The Warwickshire Militia was an auxiliary military force in the English Midlands county of Warwickshire. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1572 and their service during the Armada Crisis and in the English Civil War, the Militia of Warwickshire provided internal security and home defence during times of international tension and all of Britain's major wars, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. It later formed two battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment that both served in the Second Boer War and prepared thousands of reinforcements for the fighting battalions of the regiment in World War I. After 1921 the militia had only a shadowy existence until its final abolition in 1953.
Early history 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 as the Posse comitatus. 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.Fissel, pp. 178–80.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 12.Hay, pp. 60–1, 83.Holmes, pp. 90–2.Maitland, pp. 162, 276.Morris, pp. 72–3.
Under this statute 'Commissioners of Array' would levy 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 constables, and subdivided into platoons of 20 led by vintenars. (John E. Morris, the historian of Edward's Welsh Wars writing in 1901, likened this process to calling out the Militia Battalion of the county regiment.) King Edward I made use of this mechanism in this Welsh and Scottish campaigns. As an inland county Warwickshire avoided most of these demands, but King Edward II called the first national levy in July 1322 for his failed Scottish campaign. Thereafter Warwickshire provided soldiers for all six national levies between 1322 and 1338, including the Siege of Berwick and the Battle of Halidon Hill, in 1337–8 for the Siege of Dunbar, and for service in Flanders in 1338.Fissel, p. 218.Hay, pp. 60–1.Morris, pp. 92–7.Nicholson, pp. 117, 130.Traquair, pp. 227–9.
Warwickshire Trained Bands
The legal basis of the militia was updated in Queen Mary I's reign with 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). 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.Cruickshank, pp. 17–20.Fissell, pp. 184–5.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 125.Maitland, pp. 234–5, 278.
Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly impractical to train and equip every able-bodied man. After 1572 the practice was to select a proportion of men for the Trained Bands (TBs), who were mustered for regular training. When war broke out with Spain training and equipping the militia became a priority. From 1584 counties were organised into groups for training purposes, with emphasis on the invasion-threatened 'maritime' counties. However, the inland counties like Warwickshire were given little priority. The Armada Crisis in 1588 led to the mustering of the TBs in April. They were put on one hour's notice in June and called out on 23 July as the Armada approached. The Warwickshire TB foot (600 men) joined Lord Hunsdon's army at Tilbury defending the Queen and together with the Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Huntingdonshire TBs formed Sir Henry Goodere's Regiment, 2100 strong.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2, 96; Appendix I.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5, 130–4.Fissel, pp. 183–90.Holden, p. 4.
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions. Between 1589 and 1601 Warwickshire supplied almost 1,400 levies for service in Ireland, France or the Netherlands. Levies were allowed nine days to march from Warwick to Bristol for embarkation. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen – in 1585 the Privy Council had ordered the impressment of able-bodied unemployed men, and the Queen ordered 'none of her trayned-bands to be pressed'. Replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.Cruickshank, pp. 25–7, 61–2, 126; Appendix 3. As Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, William Compton, 1st Earl of Northampton, personally supervised the levying of 250 men in the county for Ernst von Mansfeld's expedition in December 1624 to relieve the Siege of Breda.Hughes, p. 60.
In the early days training was taken seriously: the Earl of Northampton encouraged the formation of an 'Artillery Yard' at Coventry at the beginning of the 17th Century, in imitation of the Honourable Artillery Company and other London groups, where TB officers could learned the basics of their role. But with the passing of the threat of invasion, the TBs 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.Fissel, pp. 174–8. The deputy lieutenants in Warwickshire were lax about holding musters, and the captains of Troops and Companies were younger sons and lesser gentry rather than the leading men of the county. In 1616 the Troop of Horse had been commanded by Sir Thomas Lucy, Member of Parliament (MP) for Warwickshire, but by young Robert Lee of Billesley in 1635. There was one company from each of the four Hundreds into which the county was divided, commanded in 1635 by: Barlichway, around Stratford-upon-Avon – Thomas Combe Hemlingford or Coleshill – Peter Burgoyne Kineton – Thomas Newsham Knightlow around Southam– John Shuckburgh
In 1638 the Warwickshire TBs mustered 600 foot armed with 357 muskets and 243 corslets (body armour, signifying pikemen), and 88 Cuirassiers.Warwickshire Trained Bands at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. As a city, Coventry was autonomous from the county of Warwickshire, and was obstructive about raising its TB in 1638–9. It owed two horsemen to the Warwickshire Troop, and one-fifteenth of the Foot.Hughes, pp. 114–5.
