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179-697: The English militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd , the military force raised from the freemen of the shires under command of their Sheriff . It continued under the Norman kings , notably at the Battle of the Standard (1138). The force was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252 , and again by King Edward I 's Statute of Winchester of 1285. Under this statute 'Commissioners of Array' would levy

358-575: A Roman Catholic , generated antipathy and mistrust from Reformed religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters , who thought his views too Catholic. He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics and failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years' War . His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to

537-401: A feudal system which also contained an element of military obligation in the form of the feudal host. This system supplemented rather than replaced the fyrd, which continued to be deployed until at least the beginning of the 12th century. The Assize of Arms of 1181 combined the two systems by dividing the free population into four categories according to wealth and prescribing the weapons each

716-635: A Parliament, are known as the Personal Rule or the "eleven years' tyranny". Ruling without Parliament was not exceptional, and was supported by precedent. But only Parliament could legally raise taxes, and without it Charles's capacity to acquire funds for his treasury was limited to his customary rights and prerogatives. A large fiscal deficit had arisen during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Notwithstanding Buckingham's short-lived campaigns against both Spain and France, Charles had little financial capacity to wage wars overseas. Throughout his reign, he

895-552: A bride and to a rapturous and relieved public welcome, he and Buckingham pushed the reluctant James to declare war on Spain. With the encouragement of his Protestant advisers, James summoned the English Parliament in 1624 to request subsidies for a war. Charles and Buckingham supported the impeachment of the Lord Treasurer , Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex , who opposed war on grounds of cost and quickly fell in much

1074-717: A clandestine attempt to aid Catholicism's resurgence. Rather than direct involvement in the European land war, the English Parliament preferred a relatively inexpensive naval attack on Spanish colonies in the New World , hoping for the capture of the Spanish treasure fleets . Parliament voted to grant a subsidy of £140,000, an insufficient sum for Charles's war plans. Moreover, the House of Commons limited its authorisation for royal collection of tonnage and poundage (two varieties of customs duties) to

1253-517: A compromise whereby the king would agree to forfeit ship money in exchange for £650,000 (although the cost of the coming war was estimated at £1 million). Nevertheless, this alone was insufficient to produce consensus in the Commons. The Parliamentarians' calls for further reforms were ignored by Charles, who still retained the support of the House of Lords. Despite the protests of the Earl of Northumberland,

1432-649: A controversial anti-Calvinist ecclesiastic, Richard Montagu , who was in disrepute among the Puritans . In his pamphlet A New Gag for an Old Goose (1624), a reply to the Catholic pamphlet A New Gag for the New Gospel , Montagu argued against Calvinist predestination , the doctrine that God preordained salvation and damnation . Anti-Calvinists—known as Arminians —believed that people could accept or reject salvation by exercising free will . Arminian divines had been one of

1611-614: A county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment (although conscription by means of the Militia Ballot might be used if the counties failed to meet their quotas). Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances: Under this Act, two new regiments of King's Own Staffordshire Militia were raised in 1853. Thereafter

1790-684: A critic of the king, Strafford defected to royal service in 1628, in part due to the Duke of Buckingham's persuasion, and had since emerged, alongside Laud, as the most influential of Charles's ministers. Bolstered by the failure of the English Short Parliament, the Scottish Parliament declared itself capable of governing without the king's consent, and in August 1640 the Covenanter army moved into

1969-575: A defence against innovation and disorder. Parliament quickly seized London, and Charles fled the capital for Hampton Court Palace on 10 January, moving two days later to Windsor Castle . After sending his wife and eldest daughter to safety abroad in February, he travelled northwards, hoping to seize the military arsenal at Hull . To his dismay, he was rebuffed by the town's Parliamentary governor , Sir John Hotham , who refused him entry in April, and Charles

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2148-656: A fresh attempt to have as many men as possible under arms for home defence in order to release regulars, the Government created the Supplementary Militia, a compulsory levy of men to be trained in their spare time, and to be incorporated in the Militia in emergency. Staffordshire's quota was fixed at 2095 men, and two new regiments were formed from them by 1798, so that the original regiment was numbered 1st. The 2nd Regiment, of 10 companies, including grenadier and light companies,

2327-606: A large navy as the first line of national defence, and a militia composed of their neighbours as additional defence and to preserve domestic order. Consequently, the English Bill of Rights (1689) declared, amongst other things: "that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law..." and "that the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defense suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law." This implies that they are fitted to serve in

2506-506: A man who had great influence over the prince, travelled incognito to Spain in February 1623 to try to reach agreement on the long-pending Spanish match. The trip was an embarrassing failure. The infanta thought Charles little more than an infidel, and the Spanish at first demanded that he convert to Catholicism as a condition of the match. They insisted on toleration of Catholics in England and

2685-549: A new departure for Irish politics whereby all sides joined to present evidence against him. In a similar manner to the English Parliament, the Old English members of the Irish Parliament argued that while opposed to Strafford they remained loyal to Charles. They argued that the king had been led astray by malign counsellors, and that, moreover, a viceroy such as Strafford could emerge as a despotic figure instead of ensuring that

2864-534: A new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in the British Isles ), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits. They served in coast defences, manning garrisons, guarding prisoners of war, and for internal security, while their traditional local defence duties were taken over by

3043-680: A permanent depot at a suitable county town. The militia now came under the War Office rather than their county lords lieutenant, and officers' commissions were signed by the Queen. Two pairs of regular battalions were assigned to Staffordshire: 38th (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot and the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers) in Sub-District No 19; 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot and 98th (The Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Foot in Sub-District No 20. The 1st Staffordshire Militia

3222-436: A platform for popular protest, and the judges found against Hampden only by the narrow margin of 7–5. Charles also derived money by granting monopolies, despite a statute forbidding such action , which, though inefficient, raised an estimated £100,000 a year in the late 1630s. One such monopoly was for soap, pejoratively referred to as " popish soap " because some of its backers were Catholics. Charles also raised funds from

3401-424: A quasi-feudal system, whereby he looked to the nobility to raise forces, but expected them to do so within the constraints of the shire levies, and the last use of indenture to raise an army came in 1512. Italian ambassadors reckoned that England had 150,000 armed men in 1519 and 100,000 in 1544 and 1551 available through their militia, while a French ambassador in 1570 reported that 120,000 were ready to serve. This

3580-640: A secret marriage treaty with his brother-in-law Louis XIII of France . Moreover, the treaty loaned to the French seven English naval ships that were used to suppress the Protestant Huguenots at La Rochelle in September 1625. Charles was crowned on 2 February 1626 at Westminster Abbey , but without his wife at his side, because she refused to participate in a Protestant religious ceremony. Distrust of Charles's religious policies increased with his support of

3759-572: A third of the recruits and many young officers went on to join the Regular Army. The Militia Reserve introduced in 1867 consisted of present and former militiamen who undertook to serve overseas in case of war. Under the 'Localisation of the Forces' scheme introduced by the Cardwell Reforms of 1872, Militia regiments were brigaded with Regular and Volunteer battalions in a regimental district sharing

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3938-652: A tour of duty in South Africa. Their embodiments were as follows: After the Boer War, the future of the militia was called into question. There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) to take their place in the six army corps proposed by the Secretary of State for War , St John Brodrick . However, little of Brodrick's scheme was carried out. Under the more sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908,

4117-514: A venture. Both the English and Irish parliaments were summoned in the early months of 1640. In March 1640, the Irish Parliament duly voted in a subsidy of £180,000 with the promise to raise an army 9,000 strong by the end of May. But in the English general election in March, court candidates fared badly, and Charles's dealings with the English Parliament in April quickly reached stalemate. The earls of Northumberland and Strafford attempted to broker

