir Winston Churchill: The Story of
2544-591: A new board of general officers was convened to decide upon the rank of several regiments, the seniority of the Scots Greys was reassessed and was based on their entry into England in June 1685. At that time, there was only one English regiment of dragoons, so after some delay the Scots Greys obtained the rank of 2nd Dragoons in the British Army. Attribution Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England
2703-485: A new invasion. The ensuing war ended with an agreement in 1016 between Canute and Æþelræd's successor, Edmund Ironside , to divide England between them, but Edmund's death on 30 November of that year left England united under Danish rule. This continued for 26 years until the death of Harthacnut in June 1042. He was the son of Canute and Emma of Normandy (the widow of Æthelred the Unready) and had no heirs of his own; he
2862-890: A night attack on 13 May, in which several mutineers perished, but Captain Thompson escaped, only to be killed in another skirmish near the Diggers community at Wellingborough . The rest were imprisoned in Burford Church until three were shot in the Churchyard on 17 May. Later that year, on 15 August 1649, the New Model Army landed in Ireland to start the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland . At Kilkenny, in March 1650,
3021-731: A part of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria . Lothian contained what later became the Scottish capital, Edinburgh . This arrangement was later finalized in 1237 by the Treaty of York . The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land from the Irish, over which the Kingdom of England then claimed sovereignty, all allegedly sanctioned by
3180-407: A sand-hill 150 feet (46 m) high and strongly defended by Spanish veterans who were forced to retreat. It was only after the death of Oliver Cromwell and the loss of his influence that the other members of the army could not agree on an alternative to the restoration of Charles II. Even so, it was under the firm guidance and with the agreement of General George Monck of the New Model Army that
3339-461: A series of civil wars over possession of the throne between the House of Lancaster (whose heraldic symbol was the red rose) and the House of York (whose symbol was the white rose), each led by different branches of the descendants of Edward III. The end of these wars found the throne held by the descendant of an initially illegitimate member of the House of Lancaster, married to the eldest daughter of
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#17327657827153498-479: A slow death, as did the New Model Army. For a time, in 1659, it appeared that factions of the New Model army forces loyal to different generals might wage war on each other. Regiments garrisoned in Scotland under the command of General Monck were marched to London to ensure the security of the capital prior to the Restoration , without significant opposition from the regiments under other generals, particularly those led by Charles Fleetwood and John Lambert . Following
3657-570: A unitary legislative chamber with a new body, the Council of State becoming the executive. However the Army remained the dominant institution in the new republic and the most prominent general was Oliver Cromwell . The Commonwealth fought wars in Ireland and Scotland which were subdued and placed under Commonwealth military occupation. Meanwhile, relations with the Dutch Republic had deteriorated. Despite initial English support during
3816-671: The 1801 union between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The counties of England were established for administration by the Normans , in most cases based on earlier shires established by
3975-626: The Act of Union in 1707 the English and Scottish armies were amalgamated to form the British Army . The order of seniority for the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. Scottish and Irish regiments were only allowed to take a rank in the English army from the date of their arrival in England or the date when they were first placed on
4134-486: The Anglo-Saxons . They ceased to be used for administration only with the creation of the administrative counties in 1889. Unlike the partly self-governing boroughs that covered urban areas, the counties of medieval England existed primarily as a means of enforcing central government power, enabling monarchs to exercise control over local areas through their chosen representatives – originally sheriffs and later
4293-663: The Battle of Saint-Denis (the last battle of the war). During the battle, a Scottish regiment under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Dougles attacked the French camp and the Anglo-Dutch Brigade fought in the vanguard of the Dutch Spanish army suffering many casualties. The Monmouth Rebellion and the Battle of Sedgemoor (6 July 1685). War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) Shortly after
4452-559: The Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651 bringing the Civil War to an end. During the Interregnum (1649–1660) the power of all the republican experiments in governance relied on the military might of the New Model Army, which, whenever it was called upon, was easily able to meet the challenges of its enemies, both foreign and domestic. Two particularly notable events of the interregnum were to have long-lasting effects. The first
4611-577: The Battle of the Dunes against the Roundheads of the Protectorate and their French allies. For political expediency he also included some of the elements of the New Model Army . The whole force consisted of two corps of horse and five or six of infantry. It is, however, on this narrow and solid basis that the structure of the English army was gradually erected. The horse consisted of two regiments
4770-401: The Battle of the Dunes (1658) , as part of Turenne 's army, the red-coats of the New Model Army under the leadership of Sir William Lockhart , Cromwell's ambassador at Paris, astonished both their French allies and Spanish enemies by the stubborn fierceness with which they advanced against a strongly defended sandhill 50 metres (160 ft) high. After Cromwell died, the Protectorate died
4929-590: The Bretwalda . Soon after the Norman Conquest of England , however, some Norman lords began to attack Wales. They conquered and ruled parts of it, acknowledging the overlordship of the Norman kings of England but with considerable local independence. Over many years these " Marcher Lords " conquered more and more of Wales, against considerable resistance led by various Welsh princes, who also often acknowledged
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5088-573: The Capture of Cayenne (1667) , and Recapture of Fort Zeelandia (1667) . The Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672–1674) was a maritime war, but English soldiers and officers (including John Churchill (the future Duke of Marlborough ) saw service under French command (for example at the Siege of Maastricht (1673) ). The Blackheath Army of freshly-raised regiments was intended to take part an expedition to Zeeland in 1673, but this had to be abandoned following
5247-498: The City of London quickly established itself as England's largest and principal commercial centre. Histories of the Kingdom of England from the Norman Conquest of 1066 conventionally distinguish periods named after successive ruling dynasties: Norman/Angevin 1066–1216, Plantagenet 1216–1485, Tudor 1485–1603 and Stuart 1603–1707 (interrupted by the Interregnum of 1649–1660). All English monarchs after 1066 ultimately descend from
5406-532: The English Civil War (1641–45), in which the king was defeated, and to the abolition of the monarchy under Oliver Cromwell during the Interregnum of 1649–1660. After the trial and execution of Charles I in January 1649, the Rump Parliament passed an act declaring England to be a Commonwealth on 19 May 1649. The monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, and so the House of Commons became