In the First Bishops' War of 1639, 230 men were levied from Warwickshire, mainly labourers and husbandmen, but few were trained bandsmen. For the Second Bishops' War in 1640, Warwickshire was ordered to muster 500 trained bandsmen and march them to Newcastle upon Tyne. Once again many of those sent on this unpopular service would have been untrained replacements and conscripts. Many of them bribed the 'conducting officers' to release them before they reached Newcastle, others simply deserted or even attacked their officers. In Warwickshire Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Lunsford and his officers had to defend themselves with force, killing and wounding some of their attackers.Fissel, pp. 207–8, 223–7, 241, 270.
Civil Wars Control of the trained bands was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War.Maitland, pp. 325–6. On 12 February 1641 one of the Parliamentary leaders, Robert Greville, 2nd Lord Brooke, of Warwick Castle, was appointed as 'a fit person to be entrusted with' organising the trained bands of Warwick and the County and City of Coventry, and he was appointed by Parliament as Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire to replace Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton in April 1642. From June Brooke as lord-lieutenant and Northampton armed with the King's commission of array, vied to raise the TBs for their respective parties. About 25 June, Northampton tried to win over the Coventry magistrates and seize the county TB armoury, but was forced to withdraw. Brooke countered by holding TB musters at Stratford-on-Avon, (30 June) Warwick (1–2 July), Coleshill (4 July) and Coventry (5 July): although few of the junior officers attended, parliamentary supporters claimed that nearly all of the trained bandsmen and many volunteers appeared. Brooke had mustered the men from Knightlow Hundred at Warwick rather than Southam because the latter town was considered 'malignant' by the parliamentary supporters. Robert Lee failed to have Brooke and William Purefoy, the former MP for Coventry, indicted by the Warwick Grand Jury for illegally mustering the TBs. Brooke also removed the TB magazine from Coventry and lodged it in his own Warwick Castle, for which Parliament authorised a garrison and sent some artillery. Later in July, Northampton countered by mustering Royalist volunteers under his commission: he had plenty of supporters among the country gentlemen, and he used his volunteers to disarm opponents. He gained control of the cannon intended for Warwick Castle and set them up in the town to bombard the castle into submission. In the absence of Brooke, the castle was held by Edward Peyto with perhaps only 22 soldiers, who defied Northampton. Northampton again summoned the TBs, to assist in the siege, but few responded, perhaps only those from Tanworth-in-Arden.Hay, pp. 251–5.Hughes, pp. 136–45.
Now that open warfare had broken out, both sides needed paid full-time forces for campaigning, though the TBs remained active and often served as night guards and town garrisons. The main field armies of both sides gathered in the Midlands, and the Royalists made another failed attempt to seize Coventry; this may have involved the TBs they had called out, while the defenders included the trained bandsmen from Birmingham. On 23 August the local Parliamentary forces under Brooke fought a skirmish (the 'Battle of Southam') against the Royalists under Northampton, which again may have involved some of the trained bandsmen.Warwickshire TB Foot at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Birmingham TB at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Young, pp. 264–5.
After the Battle of Edgehill the opposing field armies left Warwickshire, and during the winter Brooke as commander of the Parliamentary Association of Staffordshire and Warwickshire began raising regular troops, while Coventry and Warwick (castle and town) were garrisoned. The four companies of Colonel Godfrey Bosvile's Regiment of Foot provided the garrison of Warwick town, supplemented by a 'Town Company', probably part-time trained bandsmen. Certainly trained bandsmen from the outlying parishes were serving in Warwick in June 1643. The Town Company was commanded by Captain John Halford who also commanded a company of Bosville's Regiment. The Town Company took part in a raid on Lark Stoke House near Admington on 8 February 1645 under Major John Bridges, commander of the Warwick Castle garrison.Dace.'Site of Lark Stoke House' at Our Warwickshire.Hughes, pp. 153, 170, 197.
After the Parliamentary victory, new Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 replaced Lords Lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State. From now on the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties. The Warwickshire Militia in 1650 were organised into a horse regiment under William Purefoy and two foot regiments commanded by Colonels Joseph Hawkesworth and Edward Peyto. William Purefoy, an MP, had commanded a regiment of Warwickshire Horse during the First Civil War. One of the regicides, he went on the serve as a member of the Council of State. Hawkesworth had served as major of Purefoy's Horse, and was governor of Warwick Castle from 1649. He also sat in the second Protectorate Parliament. Peyto was another MP, and had previously been lt-col of the Earl of Denbigh's Warwickshire Regiment of Horse.Roberts: surnames beginning 'H'.Roberts: surnames beginning 'P'. Purefoy's Horse at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Denbigh's Horse at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Hay, pp. 99–104.