4296-516: A year, although previous sovereigns since Henry VI had been granted the right for life. In this manner, Parliament could delay approval of the rates until after a full-scale review of customs revenue. The bill made no progress in the House of Lords past its first reading . Although no act of Parliament for the levy of tonnage and poundage was obtained, Charles continued to collect the duties. A poorly conceived and executed naval expedition against Spain under Buckingham's leadership went badly, and

4475-712: The Battle of Winnington Bridge . At the time the regiment comprised 490 foot in six companies under the command of Col Crompton, and a troop of 67 horsemen. At the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, Col John Bowyer of Knypersley Hall commanding the Staffordshire Militia arrested Maj-Gen Harrison as one of the Regicides of Charles I . Harrison was living in retirement in Staffordshire and made no attempt to escape. Bowyer

4654-615: The Bishops' Wars , strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall. From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War . After his defeat in 1645 at the hands of the Parliamentarian New Model Army , he fled north from his base at Oxford. Charles surrendered to a Scottish force and after lengthy negotiations between

4833-567: The British Militia . The origins of military obligation in England pre-date the establishment of the English state in the 10th century, and can be traced to the 'common burdens' of the Anglo-Saxon period, among which was service in the fyrd , or army. There is evidence that such an obligation existed in the Kingdom of Kent by the end of the 7th century, Mercia in the 8th century and Wessex in

5012-678: The City of Lichfield was Sir William Brereton , who had commanded the Parliamentarian forces in the area during the First Civil War, but he declined to sit as one of the King's judges a few weeks later and retired from public life. In 1650 the Staffordshire Militia were commanded by Col Henry Danvers (Foot) and Col John Ashenhurst (Horse, with Danvers as major). Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate

5191-615: The Electoral Palatinate were invaded by a Habsburg force from the Spanish Netherlands . James, however, had been seeking marriage between Prince Charles and Ferdinand's niece, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain , and began to see the Spanish match as a possible diplomatic means of achieving peace in Europe. Unfortunately for James, negotiation with Spain proved unpopular with both the public and James's court. The English Parliament

5370-470: The English Parliament , which sought to curb his royal prerogative . He believed in the divine right of kings , and was determined to govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without Parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch . His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to

5549-713: The First Bishops' War in 1639. He did not seek subsidies from the English Parliament to wage war, instead raising an army without parliamentary aid and marching to Berwick-upon-Tweed , on the Scottish border. The army did not engage the Covenanters , as the king feared the defeat of his forces, whom he believed to be significantly outnumbered by the Scots. In the Treaty of Berwick , Charles regained custody of his Scottish fortresses and secured

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5728-526: The Grand Remonstrance , a long list of grievances against actions by Charles's ministers committed since the beginning of his reign (that were asserted to be part of a grand Catholic conspiracy of which the king was an unwitting member), but it was in many ways a step too far by Pym and passed by only 11 votes, 159 to 148. Furthermore, the Remonstrance had very little support in the House of Lords, which

5907-643: The Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand of Austria , a Catholic , was elected king of Bohemia . The next year, the Bohemians rebelled , defenestrating the Catholic governors . In August 1619, the Bohemian diet chose Frederick, who led the Protestant Union , as their monarch, while Ferdinand was elected Holy Roman Emperor in the imperial election . Frederick's acceptance of the Bohemian crown in defiance of

6086-522: The Hundred Years' War , the king raised armies for service in France by indenture , which contracted magnates , under their obligation as subjects rather than feudal tenants, to supply a certain number of men for a specific amount of time in return for a set fee. Those forces allocated for the defence of England, however, were raised on the basis of the general obligation In 1511, King Henry VIII signalled

6265-515: The Jacobite Rising of 1715 , but generally the militia disappeared thereafter. Under threat of French invasion during the Seven Years' War a series of Militia Acts from 1757 re-established county militia regiments, the men being conscripted by means of parish ballots (paid substitutes were permitted) to serve for three years. There was a property qualification for officers, who were commissioned by

6444-626: The Kirk . Although it had been written, under Charles's direction, by Scottish bishops, many Scots resisted it, seeing it as a vehicle to introduce Anglicanism to Scotland. On 23 July, riots erupted in Edinburgh upon the first Sunday of the prayer book's usage, and unrest spread throughout the Kirk. The public began to mobilise around a reaffirmation of the National Covenant , whose signatories pledged to uphold

6623-754: The Middle Ages , English militia units continued to be raised for service in various conflicts such as the Wars of Scottish Independence , the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses . Militia troops continued to see service in Tudor and Stuart periods , most prominently in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . Following the Acts of Union 1707 , the English Militia was transformed into

6802-527: The Mutiny Act is also renewed on an annual basis by parliament . If it lapses, the legal basis for enforcing discipline disappears, and soldiers lose their legal indemnity for acts committed under orders . In 1707, the Acts of Union united the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland . The Scottish navy was incorporated into the Royal Navy. The Scottish military (as opposed to naval) forces merged with

6981-459: The Powhatan Federation and other native polities. In the Virginia Company 's other outpost, Bermuda , settled officially in 1612 (unofficially in 1609), the construction of defensive works was placed before all other priorities. A Spanish attack in 1614 was repulsed by two shots fired from the incomplete Castle Islands Fortifications manned by Bermudian Militiamen . In the nineteenth century, Fortress Bermuda would become Britain's Gibraltar of

7160-502: The Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1666 the Militia were called out, with the cavalry of the inland counties, including the Staffordshire Militia Horse, moving up towards the East Coast. They were stood down on 6 August after the naval victory of the St. James's Day Battle when the threat of invasion receded. Training for the militia was usually perfunctory, so when the Duke of Monmouth became Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire in 1677, he ordered that there should not only be an annual muster of

7339-447: The Second Anglo-Dutch War , in the aftermath of the Battle of Beachy Head and in the face of the Jacobite risings , the militia entered a period of decline. In some areas it received at best only 12 days of annual training, and in others it had not been mustered in a generation. It was regarded as so ineffective that against the Jacobite rising of 1745 it would prove more expedient to raise an ad hoc force of volunteers than to rely on

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7518-460: The Short Parliament (as it came to be known) was dissolved in May 1640, less than a month after it assembled. By this stage the Earl of Strafford, Lord Deputy of Ireland since 1632, had emerged as Charles's right-hand man and, together with Archbishop Laud, pursued a policy that he termed " Thorough ", which aimed to make central royal authority more efficient and effective at the expense of local or anti-government interests. Although originally

7697-404: The Siege of Berwick and the Battle of Halidon Hill . In 1335, 247 Staffordshire archers (57 of them Mounted infantry ) served under two ductores and 10 vintenars. King Henry VIII strengthened the military capability of the country and in 1539 he called out a 'Great Muster' across the country, when armed men in the various hundreds of Staffordshire ranged from 300 to 1100. The legal basis of

7876-401: The Siege of Caerlaverock . This procedure was continued for border campaigns under later kings, with the shire levies of Staffordshire and other northern counties being called out in 1327 during the campaign that ended in the Battle of Stanhope Park . By now the infantry were mainly equipped with the English longbow . Edward III called out the Staffordshire levies in 1333, when they served at

8055-427: The Tees Garrison. Until June 1917 their training and defence role was the same as the 3rd Battalions'; however at that point they were sent to Canterbury in Kent to join 67th (2nd Home Counties) Division of the Territorial Force (TF). The division was being prepared for active service, but this was cancelled, and the two Staffordshire battalions were sent to the Western Front independently. They were thus among

8234-443: The Volunteers and mounted Yeomanry . The Staffordshire Militia was embodied in 1793 and spent 1794–5 quartered in Weymouth, Dorset , where it came to the notice of King George III who holidayed there. It served at Weymouth again in 1797, after which the king requested that it should carry out Royal duties at Windsor Castle . Until the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 the regiment spent most its time on duty at Windsor and Weymouth. In

