The English army

The third army of Europe

By 1700 the English army had gained experience of moderen warfare in Ireland and in the Low Countries. Its numbers had been drastically reduced in 1699, but the remaining 'skeleton' army allowed for a rapid mobilization. After mobilizing the nominal strength of the English army was smaller than that of the Austrian and perhaps even the Spanish. Looking at the number and quality of national and foreign troops these powers could deploy the British army was certainly larger than the Spanish and probably outranked the Austrian too. I therefore rank is as the third army in Europe. We'll first take a look at its composition or order of battle. The page is finished with a short history of the British army.

Composition of the English Army

The regiments of the English army are described on separate pages. See English cavalry and dragoon regiments and English Infantry regiments. These can also be reached by clicking the picture above this paragraph.

Short history of the English Army

From 1660 to 1684

Britain is an island and therefore has always had far more need for a strong fleet than for an army. For a long time this circumstance had naturally stiffened the English Parliament in its opposition to the idea of a standing army. The English Army was therefore of a quite recent creation. Apart from Cromwell's New Model Army the traditions of the British Army go back to 1660 when the Commons authorized the raising of a standing army to protect the restored King Charles II. This was the composition of the English army from 1660 till 1685:

Next to this English army there were also smaller Scottish and Irish armies. Of these the Irish was the more important because it was needed to keep a hostile Catholic population subdued. The Irish army also had a large and active Protestant militia component.

From 1685 to 1688

The Monmouth rebellion was the opportunity James II needed to raise a larger army. He raised 9 new infantry regiments and 7 cavalry regiments. Raising extra regiments in times of crisis had been done before, but this time James succeeded in holding on to these extra units. The British army had become a serious military force after these units had been added:

By the time William's invasion seemed imminent the English, Irish and Scottish armies reached a peak strength of about 45,000 men because of hurried augmentations. It then reached a low point when the commander in chief disbanded it in December 1688. Of course this did not mean that all soldiers went home, and when a new list of the army was prepared in April 1689 the army still numbered about 33,000 men of which about 11,000 were in the Low Countries. The Irish army of James II meanwhile practically went to waste by neglect, desertion and transporting troops away. His vice-roy Tyrconnel did however assemble a new Catholic Irish Army in order to try and keep Ireland for James II.

Augmentations from 1688 to 1697

After the Glorious Revolution William III began to enlarge the army again and started to engage it in serious warfare. In less than a year the army officially grew to about 60,000 men at the end of 1689. This growth was attained by simply transferring the main part of the invasion force to the English budget and raising 17 new regiments which, on paper, would add about 13,000 new troops.

England also hired about 7,000 troops from Denmark, and the last of these arrived in spring 1690. This brought the total of foreign troops in English service to about 20,000. For the years 1690 till 1694 the strength of all British forces would then hover at about 80,000 troops. In 1694 and 1695 the army would again be augmented by issuing commissions to raise 3 cavalry regiments, 5 dragoon regiments and 12 infantry regiments. All in all this meant that for the years 1695-1697 paper strength of all British forces rose to about 100,000 men.

The English army in the Nine years war (1689-1697)

As said William immediately began to engage his new subjects in warfare. For the Irish front this meant that in April 1689 about 9,000 English troops had been shipped to Ireland. In September 1689 these troops were augmented to 36 regiments and at least part of these suffered in the disaster of the camp at Dundalk.

In 1690 there were 45 British and Irish regiments in Ireland and these were supported by 30 foreign ones. The first pitched battle the English Army fought in Ireland was the battle of the Boyne. Here at least 15 English infantry and 11 English cavalry regiments fought the French and Irish. Other major engagements were the siege of Athlone and the battle of Aughrim.

As regards the continent Britain was obliged by the mutual defense treaty which the predecessors of the new king had concluded to come to the aid of the States General. This meant that at first about 10,000 troops were engaged in the Low Countries. These were then first reduced in order to concentrate efforts against Ireland. After the Irish threat was over more and more English troops were then engaged on the continent. In 1693 this lead to a situation whereby 45 cavalry, 9 dragoon and 44 infantry regiments in English pay fought in the Low Countries. The peak level of the British commitment in the Low Countries would be reached in 1695 when it paid for 94 regiments. In 1696 and 1697 this level would continue at about the same footing.

