English army

Restoration Army
Active	1660–1707
Country	England
Allegiance	English monarchy
Type	Army
Engagements	Second Anglo-Dutch War Third Anglo-Dutch War Franco-Dutch War Monmouth Rebellion Williamite War in Ireland Nine Years' War King William's War Queen Anne's War War of the Spanish Succession
Commanders
Captain‑General	George Monck, John Churchill
Notable commanders	Prince Rupert, James Scott, James Butler, Henri de Massue, James Stanhope

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 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 . 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.

In England, as in the majority of all the European states of the Middle Ages, all men were at first soldiers, all were bound to join the standards at a given moment to repel an attack or make an invasion. This state of things became modified with the progress of time, and with the growth of society. The principle of the division of labour having taken root in the Anglo-Saxon character, the military power separated from the civil element. It was then that troops more or less regular were formed; the first paid bands had at first only a provisional existence limited by circumstances. Raised in time of war for a special object, they were always disbanded as soon as hostilities were over. The system of a permanent army does not date, in England, further back than the Interregnum and the reign of Charles II. However the primitive steps towards standing armed forces began in 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".

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