8413-486: The mint in the Tower of London , promising its later return at 8% interest to its owners. In August, after the East India Company refused to grant a loan, Lord Cottington seized the company's stock of pepper and spices and sold it for £60,000 (far below its market value), promising to refund the money with interest later. Throughout Charles's reign, the English Reformation was in the forefront of political debate. Arminian theology emphasised clerical authority and

8592-410: The plantation of Ulster , coupled with resentment at moves to ensure the Irish Parliament was subordinate to the Parliament of England, sowed the seeds of rebellion. When armed conflict arose between the Gaelic Irish and New English in late October 1641, the Old English sided with the Gaelic Irish while simultaneously professing their loyalty to the king. In November 1641, the House of Commons passed

8771-582: The "Distraint of Knighthood", in abeyance for over a century, which required any man who earned £40 or more from land each year to present himself at the king's coronation to be knighted. Relying on this old statute, Charles fined those who had failed to attend his coronation in 1626. The chief tax Charles imposed was a feudal levy known as ship money , which proved even more unpopular, and lucrative, than tonnage and poundage before it. Previously, collection of ship money had been authorised only during wars, and only on coastal regions. But Charles argued that there

8950-458: The "wicked counsels" of Charles's "arbitrary and tyrannical government". While those who signed the petition undertook to defend the king's "person, honour and estate", they also swore to preserve "the true reformed religion", Parliament, and the "rights and liberties of the subjects". Fearing for his family's safety in the face of unrest, Charles reluctantly assented to Strafford's attainder on 9 May after consulting his judges and bishops. Strafford

9129-422: The 1639 campaign, some of the men took the opportunity to destroy the hated Enclosure fences of the Royal forests , and the riots were repeated when they were mustered for the 1640 campaign. Control of the trained bands was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War . However, with a few exceptions neither side made much use of the trained bands during

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9308-486: The 1st. The Staffordshire Militia was disembodied on 26 April 1802 after the Treaty of Amiens. The Peace of Amiens was short-lived, and the Staffordshire Militia was embodied again on 30 March 1803. A new 2nd Regiment was raised on 28 June, when Col Francis Eliot was appointed to command it. The 1st Regiment was ready for duty by 17 May and was immediately ordered to Windsor, where the King rode at its head when it marched into Windsor Barracks. It accompanied him to Weymouth in

9487-453: The 9th century, and the Burghal Hidage of 911–919 indicates that over 27,000 men could have been raised in the defence of 30 West Saxon boroughs. In the late 10th century, areas began to be divided into ' hundreds ' as units for the fyrd. The obligation to serve was placed on landholders, and the Domesday Book indicates that individuals were expected to serve for approximately 60 days. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 brought with it

9666-448: The Aisne . The attack opened with the heaviest bombardment so far, which overwhelmed the front line troops; soon 25th Division in reserve remained as the only intact formation. For a while it held on, then was swept back in the retreat. Soon the division could only provide a composite brigade, with 4th South Staffs temporarily combined with 11th Lancashire Fusiliers as one of its battalions, sent to help 50th (Northumbrian) Division . After

9845-447: The Ancre. 35th Division spent the summer engaged in trench warfare at Aveluy Wood , then it was moved to the Ypres Salient . As the Allied Hundred Days Offensive got under way further south, the Germans on this front began to withdraw. Second Army began to follow up (the Fifth Battle of Ypres ). By late October the situation had changed to open warfare, as 35th Division advanced along the River Scheldt . On 9 November 4 South Staffs

10024-438: The Bermudian force operated under a Letter of Marque, its members, as with all military age Bermudian males, were members of the militia. By this time, the 1707 Acts of Union had made Bermudian and other English militiamen British . Up until the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the Crown and Parliament were in strong disagreement. The English Civil War left a rather unusual military legacy. Both Whigs and Tories distrusted

10203-401: The Cardwell process by converting the linked regular regiments into county regiments and incorporating the militia battalions into them: Although Cardwell's army corps scheme had been abandoned, the Stanhope Memorandum of 1888 proposed that the home defence army should consist of three corps, of which the first two would be regular, and the bulk of the third would be militia, while the rest of

10382-518: The Commons launched a direct protestation attacking Buckingham, stating, "We protest before your Majesty and the whole world that until this great person be removed from intermeddling with the great affairs of state, we are out of hope of any good success; and do fear that any money we shall or can give will, through his misemployment, be turned rather to the hurt and prejudice of this your kingdom than otherwise, as by lamentable experience we have found those large supplies formerly and lately given." Despite

10561-563: The Commons passed the bill as an ordinance, which they claimed did not require royal assent. The Militia Ordinance appears to have prompted more members of the Lords to support the king. In an attempt to strengthen his position, Charles generated great antipathy in London, which was already fast falling into lawlessness, when he placed the Tower of London under the command of Colonel Thomas Lunsford , an infamous, albeit efficient, career officer. When rumours reached Charles that Parliament intended to impeach his wife for supposedly conspiring with

10740-399: The Commons' walls, demanding war with Spain and a Protestant princess of Wales . Like his father, Charles considered discussion of his marriage in the Commons impertinent and an infringement of his father's royal prerogative . In January 1622, James dissolved Parliament, angry at what he perceived as the members' impudence and intransigence. Charles and Buckingham, James's favourite and

10919-478: The English and Scottish parliaments he was handed over to the Long Parliament in London. Charles refused to accept his captors' demands for a constitutional monarchy , and temporarily escaped captivity in November 1647. Re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight , he forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648, the New Model Army had consolidated its control over England. Charles was tried, convicted , and executed for high treason in January 1649. The monarchy

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11098-505: The English county of Northumberland . Following the illness of Lord Northumberland, who was the king's commander-in-chief, Charles and Strafford went north to command the English forces, despite Strafford being ill himself with a combination of gout and dysentery. The Scottish soldiery, many of whom were veterans of the Thirty Years' War, had far greater morale and training than their English counterparts. They met virtually no resistance until reaching Newcastle upon Tyne , where they defeated

11277-506: The English forces at the Battle of Newburn and occupied the city, as well as the neighbouring county of Durham . As demands for a parliament grew, Charles took the unusual step of summoning a great council of peers . By the time it met, on 24 September at York , Charles had resolved to follow the almost universal advice to call a parliament. After informing the peers that a parliament would convene in November, he asked them to consider how he could acquire funds to maintain his army against

11456-421: The English, with pre-existing regular Scottish regiments maintaining their identities, though command of the new British Army was from England. The Militia of England and Wales continued to be enacted separately from the Militia of Scotland (see Militia (Great Britain) and, for the period following 1801, Militia (United Kingdom) ). Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649)

11635-425: The French with English ships as a condition of marrying Henrietta Maria, in 1627 he launched an attack on the French coast to defend the Huguenots at La Rochelle. The action, led by Buckingham, was ultimately unsuccessful. Buckingham's failure to protect the Huguenots—and his retreat from Saint-Martin-de-Ré —spurred Louis XIII's siege of La Rochelle and furthered the English Parliament's and people's detestation of

11814-429: The Garter . Eventually, Charles apparently conquered his physical infirmity, which might have been caused by rickets . He became an adept horseman and marksman, and took up fencing. Even so, his public profile remained low in contrast to that of his physically stronger and taller elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales , whom Charles adored and attempted to emulate. But in early November 1612, Henry died at

11993-487: The House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here." Charles abjectly declared "all my birds have flown", and was forced to retire empty-handed. The botched arrest attempt was politically disastrous for Charles. No English sovereign had ever entered the House of Commons, and his unprecedented invasion of the chamber to arrest its members was considered a grave breach of parliamentary privilege . In one stroke Charles destroyed his supporters' efforts to portray him as

12172-446: The House of Commons began proceedings for the impeachment of the duke. In May 1626, Charles nominated Buckingham as Chancellor of Cambridge University in a show of support, and had two members who had spoken against Buckingham— Dudley Digges and Sir John Eliot —arrested at the door of the House. The Commons was outraged by the imprisonment of two of their members, and after about a week in custody, both were released. On 12 June 1626,

