| Unit Name: | Somerset Trained Bands |
| Dates: | 1558–1662 |
| Branch: | Trained Bands |
| Role: | Infantry and Cavalry |
| Size: | 5–6 Regiments of Foot, 1 Regiment of Horse |
| Battles: | Rising of the North Battle of Newburn Battle of Marshall's Elm Siege of Sherborne Castle Battle of Braddock Down Second Battle of Modbury Siege of Lyme Regis Battle of Lostwithiel Sieges of Taunton Battle of Langport Siege of Bristol (1645) |
| Notable Commanders: | Lt-Col Thomas Lunsford Sir Edward Rodney Sir John Stawell Col William Strode |
The Somerset Trained Bands were a part-time military force in the county of Somerset in South West England from 1558 until they were reconstituted as the Somerset Militia in 1662. They were periodically embodied for home defence, for example in the army mustered at Tilbury during the Armada Campaign of 1588. They fought of the Battle of Newburn in the Second Bishops' War and their units saw considerable active service for both sides during the English Civil War.
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, and was reorganised under the Assizes of Arms of 1181 and 1252, and again by King Edward I's Statute of Winchester of 1285.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 3) and the maintenance of horses and armour (4 & 5 Ph. & M. c. 2) 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 formal county militia in England. In that year Somerset had an organised regiment of 1000 men in 10 companies, each under a nominated captain and 'petty captain'. In 1569 the Somerset contingent joined the force assembled against the Rising of the North. Although the militia obligation was universal, this assembly confirmed that it was 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 1558 regiment in Somerset was an early example of this).[6] [4] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
The Armada Crisis in 1588 led to the mobilisation of the trained bands and out of 12,000 able-bodied men Somerset furnished 4000 armed and trained, with 50 lancers, 250 light horsemen, and 60 'petronels' (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm), with in addition 1000 untrained 'pioneers'. The trained footmen were organised into five regiments, each of 400 'shot' and musketeers, 280 'Corslets' (body armour, signifying pikemen) and 120 billmen, under the command of:[6] [11] [12]
The county sent off 600 men to join Queen Elizabeth I's bodyguard, and in July the whole contingent marched to join the royal army at Tilbury, where the Queen gave her Tilbury speech on 9 August.[11]
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. However, in 1590 the commissioners of musters in Somerset wrote to the secretary of state saying that they had been advised by lawyers that their commissions to levy men were invalid, except in time of rebellion or invasion. Nevertheless, between 1585 and 1602 Somerset supplied 1194 men for service in Ireland, 1200 for France, and 460 for the Netherlands. The counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than send the trained bandsmen. The men were given coats and money to conduct them to the ports of embarkation. 'Coat and conduct money' was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.[4] [11] [13]
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.[14] [15] [16] The Somerset Trained Bands of 1638 consisted of 4000 men armed with 2403 muskets and 1597 corslets; they also mustered 82 Cuirassiers and 218 Harquebusiers.[17]
Somerset was ordered to send 2000 men overland to Newcastle upon Tyne for the Second Bishops' War of 1640. However, substitution was rife and many of those sent on this unpopular service would have been untrained replacements and conscripts. Like many other contingents, the Somerset men were disorderly, complaining about pay, food and conditions. As his regiment passed through Warwickshire, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Lunsford and his officers admitted that they had killed some of their men in self-defence. Sir John Beaumont's regiment, conscripted in Somerset, Bristol, and Wiltshire, marauded through Derbyshire, attacking the property of unpopular landowners, and were accused of being 'West Country clownes'.[18] At the Battle of Newburn, roughly 800 raw Somerset musketeers under Lunsford were holding two hurriedly-erected breastworks or 'sconces' on the south side of the River Tyne. Around 300 Scottish cavalry made a probe across the fordable river and were driven off by the concentrated fire of the musketeers. The Scots then began an intense cannonade of the sconces with their superior artillery. Although Lunsford kept his men in their defences for a while, they eventually broke and ran, many throwing away their weapons, and their gunpowder store blew up. The Scottish cannon and cavalry drove back a counter-attack by English cavalry, and they crossed the river. By early evening the whole Royal army was in full retreat to Newcastle and shortly afterwards the King had to concede a settlement with the Scots.[19]
Control of the militia was one of the areas of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War.[20] [21] [22] When open war broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops; some trained bands were used as garrison troops, only a few as field regiments.[4] [23] The Somerset Trained Bands split between the two parties. Armed with the King's Commission of Array, Sir Ralph Hopton, Member of Parliament for Wells, raised the TBs there in July 1642, but when he rode into Shepton Mallet with a company of horse on 1 August and attempted to call out the TBs there, he was confronted by William Strode, MP for Ilchester, who claimed authority over the trained bands under Parliament's Militia Ordinance. A street fight broke out, Hopton and the Royalist supporters were chased out of town and shortly afterwards the whole county.[24] [25] [26] The Somerset TBs divided as follows:
As Parliament tightened its grip on the country after winning the First Civil War it reorganised the militia to counterbalance the power of the Army. New Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 replaced lords lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. The establishment of The Protectorate saw Oliver Cromwell take control of the militia as a paid force to support his Rule by Major-Generals. From now on the term 'Trained Band' began to be replaced by 'Militia'.[26] [35] [36] On 15 February 1650 commissions were issued for the field officers (colonels, lt-colonels and majors) of the reorganised Somerset Militia (two regiments each of horse and foot), including Sir Alexander Popham as a Colonel of Horse[17]
After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the English Militia was re-established by the Militia Act 1661 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, and almost the whole burden of home defence and internal security was entrusted to the militia.[35] [37] [38] The militia was reformed in 1662 and by 1679 the Somerset Militia once again consisted of five regiments of foot and one of horse. In 1685 it was heavily engaged in the Monmouth Rebellion.[26] [39]
The mounted 'petronels' of the Elizabethan Somerset Trained Bands wore coats of a uniform colour, and the footmen of the period usually wore blue cassocks and red caps. A wide range of uniform colours was used during the Civil Wars. By 1650 red coats were becoming standard.[40]