The British Army - Early History
In England the establishment of a regular armed force dates from a very early period; from the consolidation of the eight Saxon principalities under one king, when a military organisation was requisite both for the purpose of internal government and external defence. The Saxon law esteemed every man a soldier unless incapacitated by age or physical weakness, and he was regularly trained in the use of arms by a special officer. The head of a family was the leader of the capable males in that family. The families formed a tything, whose commander was named a borsholder: ten tythings composed a hundred, whose captain was termed a hundredary; while several hundreds were included in the trything, under the orders of the trything-man. Finally, the armed men of each shire were commanded by its hertoch (dux or duke), or by the kyning or Turning's hold.
With the conquest of England by the Normans came the introduction of the feudal system into the conquered country, and the almost total disruption of the Saxon military establishment. The latter had recognised the patriarchal or domestic principle; the former was designed to elevate the power of the knight upon the bondage of the serf. All the lands of the realm were divided into knights' fees, granted in larger or smaller portions to tenants in capite, tenants holding directly of the king—who were bound by their tenure to serve him at home or abroad, with horses and arms maintained at their own expense, for a period of forty days in each year. This obligation of course fell most heavily upon the largest landholder; the baron of fifty knights' fees was bound to enter the field with fifty men-at-arms, and follow the royal banner for the full period of service.
In this peculiar military system there was an obvious defect, and it rendered military expeditions of any importance almost impossible. In forty days one might attempt some dashing enterprise, but not a regular campaign; might burn a defenceless town, but not subdue a fortress. Hence, when the kings of France and England were engaged in wars which might be termed national, the inefficiency of the feudal militia became evident.
Twenty-five or thirty horsemen constituted a constabulary and was ordered by a constable. Three or four constabularies made up a squadron, commanded by an officer called a banneret, and the banneret was necessarily a knight, entitled by the extent of his possessions to bring so many men into the field. The infantry were divided into twenties, under a vintoner (or vingtener); and into hundreds under a centoner or centenary. These troops were mustered in divisions under serjeant-majors, i.e. officers of brigade, who were in their turn amenable to the orders of the lieutenant-generals, and these to the captain-general. He again was commanded by the master of the ordnance, above whom ranked the marshal; and supreme over all the highconstable, whose only head was the king. The two latter dignities were hereditary in England. The last high-constable was the Duke of Buckingham, executed by Henry VIII.
In Queen Elizabeth's reign companies of infantry then varied in numbers from 150 to 300, and each had its color or ensign. It was usual to unite a number of companies into one body, called a regiment, which frequently amounted to 3,000 or 4,000 men; but each company still carried a color. In the early part of the seventeenth century, Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, reduced the strength of regiments to 1,000 men.
But as yet, it must be remembered, there was no standing army in England; no regular military force, to garrison its towns and strongholds, or carry war into an enemy's country. When hostilities broke out, a levy was made; men were hastily collected, who, on the conclusion of peace, were as rapidly disbanded. These raw levies of half-trained peasants would be useless against the steady discipline of the veteran battalions of France or Germany. The introduction of artillery, however, necessitated the formation of a body of trained soldiers, capable of executing military movements with celerity and precision. Such a force was maintained by Cromwell, as a necessary appendage of his power, and Charles II. was not unwilling in this respect to learn from his predecessor.
Charles II resolved to establish a permanent disciplined force, hut owing to the natural jealousy which the people entertained of a standing army, he was compelled to bo content with small beginnings. The force maintained by Charles II. mustered about 5,000 strong. One regiment of foot guards, the Coldstreams, had been raised under the Protectorate, by General Monk, at Coldstream, on the frontiers of Scotland. Two other regiments were added in 1660, of which one, the 1st regiment, was commanded by John Lord Wentworth; while the other, or 3rd regiment, claims for its first colonel the Earl of Linlithgow. These formed the household infantry, and usually did duty near Whitehall and St. James's Palace. In time four other regiments of foot were added: one, in 1664, 'the admiral's regiment,' was designed for sea service; the 1st, or Royals, represented the men who had fought under the great Gustavus; the 2nd, or Queen's, was raised in 1661, and commanded by Lord Peterborough; the 3rd, or Old Buffs, was embodied in 1665; and the 4th, or King's Own.
Great Britain enjoyed a unique status among the great powers during the 18th Century because its strong navy gave it security from attack by its neighbors. One consequence was that the British Army at first lagged behind the other European armies in adopting the reforms of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but by the time of the Seven Years' War, it had adopted the major ones. In fact, it had led the way in introducing many techniques of infantry fire control.
Its slow and ad hoc growth as an institution, however, had produced an inefficient and extremely complex administrative and logistical superstructure. Authority and responsibility were divided between two major Army commands (the British and Irish Establishments), between the Army proper and the Ordnance Department (controlling artillery, engineers, and munitions), and between the civilian Secretary at War and the military Commander in Chief (when that office was filled).
Strategic direction was shared by two or three civilian Secretaries of State. At times the various individuals responsible for these chains of command cooperated, and the system functioned well. However, when breakdowns occurred, the British Army appeared leaderless and inept.
After the 1763 Peace of Paris, London decided to create an American Establishment and to tax the colonists to pay for it. In the eyes of London planners, this army, patterned on a similar garrison stationed in Ireland for nearly a century, would serve several useful ends. It would enable the British Army to retain more regiments in peacetime than it could have otherwise. The regiments in America were to secure the newly won territories of Canada and Florida from French or Spanish attack and also to act as a buffer between the colonists and the Indians.
The Americans felt that these troops served no useful purpose, particularly when the majority moved from the frontier to coastal cities to simplify logistics. As tensions rose, the colonists became more suspicious of British aims and increasingly saw the regular regiments as a "standing army" stationed in their midst to enforce unpopular legislation.
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