12351-448: The Incident , Charles's credibility was significantly undermined. Ireland's population was split into three main sociopolitical groups: the Gaelic Irish , who were Catholic; the Old English , who were descended from medieval Normans and also predominantly Catholic; and the New English , who were Protestant settlers from England and Scotland aligned with the English Parliament and the Covenanters. Strafford's administration had improved

12530-455: The Irish army to subdue England was not corroborated, and on 10 April Pym's case collapsed. Pym and his allies immediately launched a bill of attainder, which simply declared Strafford guilty and pronounced the sentence of death. Charles assured Strafford that "upon the word of a king you shall not suffer in life, honour or fortune", and the attainder could not succeed if Charles withheld assent. Furthermore, many members and most peers opposed

12709-458: The Irish economy and boosted tax revenue, but had done so by heavy-handedly imposing order. He had trained up a large Catholic army in support of the king and weakened the Irish Parliament's authority, while continuing to confiscate land from Catholics for Protestant settlement at the same time as promoting a Laudian Anglicanism that was anathema to presbyterians. As a result, all three groups had become disaffected. Strafford's impeachment provided

12888-549: The Irish rebels, he decided to take drastic action. Charles suspected, probably correctly, that some members of the English Parliament had colluded with the invading Scots. On 3 January 1642, Charles directed Parliament to give up five specific members of the Commons—Pym, John Hampden , Denzil Holles , William Strode and Sir Arthur Haselrig —and one peer, Lord Mandeville , on the grounds of high treason. When Parliament refused, it

13067-459: The King drew the lots for individual regiments: those raised before the peace of 1763 took the first 47 places, followed by the regiments raised between 1763 and 1783, with the Staffordshires at 66th. This permanent list was revised in 1855: In line with most other militia regiments the Staffordshires paid little attention to the additional number. English militia The English Militia

13246-551: The Lord Keeper and 12 peers to summon Parliament if the king failed to do so. The Act was coupled with a subsidy bill, and to secure the latter, Charles grudgingly granted royal assent in February 1641. Strafford had become the principal target of the Parliamentarians, particularly John Pym , and he went on trial for high treason on 22 March 1641. But the key allegation by Sir Henry Vane that Strafford had threatened to use

13425-512: The Militia was replaced by the Special Reserve (SR), a semi-professional force whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for regular units serving overseas in wartime, rather like the earlier Militia Reserve. All four Staffordshire militia battalions transferred to the SR, the 3rd battalions being designated 'Reserve' and the 4th battalions 'Extra Reserve'. The SR was mobilised on 4 August 1914 at

13604-592: The Protestant cause abroad effectively. In 1633, Charles appointed William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury . They initiated a series of reforms to promote religious uniformity by restricting non-conformist preachers, insisting the liturgy be celebrated as prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer , organising the internal architecture of English churches to emphasise the sacrament of the altar, and reissuing King James's Declaration of Sports , which permitted secular activities on

13783-501: The Remonstrance attacked. The tension was heightened by news of the Irish rebellion, coupled with inaccurate rumours of Charles's complicity. Throughout November, a series of alarmist pamphlets published stories of atrocities in Ireland, including massacres of New English settlers by the native Irish who could not be controlled by the Old English lords. Rumours of "papist" conspiracies circulated in England, and English anti-Catholic opinion

13962-629: The Royalists persisted with the amateur tradition, the Parliamentarians developed the New Model Army , a small but disciplined, well-equipped and trained army led by officers selected according to ability rather than birth. The New Model Army defeated the Royalist army at the Battle of Naseby in 1645, effectively ending the First English Civil War in victory for the Parliamentarians. Following

14141-456: The Scots in the meantime. They recommended making peace. A cessation of arms was negotiated in the humiliating Treaty of Ripon , signed in October 1640. This stated that the Scots would continue to occupy Northumberland and Durham and be paid £850 per day indefinitely until a final settlement was negotiated and the English Parliament recalled, which would be required to raise sufficient funds to pay

14320-575: The Scottish forces. Consequently, Charles summoned what later became known as the Long Parliament . Once again, his supporters fared badly at the polls. Of the 493 members of the Commons returned in November, over 350 were opposed to the king. The Long Parliament proved just as difficult for Charles as had the Short Parliament. It assembled on 3 November 1640 and quickly began proceedings to impeach

14499-432: The Scottish nobility, at the price of considerable acrimony, by the Act of Revocation (1625), whereby all gifts of royal or church land made to the nobility since 1540 were revoked, with continued ownership being subject to an annual rent. In addition, the boundaries of the royal forests in England were restored to their ancient limits as part of a scheme to maximise income by exploiting the land and fining land users within

14678-406: The Staffordshire Militia (two troops of Horse and a regiment of Foot) provided the garrison of Leek . Once Parliament had established full control it passed a new Militia Act on 2 December 1648 that replaced lords lieutenant with its own county commissioners (at the same time the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties). The first name on the list of commissioners for Staffordshire and

14857-441: The Staffordshire Militia was reformed. It was embodied for full-time duty on 31 March 1778. The regiment was disembodied in 1783 after the end of the war. From 1784 to 1792 the militia were supposed to assemble for 28 days' annual training, even though to save money only two-thirds of the men were actually called out each year. However, the Staffordshire Militia only trained in two of those years. The French Revolutionary Wars saw

15036-436: The Staffordshire contingent comprised 400 foot (with 248 muskets and 152 ' corslets ' or pikemen with armour), together with 73 cuirassiers and 30 light horse. The TBs were called out in 1639 and 1640 for the Bishops' Wars , though many of the men who actually went were untrained hired substitutes. Staffordshire was ordered to send 300 men for the 1640 expedition. When the Staffordshire contingent returned to be discharged after

15215-528: The Staffordshires remained in abeyance after World War I. By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the only officer remaining listed for any of the four battalions was the Honorary Colonel of the 3rd South Staffs. The Militia was formally disbanded in April 1953. In the early days militia regiments serving together drew lots for their relative precedence. From 1778 the counties were given an order of precedence determined by ballot each year; for Staffordshire

15394-712: The Tonnage and Poundage Act. The House of Commons also launched bills attacking bishops and episcopacy, but these failed in the Lords. Charles had made important concessions in England, and temporarily improved his position in Scotland by signing a final settlement of the Bishops' Wars , then securing the Scots' favour on a visit from August to November 1641 during which he conceded to the official establishment of presbyterianism in Scotland. But after an attempted royalist coup in Scotland, known as

15573-485: The Trained Bands primary weapons were 42% firearms, 26% pikes, 18% longbows, and 16% bills. A 1522 survey had revealed a significant lapse in the obligation to maintain arms and train in their use, and from 1535 commissioners of muster held tri-annual inspections. In the mid-16th century Lords Lieutenant began to be appointed, a great improvement in local authority, and an increasingly efficient machinery for enforcing

15752-573: The West , heavily fortified by a Regular Army garrison to protect the Royal Navy's headquarters and dockyard in the Western Atlantic. In the 17th century, however, Bermuda's defence was left entirely in the hands of the Militia. In addition to requiring all male civilians to train and serve in the militia of their Parish, the Bermudian Militia included a standing body of trained artillerymen to garrison

15931-481: The age of 18 of what is suspected to have been typhoid (or possibly porphyria ). Charles, who turned 12 two weeks later, became heir apparent . As the eldest surviving son of the sovereign, he automatically gained several titles, including Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay . In November 1616, he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester . In 1613, Charles's sister Elizabeth married Frederick V, Elector Palatine , and moved to Heidelberg . In 1617,

