The Royal Berkshire Militia was an auxiliary military regiment in the county of Berkshire in Southern England. 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 Berkshire served during times of international tension and all of Britain's major wars. The regiment provided internal security and home defence but sometimes operated further afield, relieving regular troops from routine garrison duties and acting as a source of trained officers and men for the Regular Army. It later became a battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, 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. 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. 90–1.Maitland, pp. 162, 276.Militia, Volunteers and Territorials at The Wardrobe. In addition to the ams and armour kept by householders under these statutes, there are records from 1488 to 1489 of a 'Town Guard' of six men maintained by the Berkshire town of Reading. Reading provided a Troop of 24 horsemen on 12 September 1542 for King Henry VIII's campaign in Scotland that culminated in the Battle of Solway Moss on 24 November. Two years later the town sent 13 horsemen and 20 foot to serve in the Siege of Boulogne. Henry also issued orders for home defence: the county forces were to be mustered under the Lord Lieutenant, assisted by the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace (JPs). On the death of King Edward VI Reading supplied a detachment of 10 men to support Queen Mary I against the rebellion of the Duke of Northumberland, and later to attend the coronation.Thoyts, pp. 3–10.
The legal basis of the militia was updated in Mary'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 entry into force of these acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England.Beckett, p. 20.Cruickshank, p. 17.Fissell, pp. 184–5.Fortescue, Vol I, p. 125.Maitland, pp. 234–5, 278.
Berkshire Trained Bands
Berkshire was one of the southern counties called upon to send troops to suppress the Rising of the North in 1569. Although the militia obligation was universal, this assembly confirmed that it was 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.Beckett, pp. 23–4.Boynton, pp. 13–7, 91–2, 96, Appendix I.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5.Davis, p. 43.Fissel, pp. 183–90. Hay, pp. 11–17, 25–6. The Armada Crisis in 1588 led to the mobilisation of the trained bands on 23 July. The previous April Berkshire had mustered 3120 able-bodied men, of whom 1000 were trained and a further 930 untrained men were 'pioneers'. In addition the county fielded 10 'lances' (heavy cavalry), 180 light horse, and 35 'petronels' (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm). The Berkshire TBs were present at the camp at Tilbury where Queen Elizabeth I gave her Tilbury speech on 9 August. The Berkshire contingent of the Queen's bodyguard comprised 230 horsemen. After the defeat of the Armada, the army was dispersed to its counties to avoid supply problems, but the men were to hold themselves in readiness.Beckett, pp. 25–6.Hay, pp. 89–96Hay, pp. 375–6.Thoyts, pp. 12–3. A further Spanish invasion alert in 1599 led to a partial mobilisation, with Reading furnishing 140 men.Thoyts, p. 15.
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions, and Berkshire supplied levies almost every year from 1585: by 1602, 469 had been sent to Ireland, 480 to France, and 675 to the Netherlands. 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, 126, Appendices 1 & 3.
Bishops' Wars With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th Century, though there was a great muster in 1614 and the Berkshire TBs continued to carry out annual exercises. Later, King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control.Beckett, pp. 33–9.Fissel, pp. 174–8.Thoyts, pp. 17–24.Thoyts, Chapter XIII. In 1638 the Berkshire Trained Band consisted of 1100 men, of whom 680 were musketeers and 420 'corslets' (armoured pikeman), while the Berkshire Trained Band Horse comprised 59 Cuirassiers (armoured men) and 31 Harquebusiers (armed with carbines).Berkshire TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.
The Berkshire TBs were embodied in 1640 when a large force was called out for the Second Bishops' War.Frederick, pp. 90–2.Royal Berkshire Militia at Regiments.org. The county was ordered to send 600 men overland to join the army mustering at Newcastle upon Tyne. Sergeant-Major-General Sir Jacob Astley was appointed colonel of the Berkshire and Oxfordshire contingents. Once again, it seems that many of the trained bandsmen nationwide escaped service and raw substitutes were sent in their place. The deputy lieutenants of Berkshire encountered difficulty in raising the necessary money and men: only about 120 men from the Radley area came forward of the 240 due from Abingdon Division. Further, many of the men sent from the different counties bribed or bullied the conducting officers to release them. Captain William Lower led his Berkshire company through Brackley in Northamptonshire, where they met several mutineers from Daventry who told them tales of being sold into slavery. Lower promised that his men would not be forced to take a single step outside the kingdom, but they refused to believe him and threatened to beat out his brains. The men of the Reading Division told Astley they 'would not fight against the Gospel' or be commanded by 'Papists', and would march no further. After his Berkshire and Oxfordshire men disbanded themselves, Astley continued to the Scots Border to take up command of the King's infantry. Further efforts by the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Holland, raised a Troop of horse in Berkshire, but the men of the Vale of White Horse were particularly reluctant to serve.Fissel, pp. 116–7, 207–8, 241–2, 271–3.Thoyts, pp. 25–7.Thoyts, Chapter XV.