5565-709: The English Civil War in 1642 the English Tudor and Stuart monarchs maintained a personal bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard (created by Henry VII) and the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms or "gentlemen pensioners" (created by Henry VIII), and a few locally raised companies to garrison important places such as Berwick on Tweed , Portsmouth , and Calais (before it was recaptured by France in 1558). Troops for foreign expeditions were raised on an ad hoc basis in either country by its King, when required. This
5724-502: The Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its successor state the United Kingdom, functioned in effect as a constitutional monarchy . On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707 , the parliaments, and therefore Kingdoms, of both England and Scotland were mutually abolished. Their assets and estates united 'for ever, into the Kingdom by the name of Great Britain', forming
5883-761: The Hundred Years' War and the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses in 1455, the English were no longer in any position to pursue their French claims and lost all their land on the continent, except for Calais . After the turmoils of the Wars of the Roses, the Tudor dynasty ruled during the English Renaissance and again extended English monarchical power beyond England proper, achieving the full union of England and
6042-554: The Irish Army also existed in the Kingdom of Ireland . For some of his enforced exile King Charles II had lived at the court of Louis XIV ; he had witnessed the changes introduced in France into the organisation of the troops maintained in time of peace as well as of war. On his return to England in 1660, Charles took measures to support his recently restored throne on the fidelity of his soldiers; he moreover endeavoured to fix
6201-723: The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Parliament of Great Britain . The Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn , originally names of the Angles . They called their land Engla land , meaning "land of the English", by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia , from an original Anglia vetus , the purported homeland of the Angles (called Angulus by Bede ). The name Engla land became England by haplology during
6360-626: The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 ). Wales was incorporated into the Kingdom of England, and henceforth was represented in the Parliament of England . During the 1530s, Henry VIII overthrew the power of the Catholic Church within the kingdom, replacing the pope as head of his own English Church and seizing the Catholic Church's lands, thereby facilitating the creation of a variation of Catholicism that became more Protestant over time. This had
6519-533: The Life Guards (formed from exiled Cavaliers); and The Blues (or The Oxford Blues), formed by Lord Oxford, out of some of the best New Model Army horse regiments. The foot regiments were Grenadier Guards (initially two regiments Lord Wentworth's Regiment and John Russell's Regiment of Guards which amalgamated in 1665), the Coldstream Guards (the New Model Army regiment of General Monck ),
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6678-782: The Middle English period ( Engle-land , Engelond ). The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra , the Old French and Anglo-Norman one Engleterre . The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John was Rex Anglorum ("King of the English"). Cnut , a Dane, was the first to call himself "King of England". During the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with occasional use of Rex Anglie ("King of England"). From John's reign onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie . In 1604 James I , who had inherited
6837-455: The Normans , and the distinction of the Plantagenets is conventional—beginning with Henry II (reigned 1154–1189) as from that time, the Angevin kings became "more English in nature"; the houses of Lancaster and York are both Plantagenet cadet branches, the Tudor dynasty claimed descent from Edward III via John Beaufort and James VI and I of the House of Stuart claimed descent from Henry VII via Margaret Tudor . The completion of
6996-413: The Parliament of Ireland , with the aim of restoring such central authority as had been lost throughout the country during the previous two centuries. Calais , the last remaining continental possession of the Kingdom, was lost in 1558, during the reign of Philip and Mary I . Their successor, Elizabeth I , consolidated the new and increasingly Protestant Church of England . She also began to build up
7155-401: The Principality of Wales under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 . Henry VIII oversaw the English Reformation , and his daughter Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603) the Elizabethan Religious Settlement , meanwhile establishing England as a great power and laying the foundations of the British Empire via colonization of the Americas . The accession of James VI and I in 1603 resulted in
7314-424: The Royal Scots (formed from the Scotch guard in France), and the Second Queen's Royals . It will thus be seen that the military system prevailed in England almost at the same time as in France; the two people, however, hailed in a very different manner an innovation, which changed, especially in time of peace, the character of the armed force. In France, under the absolute rule of Louis XIV, it does not appear that
7473-463: The Secretary at War , a member of the Government. (In origin the Secretary at War had been secretary to the captain general; but at times when no captain general or Commander-in-Chief was appointed the Secretary took on greater importance, gaining access to the sovereign and counter-signing orders; until, even when a new captain general was appointed, the Secretary at War retained distinct responsibilities and functioned independently.) An earlier official,
7632-424: The Union of the Crowns , with the Stuart dynasty ruling the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland . Under the Stuarts, England plunged into civil war , which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament. This concept became legally established as part of
7791-432: The conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown. Edward III (reigned 1327–1377) transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe; his reign also saw vital developments in legislation and government—in particular the evolution of the English Parliament . From the 1340s, English claims to the French throne were held in pretense, but after
7950-467: The judge advocate general (1666); these were later joined by the adjutant-general (from 1680), the quartermaster-general (1686), the Provost marshal general and others. In 1679, the captain general being absent, a lieutenant-general was appointed to act in his stead ( Lord Gerard of Brandon ). Later, in 1685, King James II created three lieutenants-general 'over all our Forces, as well Horse as Foot '; three majors-general were also appointed at
8109-402: The lord-lieutenants – and their subordinate justices of the peace . Counties were used initially for the administration of justice , collection of taxes and organisation of the military, and later for local government and electing parliamentary representation. Some outlying counties were from time to time accorded palatine status with some military and central government functions vested in
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#17327657827158268-418: The " Eleven Years' Tyranny " of Charles I and feared that a standing army under royal command would allow monarchs in the future to ignore the wishes of Parliament. ...the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law. – Bill of Rights 1689 Many of the English were not fully reconciled to the need for a standing army until