16110-519: The attainder, not wishing, in the words of one, to "commit murder with the sword of justice". But increased tensions and an attempted coup by royalist army officers in support of Strafford and in which Charles was involved began to sway the issue. The Commons passed the bill on 20 April by a large margin (204 in favour, 59 opposed, and 230 abstained), and the Lords acquiesced (by 26 votes to 19, with 79 absent) in May. On 3 May, Parliament's Protestation attacked

16289-628: The battalion was involved in a counter-attack at the Second Battle of Kemmel that the Official Historian described as a 'useless waste of life'. 25th Division was now sent to the 'quiet' Chemin des Dames ridge sector of the French front to recover and to absorb young recruits. Unfortunately, it was once more placed exactly where the next phase of the German offensive would fall: the Third Battle of

16468-677: The battle, the rest of 25th Division went back to the UK to be reconstructed with recruits. 4th South Staffs remained in France as a training cadre with 39th Division , running training courses for newly arrived US Army divisions before they went into the line. It was demobilised on 6 November, just before the Armistice with Germany . In October 1917 4th North Staffs was attached to 56th (1/1st London) Division (TF) for training in Trench warfare , then joined 35th Division , another Kitchener formation. The division

16647-576: The bridge, but the country was unsuitable for cavalry action and the foot were outnumbered and forced to fall back. On 24 August Cromwell joined Harrison and Lambert with the main army and the Staffordshire Militia were engaged at the subsequent Battle of Worcester that destroyed the Scottish Royalist army. The Staffordshire Militia were called out following the death of Cromwell in 1659 to help deal with Booth's Uprising in neighbouring Cheshire. They were not present at Sir George Booth 's defeat at

16826-586: The case of John Rolle , a Member of Parliament whose goods had been confiscated for failing to pay tonnage and poundage. Many MPs viewed the imposition of the tax as a breach of the Petition of Right. When Charles ordered a parliamentary adjournment on 2 March, members held the Speaker, Sir John Finch , down in his chair so that the session could be prolonged long enough for resolutions against Catholicism, Arminianism, and tonnage and poundage to be read out and acclaimed by

17005-513: The chamber. The provocation was too much for Charles, who dissolved Parliament and had nine parliamentary leaders, including Sir John Eliot, imprisoned over the matter, thereby turning the men into martyrs and giving popular cause to their protest. Personal rule necessitated peace. Without the means in the foreseeable future to raise funds from Parliament for a European war, or Buckingham's help, Charles made peace with France and Spain. The next 11 years, during which Charles ruled England without

17184-524: The county's militia was organised as follows: War having broken out with Russia in 1854 and an expeditionary force sent to the Crimea, the militia were called out for home defence and service in overseas garrisons: Part of the militia was called out again to release regulars for service in suppressing the Indian Mutiny in 1857: Militia battalions now had a large cadre of permanent staff (about 30). Around

17363-400: The creation of a large standing army not under civilian control. The former feared that it would be used as an instrument of royal tyranny. The latter had memories of the New Model Army and the anti-monarchical social and political revolution that it brought about. Consequently, both preferred a small standing army under civilian control for defensive deterrence and to prosecute foreign wars,

17542-405: The death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales . An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to Infanta Maria Anna of Spain culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiation. Two years later, shortly after his accession, he married Henrietta Maria of France . After his succession in 1625, Charles quarrelled with

17721-586: The dissolution of the Covenanters' interim government, albeit at the decisive concession that both the Scottish Parliament and General Assembly of the Scottish Church were called. The military failure in the First Bishops' War caused a financial and diplomatic crisis for Charles that deepened when his efforts to raise funds from Spain while simultaneously continuing his support for his Palatine relatives led to

17900-502: The division was moved to the quieter Flanders front, where the Germans chose to launch the second phase of their offensive (the Battle of the Lys ). 4th South Staffs held a salient at Ploegsteert ('Plugstreet') Wood and was virtually destroyed, losing its commanding officer captured. It fought on as part of a composite battalion until the division was withdrawn. After receiving a few reinforcements,

18079-692: The duke. Charles provoked further unrest by trying to raise money for the war through a "forced loan": a tax levied without parliamentary consent. In November 1627, the test case in the King's Bench , the " Five Knights' Case ", found that the king had a prerogative right to imprison without trial those who refused to pay the forced loan. Summoned again in March 1628, Parliament adopted a Petition of Right on 26 May, calling upon Charles to acknowledge that he could not levy taxes without Parliament's consent, impose martial law on civilians, imprison them without due process, or quarter troops in their homes. Charles assented to

18258-506: The elevation of the national obligation as the sole means of raising armies from the citizenry. He ordered the commissioners of array be responsible not just for the raising of levies, but also for ensuring that they were suitably equipped according to the Statute of Winchester. He also restricted landowners to raising forces only from their own tenants or others for whom, by the tenure of office, they were responsible. By these means Henry instituted

18437-426: The emperor marked the beginning of the turmoil that would develop into the Thirty Years' War . The conflict, originally confined to Bohemia, spiralled into a wider European war, which the English Parliament and public quickly grew to see as a polarised continental struggle between Catholics and Protestants. In 1620, King Frederick was defeated at the Battle of White Mountain near Prague and his hereditary lands in

18616-556: The establishment of the army as an accepted state body and a military leader in Europe. The status of the army as a state institution under parliamentary control and subject to national law was normalised in 1689 by the Bill of Rights and the annually passed Mutiny Acts . Failure in the Monmouth Rebellion and controversy over the mis-use of funds had an adverse effect on the militia. Although it continued to be called out, for example in

18795-577: The execution of King Charles I, the establishment of the Commonwealth of England and the subsequent Protectorate under Oliver Cromwell , the New Model Army became politicised, and by the time of Cromwell's death in 1658, martial law and the Rule of the Major-Generals had renewed the traditional mistrust of standing armies. On the restoration of King Charles II to the throne in 1660, the New Model Army

18974-414: The few SR units (mainly 'Extra Reserve' battalions) actually to see overseas service in the war. In October 1917 this battalion joined 25th Division , a Kitchener formation. It was in reserve when the Germans launched their Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. They held off several attacks but suffered heavy casualties while extricating themselves as Third Army fell back. Reinforced with raw 19-year-olds,

19153-405: The few sources of support for Charles's proposed Spanish marriage. With King James's support, Montagu produced another pamphlet, Appello Caesarem , published in 1625 shortly after James's death and Charles's accession. To protect Montagu from the stricture of Puritan members of Parliament, Charles made him a royal chaplain, heightening many Puritans' suspicions that Charles favoured Arminianism as

19332-495: The first time, and the bond between them grew stronger. Together, they embodied an image of virtue and family life, and their court became a model of formality and morality. In January 1629, Charles opened the second session of the English Parliament, which had been prorogued in June 1628, with a moderate speech on the tonnage and poundage issue. Members of the House of Commons began to voice opposition to Charles's policies in light of

19511-457: The form of a bill of attainder . The incident set an important precedent as the process of impeachment would later be used against Charles and his supporters the Duke of Buckingham , Archbishop William Laud , and the Earl of Strafford . James insisted that the House of Commons be concerned exclusively with domestic affairs, while the members protested that they had the privilege of free speech within

19690-412: The gentry. The legislation made it a counter to the standing army, the main bulwark against disorder and the guarantee of the political settlement. The army – which, by the time of King James II's accession in 1685, comprised seven regiments of foot and four mounted regiments – was officially part of the royal household and had no basis in law; both king and Parliament were careful to refer to

19869-542: The individual's ability to reject or accept salvation, which opponents viewed as heretical and a potential vehicle for the reintroduction of Catholicism. Puritan reformers considered Charles too sympathetic to Arminianism, and opposed his desire to move the Church of England in a more traditional and sacramental direction. In addition, his Protestant subjects followed the European war closely and grew increasingly dismayed by Charles's diplomacy with Spain and his failure to support