Civil War Control of the trained bands was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War. However, with a few exceptions neither side made much use of the trained bands during the war beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops, many of whom were recruited from their ranks.Beckett, pp. 42–3.Davis, pp. 21–3.Maitland, pp. 325–6.Wedgwood, pp. 65–8. Open warfare between the King and Parliament broke out in the autumn of 1642. Lieutenant-Colonel John Venn, MP, was sent with a detachment of 12 companies of the London Trained Bands (LTBs) to secure Windsor Castle for Parliament. Holland raised the Berkshire TBs for Parliament, and they and the Surrey TBs soon arrived to take over garrisoning the castle under Venn. Venn's permanent regiment, recruited in London and officered by former LTB officers, arrived to garrison Windsor on 29 October. After the inconclusive Battle of Edgehill Prince Rupert led the advance guard of the Royalist army through Berkshire, when the Parliamentarians evacuated Reading on 4 November. However, Windsor rejected his summons on 7 November and he continued towards London, joining the King's main body west of the city, where the Parliamentarian Army, supported by the LTBs, blocked the Royalists' advance on London at the Battle of Turnham Green on 13 November.Nagel, pp. 70–2.Rogers, pp. 57–8.Thoyts, pp. 27–30.Wedgwood, pp. 132–3.
Berkshire was fought over continually in the subsequent campaigns in the Thames Valley – Reading changed hands several times – and effectively each side drew a regiment of TBs from the county for garrison duty. Berkshire TB detachments fought on both sides at the First Battle of Newbury on 20 September 1643, after which the Royalists regained Reading. In April 1644 Colonel Sir Richard Neville, the Royalist High Sheriff of Berkshire, was commissioned to raise an Auxiliary TB regiment, apparently of 3 companies, to garrison Reading. The following month the Royalists demolished the fortifications of the town and withdrew to their main base at Oxford, where Neville's regiment continued to serve. At the Second Battle of Newbury on 27 October 1644, Major John Blagrave of Reading commanded the 300-strong Berkshire detachment of horse under Col Dalbier in the Parliamentarian army. During the latter stages of the First Civil War, Col John Barkstead was appointed Parliamentary Governor of Reading 12 August 1645, and the town had to support the cost of his regiment.Neville's Reading Auxiliary Regiment at BCW Project Regimental Wiki.Nagel, pp. 129, 137.Rogers, p. 66.Thoyts, pp. 30–41.Wedgwood, pp. 177, 180–1.
As Parliament tightened its grip on the country it passed legislation to reorganise the militia. 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 Berkshire TBs were reunited into a single regiment in 1650 and Christopher Whichcote, who had been Governor of Windsor Castle for Parliament, was appointed as its colonel. During the Scottish invasion of the Third English Civil War in 1651, English county militia regiments were called out to supplement the New Model Army. In August the Berkshire Militia was ordered to a rendezvous at Oxford, leaving one of its companies to garrison Windsor Castle. The Berkshire Militia Horse Troop was present at the Battle of Worcester and was commended for its service in the charge.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.Hay, pp. 32, 99–104.Scott, pp. 62–3.Thoyts, pp. 42–7.
Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country. In 1655 a Maj Butler was appointed to command the militia of Berkshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire and Rutlandshire. After several periods of service, the Berkshire Militia Horse were finally stood down in January 1660.Thoyts, pp. 47–50.
Berkshire Militia 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. The Berkshire Militia was re-established in 1661.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 104–7.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Macaulay, Vol I, pp. 142–3, 340–1.Maitland, p. 326.Thoyts, pp. 51–2.