8427-408: The 16th century Laws in Wales acts and the Local Government Act 1888 . Each shire was responsible for gathering taxes for the central government; for local defence; and for justice, through assize courts . The power of the feudal barons to control their landholding was considerably weakened in 1290 by the statute of Quia Emptores . Feudal baronies became perhaps obsolete (but not extinct) on
8586-470: The Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly ... and made it habitable once more." Alfred's restoration entailed reoccupying and refurbishing the nearly deserted Roman walled city, building quays along the Thames , and laying a new city street plan. During the following years Northumbria repeatedly changed hands between the English kings and the Norwegian invaders, but was definitively brought under English control by Eadred in 954, completing
8745-450: The Army or send them to fight in Ireland without addressing the issue of back pay. Secondly, the Long Parliament refused to grant the soldiers amnesty from prosecution for any criminal acts they had been ordered to commit in the Civil War. The soldiers demanded indemnity as several soldiers were hanged after the war for crimes such as stealing horses for use by the cavalry regiments. Thirdly, seeing that most Parliamentarians wanted to restore
8904-563: The Army's senior officers did not share many of their soldiers' political opinions, their independence from Parliament led to the Army's willingness to contribute to both Parliament's authority and to overthrow the Crown, and to establish a Commonwealth of England from 1649 to 1660, which included a period of direct military rule. The forces raised in 1642 by both Royalists and Parliamentarians were based on part-time militia known as Trained bands . Founded in 1572, these were organised by county , controlled by Lord-lieutenants appointed by
9063-425: The Castilian Pero Niño . Though the English won numerous victories, they were unable to overcome the numerical superiority of the French and their strategic use of gunpowder weapons. England was defeated at the Battle of Formigny in 1450 and finally at the Battle of Castillon in 1453, retaining only a single town in France, Calais . During the Hundred Years' War an English identity began to develop in place of
9222-466: The Duke of Monmouth served briefly as captain general from 1678 to 1679. A captain general was not appointed either by James II or William III; but in 1702 Queen Anne appointed her husband generalissimo and the Duke of Marlborough captain general. Strategic control of the army was in the hands of the Privy Council . By the early the eighteenth century, the power to raise an army, to issue marching orders and to administer army pay and finances lay with
9381-459: The Dutch Republic in its wars against Louis XIV of France. In the Scottish case, the attractions were partly financial and partly to do with removing English trade sanctions put in place through the Alien Act 1705 . The English were more anxious about the royal succession. The death of William III in 1702 had led to the accession of his sister-in-law Anne to the thrones of England and Scotland, but her only surviving child had died in 1700, and
9540-414: The Dutch War of Independence against the Spanish, tensions arose as the Dutch Republic emerged as England's principal commercial and naval rival. By the mid-17th century, it had become the foremost trading nation. In response the English, alarmed by their waning competitiveness, implemented stricter trading policies to curb Dutch dominance. The First Anglo-Dutch War which followed, however, failed to resolve
9699-444: The Earl of Essex, Waller's Southern Association and the Eastern Association under the Earl of Manchester. It comprised 6,600 cavalry, divided into eleven units of 600 men, 14,400 foot, comprising twelve regiments of 1,200 men, and 1,000 dragoons . Originally each regiment of cavalry had a company of dragoons attached, but at the urging of Fairfax on 1 March they were formed into a separate unit commanded by Colonel John Okey . Although
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#17327657827159858-454: The English Act of Settlement 1701 had given the succession to the English crown to the Protestant House of Hanover . Securing the same succession in Scotland became the primary object of English strategic thinking towards Scotland. By 1704, the Union of the Crowns was in crisis, with the Scottish Act of Security allowing for the Scottish Parliament to choose a different monarch, which could in turn lead to an independent foreign policy during
10017-418: The English establishment. For example, in 1694 a board of general officers was convened to decide upon the rank of English, Irish, and Scots regiments serving in the Netherlands, when the regiment that became known as the Scots Greys was designated as the 4th Dragoons because there were three English regiments raised prior to 1688, when the Scot Greys were first placed on the English establishment. In 1713, when
10176-478: The English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general. The English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927. During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda , a high king over the other kings. The decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful, absorbing the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825. The kings of Wessex increasingly dominated
10335-404: The English model over those areas. The Marcher Lords were progressively tied to the English kings by the grants of lands and lordships in England. The Council of Wales and the Marches , administered from Ludlow Castle , was initially established by Edward IV of England to govern the lands held under the Principality of Wales in 1472. At the same time the Council of Wales was created in 1472,
10494-424: The English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) King of Great Britain . The Kingdom of England emerged from the gradual unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy : East Anglia , Mercia , Northumbria , Kent , Essex , Sussex , and Wessex . The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between
10653-454: The Grandees in the Army, through the Council of State imposed a new constitutional arrangement under a written constitution called the Instrument of Government . Under the Instrument of Government executive power lay with a Lord Protector (an office to be held for the life of the incumbent) and there were to be triennial Parliaments, with each sitting for at least five months. Article 23 of the Instrument of Government stated that Oliver Cromwell
10812-410: The Grandees in the Army. The much-reduced Rump Parliament passed the necessary legislation to try Charles I. He was found guilty of high treason by the 59 Commissioners and beheaded on 30 January 1649. During 1649, there were three mutinies over pay and political demands. The first involved 300 infantrymen of Colonel John Hewson 's regiment, who declared that they would not serve in Ireland until
10971-406: The House of York: Henry VII and Elizabeth of York . Wales retained a separate legal and administrative system, which had been established by Edward I in the late 13th century. The country was divided between the Marcher Lords , who gave feudal allegiance to the crown, and the Principality of Wales . Under the Tudor monarchy, Henry VIII replaced the laws of Wales with those of England (under
11130-537: The King without major democratic reforms or religious freedom. Two representatives, called Agitators, were elected from each regiment. The Agitators, with two officers from each regiment and the Generals, formed a new body called the Army Council . At a meeting ("rendezvous") held near Newmarket, Suffolk on 4 June 1647 this council issued "A Solemne Engagement of the Army, under the Command of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax" to Parliament on 8 June making their concerns known. Having come into contact with ideas from