20048-662: The invasion-threatened 'maritime' counties. Staffordshire was in the second group of 'inland' counties organised from May 1585 onwards. When the counties levied troops for overseas expeditions they usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen. The Armada Crisis in 1588 led to the mobilisation of the trained bands. Staffordshire was assessed at 400 trained men, but actually furnished 100 trained and 200 untrained (or pioneers ) with 28 lancers, 50 light horsemen and 26 armed with 'petronelles' (the Petronel

20227-525: The king was directly involved in governance. Strafford's fall from power weakened Charles's influence in Ireland. The dissolution of the Irish army was unsuccessfully demanded three times by the English Commons during Strafford's imprisonment, until lack of money eventually forced Charles to disband the army at the end of Strafford's trial. Disputes over the transfer of land ownership from native Catholic to settler Protestant, particularly in relation to

20406-563: The king's leading counsellors for high treason. Strafford was taken into custody on 10 November; Laud was impeached on 18 December; Finch, now Lord Keeper of the Great Seal , was impeached the next day, and consequently fled to The Hague with Charles's permission on 21 December. To prevent the king from dissolving it at will, Parliament passed the Triennial Act , which required Parliament to be summoned at least every three years, and permitted

20585-517: The lord lieutenant. The Midland counties were generally apathetic: Staffordshire was given a quota of 560 men to raise, but the county leaders failed to do so, and paid a fine instead. Staffordshire remained a defaulter county liable for militia fines throughout the 1760s. It was not until the War of American Independence , when Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain, that

20764-466: The midst of the English Civil War there was some debate as to whether the militia should be a supplement or an alternative to a standing army, and a series of ordinances were passed in attempts to replace the repealed 1558 act. These reflected the ongoing struggle for control of the militia until, in the early 1660s, new legislation established the militia under the control, through the lieutenancy, of

20943-606: The militia and the volunteers would be assigned to fixed defences round London and the seaports. After the disasters of Black Week at the start of the Second Boer War in December 1899, most of the regular army was sent to South Africa, followed by many militia reservists as reinforcements. Militia units were embodied to replace them for home defence and a number volunteered for active service or to garrison overseas stations. All four militia battalions of Staffordshire regiments served

21122-529: The militia itself. Although the militia continued to exist, it fell into neglect as attempts to introduce new legislation to regulate it failed. The beginning of the English Civil War was marked by a struggle between King Charles I and Parliament for control of the militia. The indecisive Battle of Edgehill in 1642, the first pitched battle of the war, revealed the weakness of the amateur military system, and both sides struggled with barely trained, poorly-equipped, ill-disciplined and badly led armies. While

21301-543: The militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country. During the Scottish invasion in the Third English Civil War in 1651, the Cheshire and Staffordshire Militia (Horse and Foot) joined Major-Generals Thomas Harrison and John Lambert 's cavalry in trying to halt the invaders. At the skirmish known as the Battle of Warrington Bridge (16 August) they tried to hold

21480-585: The militia was updated by two Acts of 1557 ( 4 & 5 Ph. & M. cc. 2 and 3) covering musters and the maintenance of horses and armour. The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant , assisted by the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace (JPs). The entry into force of these Acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England. Although the militia obligation

21659-516: The militia, which was intended to serve as a counterweight to the standing army and preserve civil liberties against the use of the army by a tyrannical monarch or government. The Crown still (in the British constitution) controls the use of the army. This ensures that officers and enlisted men swear an oath to a politically neutral head of state, and not to a politician. While the funding of the standing army subsists on annual financial votes by parliament,

21838-517: The militia. Successful English settlement of North America, where little support could be provided by regular forces, began to take place in 1607, in the face of Spain's determination to prevent England establishing a foothold in territory it claimed for itself. The settlers also had to contend with frequently hostile native populations. It was immediately necessary to raise militia amongst the settlers. The militia in Jamestown saw constant action against

22017-536: The numerous fortifications which ringed New London ( St. George's ). This standing body was created by recruiting volunteers, and by sentencing criminals to serve as punishment. The Bermudian militiamen were called out on numerous occasions of war, and, on one notable occasion, to quell rioting privateers. In 1710, four years after Spanish and French forces seized the Turks Islands from Bermudian salt producers in 1706, they were expelled by Bermudian privateers. Although

22196-461: The obligations of the citizenry to be ready for war resulted in 1558 the Militia Act, which ended the quasi-feudal system and implemented a more efficient, unified national militia system. In an attempt to remove the statutory limitations and allow the lieutenants to increase their demands on the militia, the act was repealed in 1604. This, however, succeeded only in removing the statutory basis for

22375-418: The opening of his first Parliament until after the marriage was consummated, to forestall any opposition. Many members of the Commons opposed his marriage to a Catholic, fearing that he would lift restrictions on Catholic recusants and undermine the official establishment of the reformed Church of England . Charles told Parliament that he would not relax religious restrictions, but promised to do exactly that in

22554-458: The organisation and training: in 1580 the Earls of Warwick and Leicester and Sir Christopher Hatton were assigned a group of shires (including Staffordshire) to oversee and reinforce the work of the county commissioners for horses. When war broke out with Spain training and equipping the militia became a priority. From 1583 counties were organised into groups for training purposes, with emphasis on

22733-744: The outbreak of World War I and the four Staffordshire battalions proceeded from Whittington Barracks to their war stations. For the 3rd (Reserve) Battalions of the South and North Staffs this was at Plymouth , and for the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalions this was on the Channel Islands , the South Staffs on Jersey and the North Staffs on Guernsey . At these stations the SR battalions combined defence responsibilities with training and forming drafts of reservists, special reservists, recruits and returning wounded for

22912-456: The petition on 7 June, but by the end of the month he had prorogued Parliament and reasserted his right to collect customs duties without authorisation from Parliament. On 23 August 1628, Buckingham was assassinated. Charles was deeply distressed. According to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon , he "threw himself upon his bed, lamenting with much passion and with abundance of tears". He remained grieving in his room for two days. In contrast,

23091-542: The positions drawn were: However, when the militia were re-embodied in 1793, the order of precedence balloted for that year (when Staffordshire was 27th) remained in force throughout the French Revolutionary War: this covered all the regiments formed in the county. Another ballot for precedence took place at the start of the Napoleonic War, when Staffordshire was 2nd. This list continued until 1833. In that year

23270-477: The propertied classes for inflicting degrading punishments on gentlemen. For example, in 1637 William Prynne , Henry Burton and John Bastwick were pilloried , whipped and mutilated by cropping and imprisoned indefinitely for publishing anti-episcopal pamphlets. When Charles attempted to impose his religious policies in Scotland he faced numerous difficulties. Although born in Scotland, Charles had become estranged from it; his first visit since early childhood

23449-425: The protests, Charles refused to dismiss his friend, dismissing Parliament instead. Meanwhile, domestic quarrels between Charles and Henrietta Maria were souring the early years of their marriage. Disputes over her jointure , appointments to her household, and the practice of her religion culminated in the king expelling the vast majority of her French attendants in August 1626. Despite Charles's agreement to provide

23628-497: The public humiliation of the Battle of the Downs , where the Dutch destroyed a Spanish bullion fleet off the coast of Kent in sight of the impotent English navy. Charles continued peace negotiations with the Scots in a bid to gain time before launching a new military campaign. Because of his financial weakness, he was forced to call Parliament into session in an attempt to raise funds for such

23807-655: The public rejoiced at Buckingham's death, accentuating the gulf between the court and the nation and between the Crown and the Commons. Buckingham's death effectively ended the war with Spain and eliminated his leadership as an issue, but it did not end the conflicts between Charles and Parliament. It did, however, coincide with an improvement in Charles's relationship with his wife, and by November 1628 their old quarrels were at an end. Perhaps Charles's emotional ties were transferred from Buckingham to Henrietta Maria. She became pregnant for