On the continent this growing British involvement gave the English Army a first taste of continental warfare when it engaged in the battle of Walcourt. The English contingent fighting at Walcourt was commanded by John Churchill and it was lucky that before this engagement it had been integrated in the Dutch administrative and command organization. This meant that before this battle it had been retrained in the newest Dutch drill, but also that its provisions and pay were organized by the Dutch⁵¹.

Later the English contingents participated in the battles of Steenkirk and Neerwinden and the 1695 siege of Namur. By the time of the peace of Rijswijk in 1697 England had a considerable, modern and experienced army.

The Demobilization (1697-1702)

After the peace of Rijswijk parliament was bent on economizing. In December 1697 it stated that the English Army should count 7,000 men and that all regiments should consist of native Englishmen⁵². Scotland reduced its army to about 4,700. The army in Ireland would count about 12,000 men. Roughly this meant that, except for the regiments which had already been raised by James II, all troops would be dismissed. Of course the king strongly opposed these measures but he could only try to lessen their effects. Of the 5 March 1699 bill that lists the 7,000 men to be maintained in and by the Kingdom of England we have an early 1699 list⁵³:

We also have a list of troops which would be kept on the Irish establishment^53b. It's from 3 April 1699. By the Lords Justices and Council. A proclamation [List of the regiments to be kept up in Ireland] Dublin: 3 April 1699. By a recent English act all foreign troops and all but 12,000 native troops are to be disbanded. The following regiments are kept up:

Which leaves for the Scottish establishment

There are also 23 February 1698 and 16 March 1698 lists of regiments disbanded.

The measures also meant dismissing about 23,000 foreign troops, of which 6 Scottish regiments (Lauder, Murray, Colyear, Strathnaver, Mackay and Hamilton) and the Brandenburg Regiment returned to Dutch establishment. In 1699 the Gardes du Corps (Blue Guard) and the (Dutch) Horse Guards were also dismissed and returned. Especially cold hearted was the dismissal of the Huguenot regiments that had fought so valiantly for England.

The king succeeded in evading some of the worst effects of these measures by shipping his veteran troops from Flanders to Ireland and disbanding the fresh troops which garrisoned that kingdom⁵⁴. Other measures were reducing the number of soldiers per company while retaining most of the officers and NCO's. This meant that the number of men in each regiment almost halved. This in turn enabled the king to retain a far larger number of units in his army than the reduction suggested. This meant that as regards units the British army went from a peak strength of 11 cavalry, 14 Dragoon and 67 Infantry regiments to a strength of 11 Cavalry, 9 Dragoon and 31 Infantry regiments.

Of the native English infantry regiments that William III had founded (later 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32) we find that most still existed in 1751, even though 5 had been disbanded for a time. What's interesting to note in this respect is that of the 1699 strength 2 cavalry, 3 dragoon and 21 infantry regiments were on the Irish establishment, which leaves only 7 cavalry, 6 dragoon and 10 infantry on the Scottish and English establishments. Anyway, there is a consensus that the actual effects of the Commons' dictate were somewhat less dramatic than one would expect. The reasons for this can be found in the professional way the king handled the demobilization.

The English Army in 1702

When the crisis of the Spanish Succession escalated the Commons were of course somewhat more motivated to invest in the army. Recently disbanded regiments were hastily reformed and new ones established. This meant that on 1 January 1702 the army on the English establishment was composed like this:

Sources

There are three main sources for this page. For the actual units I have done a quite random search of the internet. For information about the strength, organization and operations of the English Army I have primarily used Stapleton's dissertation: Forging a Coalition army: William III, The Grand Alliance, and the Confederate Army in the Spanish Netherlands. 1688-1697. For the involvement of the troops of the States General I used: Het Staatse Leger.

Notes