11289-399: The Kingdom of Scotland. Despite the Union of the Crowns , the kingdoms remained separate and independent states: a state of affairs which lasted for more than a century. The Stuart kings overestimated the power of the English monarchy, and were cast down by Parliament in 1645 and 1688. In the first instance, Charles I 's introduction of new forms of taxation in defiance of Parliament led to
11448-659: The Levellers' programme had been realised. They were cashiered without arrears of pay, which was the threat that had been used to quell the mutiny at the Corkbush Field rendezvous. In the Bishopsgate mutiny , soldiers of the regiment of Colonel Edward Whalley stationed in Bishopsgate , in London, made demands similar to those of Hewson's regiment. They were ordered out of London. Less than two weeks later, there
11607-646: The Lords, the Ordinance came into force on 3 April 1645. Since Cromwell was MP for Cambridge , command of the cavalry was initially given to Colonel Bartholomew Vermuyden , a former officer in the Eastern Association who was of Dutch origin and wanted to return home. Fairfax asked that Cromwell be appointed Lieutenant General of the Horse in place of Vermuyden, making him one of two original exceptions to
11766-591: The Middle Ages: the Assize of Arms of 1252 issued by King Henry III provided that small landholders should be armed and trained with a bow, and those of more wealth would be required to possess and be trained with sword, dagger and longbow. That Assize referred to a class of Forty shilling freeholders, who became identified with 'yeomanry', and states "Those with land worth annual 40s–100s will be armed/trained with bow and arrow, sword, buckler and dagger". Prior to
11925-510: The Militia and other sources were attached to the regiments of horse and foot as required. This was the case at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September 1650. The Regiments of Foot consisted of ten companies, in which musketeers and pikemen were mixed, at least on the march. Seven companies consisted of one hundred soldiers, plus officers, specialists and so on, and were commanded by captains. The other three companies were nominally commanded by
12084-645: The New Model Army were sent to Portugal, to support the Portuguese Restoration War and help Portugal regain its independence after many decades of Spanish rule. The British brigade, which numbered 3,000, arrived in Portugal in August 1662 and proved a decisive factor in winning back Portugal's independence, defeating the Spanish in a major engagement at Ameixial on 8 June 1663, and this forced John of Austria to abandon Évora and retreat across
12243-432: The New Model cavalry could charge, break an enemy force, regroup and charge again at another objective. On the other hand, when required to pursue, they did so relentlessly, not breaking ranks to loot abandoned enemy baggage as Royalist horse often did. The New Model Army contained one regiment of dragoons of twelve companies, each of one hundred men, under Colonel John Okey . Dragoons were mounted infantry, and wore much
12402-475: The Normans continued collecting the geld regularly. They also introduced new sources of revenue based on concepts of feudalism . The king was entitled to collect a feudal aid when his eldest son was knighted, his eldest daughter married, or if the king needed to pay his own ransom. The heir to a fief was also required to pay the king a feudal relief before he could take possession of his inheritance. The king
12561-536: The Norwegians at the Battle of Stamford Bridge (25 September 1066) when the news reached him. He decided to set out without delay and confront the Norman army in Sussex so marched southwards at once, despite the army not being properly rested following the battle with the Norwegians. The armies of Harold and William faced each other at the Battle of Hastings (14 October 1066), in which the English army, or Fyrd ,
12720-599: The Papal bull Laudabiliter . At the time, Gaelic Ireland was made up of several kingdoms, with a High King claiming lordship over most of the other kings. The Duchy of Aquitaine came into personal union with the Kingdom of England upon the accession of Henry II , who had married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine . The Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy remained in personal union until John Lackland , Henry II's son and fourth-generation descendant of William I, lost
12879-526: The Parliamentarian army in Ireland between 1649 and 1653, in addition to some 9,000 Irish Protestants. The Army generally performed well when storming fortifications, for example at the siege of Drogheda , but paid a heavy price at Clonmel when Cromwell ordered them to attack a well-defended breach. In 1650, while the campaign in Ireland was still continuing, part of the New Model Army was transferred to Scotland to fight Scottish Covenanters at
13038-595: The Restoration by 15 years. It was on the fields of Nasby , Dunbar and Dunes that the foundations of the British professional army were laid. On 26 January 1661, Charles II issued the Royal Warrant that created the first regiments of what would become the British Army , although Scotland and England maintained separate military establishments until the Acts of Union 1707 . A third military establishment,
13197-585: The Royalist army in exile and elements of the New Model Army, from which the most senior regular regiments of today's British Army can trace their antecedence . Likewise, Royal Marines can trace their origins back to the formation of the English Army's "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of Foot" at the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company on 28 October 1664. Primitive steps towards standing armed forces began in
13356-534: The Royalists at the Battle of Worcester , the last pitched battle of the English Civil Wars. In England, the New Model Army was involved in numerous skirmishes with a range of opponents, but these were little more than policing actions. The largest rebellion of the Protectorate took place when the Sealed Knot instigated an insurrection in 1655. The major foreign entanglement of this period
13515-763: The Second English Civil War is short and simple. King, Lords and Commons, landlords, merchants, the City and the countryside, bishops and presbyters, the Scottish army, the Welsh people, and the English Fleet, all now turned against the New Model Army. The Army beat the lot! From its foundation, the New Model Army adopted social and religious policies which were increasingly at odds with those of Parliament. The Army's senior officers (the " Grandees ") formed another faction, opposed both to Parliament and to
13674-712: The Self-denying Ordinance, the other being Sir William Brereton , commander in Cheshire . They were allowed to serve under a series of three-month temporary commissions that were continually extended. Other Parliamentarian forces were consolidated into two regional armies, the Northern Association under Sydnam Poyntz and Western Association under Edward Massey . Parliament authorised an Army of 22,000 soldiers, most of whom came from three existing Parliamentarian armies; that commanded by
13833-639: The Treasurer at War, did not outlast the Interregnum . The captain general was assisted by a number of 'general officers' in the wake of the Restoration (called 'general' officers to distinguish them from those with 'particular' responsibility, e.g. to a regiment, rather than to the army as a whole): the Commissary General of the Musters (1660), the pay master general (from 1661), the surgeon general (1664), scoutmaster general (1664–1689) and
13992-640: The abolition of feudal tenure during the Civil War , as confirmed by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660 passed under the Restoration which took away knight-service and other legal rights. Tenure by knight-service was abolished and discharged and the lands covered by such tenures, including once-feudal baronies, were henceforth held by socage ( i.e. , in exchange for monetary rents). The English Fitzwalter Case in 1670 ruled that barony by tenure had been discontinued for many years and any claims to