23986-781: The reasserted boundaries for encroachment. The programme's focus was disafforestation and sale of forest lands for conversion to pasture and arable farming, or in the case of the Forest of Dean , development for the iron industry. Disafforestation frequently caused riots and disturbances, including those known as the Western Rising . Against the background of this unrest, Charles faced bankruptcy in mid-1640. The City of London, preoccupied with its own grievances, refused to make any loans to him, as did foreign powers. In this extremity, in July Charles seized silver bullion worth £130,000 held in trust at

24165-471: The rebellion, King James II was able to expand the army with 16 new regiments, paid for by money misappropriated from funds voted by Parliament for the militia. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 brought the Dutch King William III to the throne, and with him came interests in continental Europe. It was the defence of these interests that would lead, by the time of the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, to

24344-466: The reformed religion of Scotland and reject any innovations not authorised by Kirk and Parliament. When the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland met in November 1638, it condemned the new prayer book, abolished episcopal church government , and adopted presbyterian government by elders and deacons. Charles perceived the unrest in Scotland as a rebellion against his authority, precipitating

24523-663: The regiment was re-embodied while the regular army was serving in the Waterloo campaign . It was finally disembodied in April 1816. While the Militia were the mainstay of national defence during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, they were supplemented from 1808 by the Local Militia, which were part-time and only to be used within their own districts. These were raised to counter the declining numbers of Volunteers. Staffordshire had five regiments of local militia: After Waterloo there

24702-471: The regiments as 'guards', based on their role as bodyguards to the king, and it was still intended that the militia would provide the country's main force in the event of war. However, it was the army, already made more palatable to Parliament by acts of civilian service in support of the common good, that defeated the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, the militia having proved too slow to mobilise. Following

24881-497: The regular battalions of the two regiments. In October 1914 each SR battalion was ordered to use their surplus recruits to form a service battalion of their regiment for Kitchener's 4th New Army ('K4'). In this way the 10th and 11th South Staffords and the 10th and 11th North Staffords were formed by the former Staffordshire Militia battalions. In April 1915 the K4 service battalions were converted into reserve battalions to carry out

25060-586: The repeal of the English penal laws , which Charles knew Parliament would not agree to, and that the infanta remain in Spain for a year after any wedding to ensure that England complied with all the treaty's terms. A personal quarrel erupted between Buckingham and the Count of Olivares , the Spanish chief minister, and so Charles conducted the ultimately futile negotiations personally. When he returned to London in October, without

25239-452: The required number of men from each shire. The usual shire contingent was 1000 infantry commanded by a millenar , divided into companies of 100 commanded by centenars or ductores , and subdivided into platoons of 20 led by vintenars . Edward I regularly summoned the men of the nearest shires, including Staffordshire, to fight in his Welsh Wars and for his Scottish campaign of 1300, when 216 Staffordshire men in two companies were present at

25418-507: The sabbath. The Feoffees for Impropriations , an organisation that bought benefices and advowsons so that Puritans could be appointed to them, was dissolved. Laud prosecuted those who opposed his reforms in the Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber , the two most powerful courts in the land. The courts became feared for their censorship of opposing religious views and unpopular among

25597-439: The same manner Bacon had. James told Buckingham he was a fool, and presciently warned Charles that he would live to regret the revival of impeachment as a parliamentary tool. An underfunded makeshift army under Ernst von Mansfeld set off to recover the Palatinate, but it was so poorly provisioned that it never advanced beyond the Dutch coast. By 1624, the increasingly ill James was finding it difficult to control Parliament. By

25776-439: The same role for the 1st–3rd New Army (K1–K3) battalions that the SR battalions were doing to the Regulars. In 1916 the K4 reserve battalions were transferred from their regiments to the Training Reserve. Both 3rd Battalions moved from Plymouth to the Newcastle upon Tyne area in November 1916 and remained there in the Tyne Garrison for the rest of the war. In September 1916 the 4th Battalions both moved to Marske-by-the-Sea in

25955-444: The south-east and East Anglia, as well as the English navy. After a few skirmishes, the opposing forces met in earnest at Edgehill , on 23 October 1642. Charles's nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine disagreed with the battle strategy of the royalist commander Lord Lindsey , and Charles sided with Rupert. Lindsey resigned, leaving Charles to assume overall command assisted by Lord Forth . Rupert's cavalry successfully charged through

26134-599: The sub-districts were purely administrative organisations, but in a continuation of the Cardwell Reforms a mobilisation scheme began to appear in the Army List from December 1875. This assigned regular and militia units to places in an order of battle of corps, divisions and brigades for the 'Active Army', even though these formations were entirely theoretical, with no staff or services assigned. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Staffordshire Militia formed 2nd Brigade of 2nd Division, VI Corps . The brigade would have mustered at Liverpool in time of war. The Childers Reforms of 1881 completed

26313-452: The summer of 1804, returning with him to Windsor in the autumn. In 1805 George III commanded that the regiment should become the King's Own Staffordshire Militia , and it was augmented by 200 men from the 2nd Regiment, which was disbanded. The regiment was on service at Windsor, St James's Palace and Kew Palace almost continuously until it was disembodied in 1814 at the end of the Napoleonic War . When Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815,

26492-482: The time of his death in March 1625, Charles and Buckingham had already assumed de facto control of the kingdom. With the failure of the Spanish match, Charles and Buckingham turned their attention to France. On 1 May 1625 Charles was married by proxy to the 15-year-old French princess Henrietta Maria in front of the doors of Notre Dame de Paris . He had seen her in Paris while en route to Spain. They met in person on 13 June 1625 in Canterbury . Charles delayed

26671-422: The time. Because it was not practical to call out every man, King Edward I introduced a system whereby local gentry were authorised to conduct commissions of array to select those who would actually be called for military service. During the reign of King Edward III , feudal service was recognised as increasingly obsolete, and the feudal host was formally called out in full for the last time in 1327. During

26850-404: The war beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Nevertheless, the Stafford TBs (Horse and Foot) under Colonel William Comberford were part of the Royalist garrison of Stafford when the town was besieged in February 1643. The threat to Stafford was raised after the Battle of Hopton Heath in March. During the Royalist uprising of 1648 (the Second English Civil War )

27029-415: The weapons they used (mainly bills and longbows) prompted the creation of the more elite Trained Bands , who numbered 50,000 in 1588 (comprising about a third of the militia). This was only a partial solution however. By 1591 official records show 102,000 men on the rolls, of whom 42,000 are fully trained and furnished, plus 54,000 armed but not sufficiently trained and 6,000 neither armed nor trained. In 1588

27208-428: The whole county force in May, but that each captain of a company or troop should hold local musters as often as he conveniently could. The Staffordshire Militia consisted of five companies of foot (500 men) and two troops of horse (120 men) in 1697, but the militia was allowed to decline thereafter, especially after the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. There was a half-hearted attempt to raise a force in Staffordshire during

27387-402: Was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland , but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life. He became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon

27566-404: Was a weak and sickly infant, and while his parents and older siblings left for England in April and early June that year, due to his fragile health, he remained in Scotland with his father's friend Lord Fyvie appointed as his guardian. By 1604, when Charles was three-and-a-half, he was able to walk the length of the great hall at Dunfermline Palace without assistance, and it was decided that he

27745-406: Was abolished and the Commonwealth of England was established as a republic . The monarchy was restored in 1660, with Charles's son Charles II as king. The second son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark , Charles was born in Dunfermline Palace , Fife, on 19 November 1600. At a Protestant ceremony in the Chapel Royal of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh on 23 December 1600, he

27924-419: Was actively hostile towards Spain and Catholicism, and thus, when called by James in 1621, the members hoped for an enforcement of recusancy laws, a naval campaign against Spain, and a Protestant marriage for the Prince of Wales. James's Lord Chancellor , Francis Bacon , was impeached before the House of Lords for corruption. The impeachment was the first since 1459 without the king's official sanction in