14151-465: The actual charging powder, for 3 lbs of lead. They were normally deployed six ranks deep, and were supposed to keep up a constant fire by means of the countermarch —either by introduction whereby the rear rank filed to the front to fire a volley, or by retroduction where the front rank fired a volley then filed to the rear. By the time that they reached the front rank again, they should have reloaded and been prepared to fire. At close quarters, there
14310-422: The administration of the Army was more centralised, with improved provision of adequate food, clothing and other supplies. At the same time, recruits were also supposed to be motivated by religious fervour, as demonstrated in the "Soldier's catechism", written by Robert Ram . On 9 June 1645, Sir Samuel Luke , one of the officers discharged, wrote the Army was "the bravest for bodies of men, horse and arms so far as
14469-993: The army marched slowly towards London over the next few months. In late October and early November at the Putney Debates , the Army debated two different proposals. The first was the Agreement of the People ; the other was the Heads of Proposals , put forward by Henry Ireton for the Army Council. The army remained under control and intact, so it was able to take the field when the Second English Civil War broke out in July 1648. The New Model Army routed English royalist insurrections in Surrey and Kent , and in Wales , before crushing
14628-621: The army's leaders were prohibited from having seats in either the House of Lords or House of Commons . This was to encourage their separation from the political or religious factions among the Parliamentarians. The New Model Army was raised partly from among veteran soldiers who already had deeply held Puritan religious beliefs, and partly from conscripts who brought with them many commonly held beliefs about religion or society. Many of its common soldiers therefore held dissenting or radical views unique among English armies. Although
14787-558: The army, and under a general bill, commonly called the Mutiny Act , laid down the restrictions which, whilst respecting the rights of the sovereign, were likewise to shield the liberty of the people. It did this by making the standing army conditional on an annually renewed act of parliament. Supreme command of the English Army was vested in the sovereign, though monarchs (with the notable exception of King William III) seldom led their forces in battle after 1660. Instead, executive command
14946-417: The battlefield, a regiment was normally formed as two "divisions" of three troops, one commanded by the regiment's colonel (or the major, if the colonel was not present), the other by the lieutenant colonel. Their discipline was markedly superior to that of their Royalist counterparts. Cromwell specifically forbade his men to gallop after a fleeing enemy, but demanded they hold the battlefield. This meant that
15105-505: The cavalry regiments were already up to strength, the infantry was severely understrength and in May 1645 was still 4,000 men below the approved level. By creating fewer but larger regiments, the re-organisation greatly reduced the requirement for officers and senior NCOs . Fairfax had more than double the number of officers available for his 200 vacancies and those deemed surplus to requirements were either discharged or persuaded to re-enlist at
15264-472: The collar and ends of the sleeves, and generally matched the colours of the regimental and company standards. In time, they became the official " Facing colour ". On some occasions, regiments were referred to, for example, as the "blue" regiment or the "white" regiment from these colours, though in formal correspondence they were referred to by the name of their colonel. Each company had its own standard, 6 feet (180 cm) square. The colonel's company's standard
15423-458: The commercial issues. In April 1653 Cromwell and the other Grandees of the New Model Army , frustrated with the members of the Rump Parliament who would not pass legislation to dissolve the Rump and to allow a new more representative parliament to be elected, stopped the Rump's session and declared the Rump dissolved. After an experiment with a Nominated Assembly ( Barebone's Parliament ),
15582-399: The common soldiers as ever I saw in my life". However, he later complained many soldiers were drunk and their officers were often indistinguishable from enlisted men. The extent to which the Army can be seen as a hotbed of religious and political radicalism is disputed, particularly since many of those now viewed as radicals, like Thomas Horton or Thomas Pride , were not considered such at
15741-629: The conduct of certain senior commanders; in July 1644, a Parliamentarian force under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell secured control of Northern England by victory at Marston Moor . However, this was offset first by defeat at Lostwithiel in September, then lack of decisiveness at the Second Battle of Newbury in October. The two commanders involved, Essex and Manchester , were accused by many in Parliament of lacking commitment,
15900-620: The continental possessions of the Duchy to Philip II of France in 1204 and decisively after the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. A few remnants of Normandy , including the Channel Islands , remained in John's possession, together with most of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Up until the Norman Conquest of England, Wales had remained for the most part independent of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms , although some Welsh kings did sometimes acknowledge
16059-678: The disastrous Raid on the Medway and forced the humiliated Charles in to an unfavourable peace treaty . The treaty eliminated a number of long-standing issues, and in the long-term made it possible for the two countries to unite against the expansionist policies pursued by Louis XIV of France . In the short-term however, Charles' desire to avenge this setback led to the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1672. Despite attaining French support this time, Dutch naval successes made Parliament unwilling to support Charles' war effort any further, and he
16218-508: The earliest use of the phrase "New Model Army" to the works of the Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle in 1845, and the exact term does not appear in 17th- or 18th-century documents. Records from February 1646 refer to the "New Modelled Army"—the idiom of the time being to refer to an army that was "new-modelled" rather than appending the word "army" to "new model". The order of battle was as follows: The New Model Army's elite troops were its Regiments of Horse . They were armed and equipped in
16377-551: The effect of aligning England with Scotland, which also gradually adopted a Protestant religion, whereas the most important continental powers, France and Spain, remained Roman Catholic. The "Tudor conquest" (or reconquest ) of Ireland' took place under the Tudor dynasty. Following a failed rebellion against the crown by Silken Thomas , the Earl of Kildare , in the 1530s, Henry VIII was declared King of Ireland in 1542 by statute of
16536-454: The end of the Civil War, although it is not certain that none had iron helmets at the beginning. They wore a bandolier from which were suspended twelve wooden containers, each with a ball and measured charge of powder for their matchlock muskets. These containers are sometimes referred to as the "Twelve Apostles". According to one source, they carried 1 lb of fine powder, for priming, to 2 lbs of lead and 2 lbs of ordinary powder,
16695-418: The enemy before the grand jury of the county for disturbing the peace, and expelled them by using the posse comitatus . In effect, both sides assembled local forces wherever they could do so by valid written authority. After two years of ruinous but indecisive military campaigning, Parliament passed the Self-denying Ordinance (by which members of both Houses of Parliament were deprived of military office,
16854-694: The establishment of a centralised, professional force. On 30 January 1645, committeemen of the Eastern Association discussed their concerns at the Bury Conference at Bury St Edmunds . On 17 February 1645, the New Model Army Ordinance became law, with Fairfax being appointed Captain General, or commander in chief, and Philip Skippon being appointed Major General of the Foot. The review coincided with increasing dissatisfaction as to
17013-541: The establishment of standing armies met with the shadow of opposition. This was not the case in free England. Pamphleteers wrote tracts voicing the fear of a people who within living memory had experienced the Rule of the Major-Generals and had liked neither the imposition of military rule, nor the costs of keeping the New Model Army in being when the country was not at war with itself or others. People also remembered
17172-537: The hitherto unstable basis of a military government. As no system is improvised, a precedent for the innovation was to be found in the history of England. Two regiments created in the reign of Henry VIII, still subsist, the Gentlemen Pensioners and the Yeomen of the Guard formed in those days a sort of transition between the system of accidental armies and permanent armies. This latter state of things
17331-474: The king's income derived from the royal demesne and the annual " farm " from each shire (the fixed sum paid by sheriffs for the privilege of administering and profiting from royal lands). Kings also made income from judicial fines and regulation of trade. People owed the king service in the form of the trinoda necessitas — fyrd service, burh building, and bridge building. After the Conquest of 1066,
17490-628: The king, and constituted the only permanent military force in the country. The muster roll of February 1638 shows wide variations in size, equipment and training; the largest and best trained were based in London with 8,000, later increased to 20,000. When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, many of the largest militia were based in Parliamentarian areas like London, while Royalist counties like Shropshire or Glamorgan had fewer than 500 men. The weakness of this system
17649-559: The kingdom's naval strength, on the foundations Henry VIII had laid down. By 1588, her new navy was strong enough to defeat the Spanish Armada , which had sought to invade England to halt English support for the Dutch rebels and to put a Catholic monarch on the throne in her place. The House of Tudor ended with the death of Elizabeth I on 24 March 1603. James I ascended the throne of England and brought it into personal union with
17808-531: The last remaining Viking kingdom, York , making him the first Anglo-Saxon ruler of the whole of England. In 1016, the kingdom became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great , a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway . The Norman Conquest in 1066 led to the transfer of the English capital city and chief royal residence from the Anglo-Saxon one at Winchester to Westminster , and
17967-432: The men accustomed to marching with heavy loads by regular route marches. In irregular fighting in Ireland, the New Model temporarily gave up the pike. In battle, the pikemen were supposed to project a solid front of spearheads, to protect the musketeers from cavalry while they reloaded. They also led the infantry advance against enemy foot units, when things came to push of pike . The musketeers wore no armour, at least by
18126-529: The more extreme radicals ( Levellers and dissenting Nonconformist sects) within the lower ranks. In the aftermath of the Second English Civil War, Parliament was made subservient to the wishes of the Army Council whose leading political figure was Oliver Cromwell . In an episode known as Pride's Purge , troops used force to prevent members of the House of Commons opposed to the Army Council from attending Parliament. The resulting Rump Parliament passed
18285-679: The naval defeat at the Battle of Texel (August 1673). After the marriage of Mary , the daughter of the James, Duke of York , to William of Orange , the English sent an expeditionary force (with its own services and supply chain) to Flanders in 1678 to join the Dutch against the French in the Franco-Dutch War . The expeditionary force was commanded by the Duke of Monmouth . The English force saw little action but some British units saw action at
18444-407: The necessary legislation to have King Charles I tried and executed by beheading, and to declare England a Commonwealth . The next two years saw the New Model Army invade first Ireland and then Scotland defeating their armies and occupying their territory. The New Model Army with the aid of English militias easily defeated a predominantly Scottish Royalist army under the command of Charles II at
18603-437: The number of hides they owned. After the Norman Conquest, the king's household troops remained central to any royal army. The Anglo-Saxon fyrd also remained in use. But the Normans also introduced a new feudal element to the English military. The king's tenants-in-chief (his feudal barons ) were obligated to provide mounted knights for service in the royal army or to garrison royal castles . The total number of knights owed
18762-432: The other commanders of the Army were not trained in siege warfare and generally tried to take fortified towns by storm rather than go through the complex and time-consuming process of building earthworks and trenches around it so that batteries of cannon could be brought close to the walls to pound it into surrender. The Army generally performed well when storming fortifications, for example at the siege of Drogheda , but paid
18921-528: The other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore , briefly making Egbert the first king to reign over a united England. In 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that "all of the English people ( all Angelcyn ) not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred." Asser added that "Alfred, king of
19080-404: The overlordship of the Norman kings of England. Edward I defeated Llywelyn ap Gruffudd , and so effectively conquered Wales, in 1282. He created the title Prince of Wales for his heir, the future Edward II , in 1301. Edward I's conquest was brutal and the subsequent repression considerable, as the magnificent Welsh castles such as Conwy , Harlech , and Caernarfon attest. Edward III
19239-410: The previous division between the Norman lords and their Anglo-Saxon subjects. This was a consequence of sustained hostility to the increasingly nationalist French, whose kings and other leaders (notably the charismatic Joan of Arc ) used a developing sense of French identity to help draw people to their cause. The kingdom had little time to recover before entering the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487),
19398-599: The radical movement called the Levellers , the troops of the Army proposed a revolutionary new constitution named the Agreement of the People , which called for almost universal male suffrage, electoral boundary reform, power to rest with a Parliament elected by the people every two years, religious freedom, and an end to imprisonment for debt. Increasingly concerned at the failure to pay their wages and by political manoeuvrings by King Charles I and by some in Parliament,
19557-470: The radicals: they would have to execute him. After the Long Parliament rejected the Army's Remonstrance by 125 to 58, the Grandees decided to reconstitute Parliament so that it would agree with the Army's position. On 6 December 1648, Colonel Thomas Pride instituted Pride's Purge and forcibly removed from the House of Commons all those who were not supporters of the religious independents and