28103-404: Was also slow, and he had a stammer for the rest of his life. In January 1605, Charles was created Duke of York , as is customary in the case of the English sovereign's second son, and made a Knight of the Bath . Thomas Murray , a presbyterian Scot, was appointed as a tutor. Charles learnt the usual subjects of classics, languages, mathematics and religion. In 1611, he was made a Knight of

28282-431: Was among the units that scrambled across the river by any means possible, and was pursuing eastwards when the Armistice came into force on 11 November. In January 1919 the division was used to quell disturbances among men awaiting demobilisation in camps at Calais . The battalion itself went home in April and was disembodied on 28 April 1919. The SR resumed its old title of Militia in 1921 but like most militia battalions

28461-408: Was an early cavalry firearm). With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th Century. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control. In 1638 the King's Sergeant major general of infantry, Sir Jacob Astley , and his officers reviewed the TBs in several counties, when

28640-424: Was another long peace. Although officers continued to be commissioned into the militia and ballots were still held, the regiments were rarely assembled for training and the permanent staffs of sergeants and drummers were progressively reduced. The Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act 1852 , enacted during a renewed period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on

28819-436: Was attached to the first pair (38th/80th), the 2nd and 3rd Staffordshire Militia to the second pair (64th/98th). It was intended that each sub-district would have two regular and two militia battalions, and so the 1st Staffordshire Militia raised a 2nd Battalion on 22 August 1874. All these battalions eventually shared a depot at Whittington Barracks , outside Lichfield, completed in 1881. Although often referred to as brigades,

28998-410: Was baptised by David Lindsay , Bishop of Ross , and created Duke of Albany , the traditional title of the second son of the king of Scotland , with the subsidiary titles of Marquess of Ormond , Earl of Ross and Lord Ardmannoch. James VI was the first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth I of England , and when she died childless in March 1603, he became King of England as James I. Charles

29177-437: Was beheaded three days later. Also in early May, Charles assented to an unprecedented Act that forbade the dissolution of the English Parliament without its consent. In the following months, ship money, fines in distraint of knighthood and excise without parliamentary consent were declared unlawful, and the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission were abolished. All remaining forms of taxation were legalised and regulated by

29356-462: Was commanded by Lord Granville Leveson-Gower , previously a captain in the 1st Regiment, who was commissioned on 5 April 1797. The 3rd Regiment, of 6 companies, was commanded by Francis Perceval Eliot , formerly major of the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry , who was commissioned Lt-Col Commandant on 25 April 1798. However, the 2nd and 3rd were disbanded the following year when the militia quotas were reduced, and their remaining men were incorporated into

29535-465: Was created a Baronet shortly afterwards. After the Restoration, The King's Sole Right over the Militia Act 1661 and the Militia Act 1662 re-established the English Militia under the control of the king's lords-lieutenant, the men to be selected by ballot. This was popularly seen as the 'Constitutional Force' to counterbalance a 'Standing Army' tainted by association with the New Model Army that had supported Cromwell's military dictatorship. During

29714-416: Was disbanded. Despite the concerns of Parliament about expense and the threat to the power it had only recently won from the Crown, it still proved necessary to maintain a small standing force in England, for the protection of the new king and to garrison coastal forts. A new army was therefore established in 1660, comprising two regiments born in the civil war; one raised in 1656 as Charles's bodyguard while he

29893-404: Was for his Scottish coronation in 1633. To the dismay of the Scots, who had removed many traditional rituals from their liturgical practice, Charles insisted that the coronation be conducted using the Anglican rite. In 1637, he ordered the use of a new prayer book in Scotland that was almost identical to the English Book of Common Prayer , without consulting either the Scottish Parliament or

30072-464: Was forced to withdraw. In mid-1642, both sides began to arm. Charles raised an army using the medieval method of commission of array , and Parliament called for volunteers for its militia. The negotiations proved futile, and Charles raised the royal standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642. By then, his forces controlled roughly the Midlands, Wales, the West Country and northern England. He set up his court at Oxford . Parliament controlled London,

30251-512: Was in GHQ Reserve when the Spring Offensive opened, and was sent south as reinforcements. The battalion went into action on 24 March in a counter-attack to clear Maricourt Wood. On 26 March the division was withdrawn across the River Ancre , but due to a misunderstanding the 4th North Staffs was sent back across the river, and found itself isolated. It was not until 01.30 the following morning that it extricated itself from its dangerous position. The battalion then successfully defended its position on

30430-401: Was in exile during the Interregnum , the other raised in 1650 as part of the New Model Army. Several conspiracies uncovered towards the end of 1660 convinced Parliament of the need for two more regiments – again, one raised in exile during the Interregnum, the other originally a New Model Army regiment – and the army was officially established by royal warrant on 26 January 1661. In

30609-492: Was no legal bar to collecting the tax for defence during peacetime and throughout the whole of the kingdom. Ship money, paid directly to the Treasury of the Navy, provided between £150,000 to £200,000 annually between 1634 and 1638, after which yields declined. Opposition to ship money steadily grew, but England's 12 common law judges ruled the tax within the king's prerogative, though some of them had reservations. The prosecution of John Hampden for non-payment in 1637–38 provided

30788-403: Was obliged to rely primarily on volunteer forces for defence and on diplomatic efforts to support his sister Elizabeth and his foreign policy objective for the restoration of the Palatinate. England was still the least taxed country in Europe, with no official excise and no regular direct taxation. To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, Charles resurrected an all-but-forgotten law called

30967-551: Was possibly Henrietta Maria who persuaded Charles to arrest the five members by force, which he resolved to do personally. But news of the warrant reached Parliament ahead of him, and the wanted men slipped away by boat shortly before Charles entered the House of Commons with an armed guard on 4 January. Having displaced Speaker William Lenthall from his chair, the king asked him where the MPs had fled. Lenthall, on his knees, famously replied, "May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as

31146-448: Was reasonably close to the truth as 183,000 militiamen were mustered in 37 counties in 1575, and in the officials returns of 1588 more than 132,000 were expected to be fielded in England and Wales. They were intended to comprise part of the armies raised to combat the Spanish invasion. There were expected to be a total of 92,000 men mustered in the south of England (including 5,300 cavalry). Their poor state of readiness and obsolete nature of

31325-438: Was strengthened, damaging Charles's reputation and authority. The English Parliament distrusted Charles's motivations when he called for funds to put down the Irish rebellion; many members of the Commons suspected that forces he raised might later be used against Parliament itself. Pym's Militia Bill was intended to wrest control of the army from the king, but it did not have the support of the Lords, let alone Charles. Instead,

31504-407: Was strong enough to journey to England to be reunited with his family. In mid-July 1604, he left Dunfermline for England, where he was to spend most of the rest of his life. In England, Charles was placed under the charge of Elizabeth, Lady Carey , the wife of courtier Sir Robert Carey , who put him in boots made of Spanish leather and brass to help strengthen his weak ankles. His speech development

31683-440: Was the principal military reserve force of the Kingdom of England . Militia units were repeatedly raised in England from the Anglo-Saxon period onwards for internal security duties and to defend against external invasions . One of the first militia units in England were the fyrd , which were raised from freemen to defend the estate of their local Shire 's lord or accompany the housecarls on offensive expeditions. During

31862-416: Was to maintain. The first category corresponded to the feudal host, the next two corresponded to the old fyrd and the last to a general levy. The Statute of Winchester in 1285 introduced two more non-feudal categories to impose a general military obligation on all able-bodied males, including non-free, between the ages of 15 and 60, and updated the prescribed weaponry in the light of developments in warfare at

32041-499: Was universal, it was clearly impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man, so after 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained Bands , who were mustered for regular training. The government aimed for 10 days' training a year, with a two-day 'general muster' at Michaelmas , and two 'special musters' lasting four days for detailed training at Easter and Whitsun . Staffordshire offered to train 300 out of 1500 able men. The government progressively stepped up

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