19716-416: The regiment's colonel, lieutenant colonel and major, and were stronger (200, 160 and 140 ordinary soldiers respectively). The regiments of foot were provided with red coats . Red was chosen because uniforms were purchased competitively from the lowest bidder, and Venetian red was the least expensive dye. Those used by the various regiments were distinguished by differently coloured linings, which showed at
19875-460: The reign of William III when the near perpetual wars with other European states made a modest standing army a necessity to defend England and to maintain its prestige in the world. But public opinion, always anxious of the bad old days, was resolved to allow itself no rest until it had defined the prerogatives of the Crown on this delicate point. Parliament finally succeeded in acquiring a control over
20034-418: The restoration of the monarchy took place in 1660. Stuart Asquith argues: Many authorities quote the Restoration of 1660 as the birth date of our modern British Army. While this may be true as far as continuity of unit identity is concerned, it is untrue in a far more fundamental sense. The evidence of history shows that the creation of an efficient military machine and its proving on the battlefield, predates
20193-491: The riots led by Thomas Venner in 1661, which were quelled with the aid of soldiers from Monck's Regiment of Foot and the Regiment of Cuirassiers, the New Model Army was ordered disbanded, with the large arrears of pay financed by a poll tax . Monck's Regiment of Foot, upon the end of the New Model Army, was incorporated into the army of Charles II as the Coldstream Guards . Some of the demobilized soldiers and officers of
20352-538: The same time along with several ' brigadeers ' (also referred to as colonels of brigade and brigadeers-general ). The first appointment of a full general (apart from the captain general) was in 1689. The Second Anglo-Dutch War was predominately a maritime war but English army soldiers were involved in Holmes's Bonfire (19–20 August 1666), the Raid on the Medway (June 1667), the Battle of Landguard Fort (2 July 1667),
20511-495: The same uniform as musketeers although they probably wore stout cloth gaiters to protect the legs while they rode. They were armed with flintlock " snaphaunces ". On the battlefield, their major function was to clear enemy musketeers from in front of their main position. At the Battle of Naseby , they were used to outflank enemy cavalry. In 1650, Okey's dragoons were converted into a regiment of horse. It appears that after that date, unregimented companies of dragoons raised from
20670-628: The start of the Third English Civil War . The Covenanters, who had been allied to the Parliament in the First English Civil War, had now crowned Charles II as King. Despite being outnumbered, Cromwell led the Army to crushing victories over the Scots at the battles of Dunbar and Inverkeithing . Following the Scottish invasion of England led by Charles II, the New Model Army and local militia forces soundly defeated
20829-514: The style known at the time as harquebusiers , rather than as heavily armoured cuirassiers . They wore a back-and-front breastplate over a buff leather coat , which itself gave some protection against sword cuts, and normally a lobster-tailed pot helmet with a movable three-barred visor. Regiments were organised into six troops, of one hundred troopers plus officers, non-commissioned officers and specialists ( drummers , farriers etc.). Each troop had its own standard, 2 feet (61 cm) square. On
20988-602: The terms" of the Acts would "cease and become void". The English and Scottish Parliaments were merged into the Parliament of Great Britain , located in Westminster , London. At this point England ceased to exist as a separate political entity, and since then has had no national government . The laws of England were unaffected, with the legal jurisdiction continuing to be that of England and Wales , while Scotland continued to have its own laws and law courts. This continued after
21147-483: The time. It is generally agreed that Fairfax, himself a moderate Presbyterian, sought to achieve a balance, while Essex and Manchester tried to remove those they viewed as unsuitable. What is debated is whether they did so for military reasons, favouring the retention of established officer cadres, or to eliminate personal enemies and those considered too radical. Ultimately they failed and Fairfax successfully achieved his objective. The Oxford English Dictionary dated
21306-606: The town's defenders skilfully beat back numerous Parliamentarian assaults before being forced to surrender. Shortly afterwards, about 2,000 soldiers of the New Model died in abortive assaults against a breach defended by veteran Ulstermen in the siege of Clonmel . These bloody scenes were repeated during the siege of Charlemont Fort later that year. The Army was also constantly at risk of attack by Irish guerrillas called tóraithe ("tories" in English), literally meaning "pursuer". Overall, around 43,000 English soldiers fought in
21465-408: The troops carried with them seven days' rations, consisting exclusively of biscuit and cheese. The Army took the field in late April or May, 1645. After an attempt to raise the siege of Taunton was abandoned, the Army began a siege of Oxford , sending a detachment of one regiment of cavalry and four of infantry to reinforce the defenders of Taunton. After the Royalists captured Leicester , Fairfax
21624-573: The unification of England. At about this time, Lothian , a portion of the northern half of Northumbria ( Bernicia ), was ceded to the Kingdom of Scotland . On 12 July 927 the monarchs of Britain gathered at Eamont in Cumbria to recognise Æthelstan as king of the English. The title "King of the English" or Rex Anglorum in Latin, was first used to describe Æthelstan in one of his charters in 928. The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John
21783-583: The west and south of England. The last fortress in the west surrendered in early 1646, shortly before Charles surrendered himself to a Scottish army and hostilities ended. Having won the First Civil War , the soldiers became discontented with the Long Parliament , for several reasons. Firstly, they had not been paid regularly – pay was weeks in arrears – and on the end of hostilities, the conservative MPs in Parliament wanted to either disband
21942-600: The year 886 Alfred the Great reoccupied London from the Danish Vikings and after this event he declared himself King of the Anglo-Saxons , until his death in 899. During the course of the early tenth century, the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were united by Alfred's descendants Edward the Elder (reigned 899–924) and Æthelstan (reigned 924–939) to form the Kingdom of the English. In 927, Æthelstan conquered
22101-437: Was "King of the English". England has remained in political unity ever since. During the reign of Æthelred the Unready (978–1016), a new wave of Danish invasions was orchestrated by Sweyn I of Denmark , culminating after a quarter-century of warfare in the Danish conquest of England in 1013. But Sweyn died on 2 February 1014, and Æþelræd was restored to the throne. In 1015, Sweyn's son Cnut (commonly known as Canute) launched
22260-415: Was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from the early tenth century, when it was unified from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms , until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , which would later become the United Kingdom . The Kingdom of England was among the most powerful states in Europe during the medieval and early modern periods. Beginning in
22419-409: 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 Three Kingdoms in that members were liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being limited to a single area or garrison . To establish a professional officer corps,
22578-424: Was a development of the feudal concept of fief (in which a lord was obliged to raise a certain quota of knights , men-at-arms and yeomanry , in return for his right to occupy land). In practice, noblemen and professional regular soldiers were commissioned by the monarch to supply troops, raising their quotas by indenture from a variety of sources. A Commission of Array would be used to raise troops for
22737-410: Was a larger mutiny involving several regiments over pay and political demands. After the resolution of the pay issue, the Banbury mutineers , consisting of 400 soldiers with Leveller sympathies under the command of Captain William Thompson , continued to negotiate for their political demands. They set out for Salisbury in the hope of rallying support from the regiments billeted there. Cromwell launched
22896-420: Was again forced to make peace. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, an attempt by James II to reintroduce Roman Catholicism—a century after its suppression by the Tudors—led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, in which he was exiled by the Dutch prince William of Orange . William and his wife Mary were subsequently crowned by Parliament. William reoriented England's foreign policy to support
23055-402: Was also entitled to his vassals military service, but vassals could pay scutage instead. In the Anglo-Saxon period, England had no standing army. The king and magnates retained professional household troops ( see housecarl ), and all free men were obligated to perform military service in the fyrd . In addition, holders of bookland were obligated to provide a certain number of men based on
23214-463: Was called the servitium debitum (Latin: "service owed"), and historian Richard Huscroft estimates this number was around 5,000. In reality, the servitium debitum was greater than any king would actually need in wartime. Its main purpose was for assessing how much scutage the king was owed. Scutage was used to pay for mercenaries , which were an important part of any Norman army. New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army
23373-512: Was defeated, Harold and his two brothers were slain, and William emerged as victor. William was then able to conquer England with little further opposition. He was not, however, planning to absorb the Kingdom into the Duchy of Normandy . As a mere duke, William owed allegiance to Philip I of France , whereas in the independent Kingdom of England he could rule without interference. He was crowned on 25 December 1066 in Westminster Abbey , London. In 1092, William II led an invasion of Strathclyde ,
23532-462: Was generally delegated, in time of war, to a soldier. In 1660, erstwhile parliamentarian commander General Monck was appointed captain general by King Charles II on his restoration and was given wide-ranging powers. Following his death in 1670 command was vested in a committee of colonels for a time; subsequently, individuals were from time to time appointed commander-in-chief with regard to particular actions or particular geographical areas, and
23691-415: Was however so contrary to the constitutional customs of England that Charles II introduced it by degrees, gradually filling up the cadres of his battalions and, although contemporary writers considered it a formidable army, it did not exceed 5,000 men. King Charles put into these regiments those Cavaliers who had attached themselves to him during his exile on the European continent and had fought for him at
23850-426: Was often no time for musketeers to reload, and they used their musket butts as clubs. They carried swords , but these were often of inferior quality, and ruined by use for cutting firewood. The establishment of the New Model Army's artillery varied over time, and the artillery was administered separately from the Horse and Foot. At the Army's formation, Thomas Hammond (brother of Colonel Robert Hammond who commanded
24009-413: Was ordered to leave Oxford and march north to confront the King's army. On 14 June, the New Model destroyed King Charles' smaller but veteran army at the Battle of Naseby . Leaving the Scots and locally raised forces to contain the King, Fairfax marched into the West Country , where they destroyed the remaining Royalist field army at Langport on 10 July. Thereafter, they reduced the Royalist fortresses in
24168-455: Was plain, the lieutenant colonel's had a cross of Saint George in the upper corner nearest the staff, the major's had a "flame" issuing from the cross, and the captains' standards had increasing numbers of heraldic decorations, such as roundels or crosses to indicate their seniority. The New Model Army always had two musketeers for each pikeman, though depictions of battles show them present in equal numbers. Pikemen, when fully equipped, wore
24327-426: Was political; the army's complete seizure of power when Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament in 1653 is the closest to a coup d'état that England has had, and the subsequent Rule of the Major-Generals . The other was the Battle of the Dunes (1658) , where soldiers of the New Model Army fighting in their red-coats astonished both their French allies and Spanish enemies by the stubborn fierceness of their assault up
24486-399: Was recalled and there was a second period where the executive power lay with the Council of state. But this restoration of Commonwealth rule, similar to that before the Protectorate, proved to be unstable, and the exiled claimant, Charles II , was restored to the throne in 1660. In 1665 the unresolved commercial issues with the Dutch led to the Second Anglo-Dutch War , which culminated in
24645-450: Was succeeded by his half-brother, Æþelræd's son, Edward the Confessor . The peace lasted until the death of the childless Edward in January 1066. His brother-in-law was crowned King Harold , but his cousin William the Conqueror , Duke of Normandy, immediately claimed the throne for himself. William launched an invasion of England and landed in Sussex on 28 September 1066. Harold and his army were in York following their victory against
24804-427: Was the Anglo-Spanish War . In 1654, the English Commonwealth declared war on Spain, and regiments of the New Model Army were sent to conquer the Spanish colony of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. They failed in the conflict and sustained heavy casualties from tropical disease. They took over the lightly defended island of Jamaica . The English troops performed better in the European theatre of the war in Flanders . During
24963-407: Was the first English king to have a claim to the throne of France . His pursuit of the claim resulted in the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), which pitted five kings of England of the House of Plantagenet against five kings of France of the Capetian House of Valois . Extensive naval raiding was carried out by all sides during the war, often involving privateers such as John Hawley of Dartmouth or
25122-456: Was the reluctance of locally raised troops to serve outside their "home" areas, a problem for both sides during the war. On 19 November 1644, the Parliamentarian Eastern Association announced that they could no longer meet the cost of maintaining their forces, which then comprised about half the field force available to Parliament. In response, the Committee of Both Kingdoms conducted a wide-ranging review of further military needs and recommended
25281-450: Was to be the first Lord Protector. The Instrument of Government was replaced by a second constitution (the Humble Petition and Advice ) under which the Lord Protector could nominate his successor. Cromwell nominated his son Richard who became Lord Protector on the death of Oliver on 3 September 1658. Richard proved to be ineffectual and was unable to maintain his rule. He resigned his title and retired into obscurity. The Rump Parliament
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