The Gloucestershire Militia was a part-time military force in the county of Gloucestershire in the West of England. From their formal organisation as Trained Bands in 1558 until their final service as a Special Reserve unit of the Gloucestershire Regiment in World War I, the Militia regiments of the county served in home defence in all of Britain's major wars.
Background
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, notably at the Battle of the Standard (1138). 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. Now 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 sections of 20 led by vintenars. Edward I regularly summoned the shire levies of Gloucestershire to fight in neighbouring Wales during his Welsh Wars, but they were not required for his Scottish campaigns.Cripps, pp. 1–4.Hay, pp. 14–17.Holmes, pp. 90–1.Maitland, pp. 162, 276.Morris, pp. 92–7, 287, 301.Fissell, pp. 178–80. However, his grandson Edward III, did employ the Gloucestershire levies in Scotland, for example at the Siege of Berwick and Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. Rather than 1000 men, the Gloucestershire contingent serving from 23 June to 23 August 1335 was a more manageable body of 218 longbowmen (16 of them mounted), commanded by two ductores (constables) and 11 vintenars.Nicholson, pp. 117, 130, Appendix VI. The levies continued to be mustered under Henry VIII: a surviving muster roll of 1543 shows that the Hundred of Kiftsgate in Gloucestershire was required to find 186 bowmen and 323 billmen, of which the parish of Winchcombe provided 70 men.Cripps, pp. 17–8/
Gloucestershire Trained Bands
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). The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant appointed by the monarch, assisted by the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace. 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.Cripps, p. 5.Cruickshank, p. 17.Hay, p. 27.Maitland, pp. 234–5, 278. Although the militia obligation was universal, it was clearly 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. Although the Trained Bands were exempt from foreign service, they were frequently employed in Ireland, Gloucestershire again providing large contingents.Boynton, pp. 13–7.Cripps, p. 6.Cripps, pp. 18–9.Cruickshank, pp. 24–5, 65, Appendix III.Falls, pp. 40, 50.
When war broke out with Spain in 1583, training and equipping the militia became a priority. Counties were organised into groups for training purposes, with emphasis on the invasion-threatened 'maritime' counties. As an inland county Gloucestershire was simply taxed in 1585 and only began serious training in 1587, when the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, Gyles Brydges, 3rd Lord Chandos, was ordered to send 1000 of his trained men to defend Wales in case of invasion. During the summer of 1588, when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada, the Gloucestershire Trained Bands assembled with 3000 infantry in 10 properly organised companies under captains, together with four troops of cavalry amounting to 235 mounted men (20 lancers, 180 light horse, and 35 armed with 'petronelles' – the Petronel was an early cavalry firearm). The county also mustered 1000 armed but untrained men. The primary role of the Gloucestershire Trained Bands was to defend the Severn Estuary, but a large detachment was sent under Sir John Tracy of Toddington to join Queen Elizabeth's main army at London:Boynton, pp. 95–6.Cripps, pp. 7, 19–26.Hay, pp. 326–7. Captain William Brydges' Band – 300 footmen Captain Sir John Tracy's Band – 300 footmen Captain Sir Henry Poole's band – 300 footmen Captain Anthony Hungerford's Band – 250 footmen Captain Henry Winston's Band – 200 footmen Captain George Huntley's Band – 150 footmen Captain William Dutton's Band – 10 lancers, 50 light horsemen Captain Thomas Lucy's Band – 10 lancers, 50 light horsemen
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the Trained Bands declined in the early 17th Century, but Gloucestershire was one of the few counties to continue enrolling and training men seriously, particularly in 1608 when it was organised by county divisions under the Lord Lieutenant, Henry, 7th Lord Berkeley:Cripps, pp. 27–9.Fissell, pp. 193, 201–3. Berkeley – 750 men under 3 captains The Seven Hundreds – 750 men under 3 captains Kiftsgate – 750 men under 3 captains Forest of Dean – 400 men under 2 captains City of Gloucester, with the Hundred of Dudston and King's Barton – 350 men under 1 captain
In 1638 the Gloucestershire Trained Bands consisted of 3120 men armed with 1826 muskets and 1294 Corslets (pikemen with armour), together with 200 horse.Gloucester TBs at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Gloucestershire also provided one of the largest contingents (1500 men) to the royal army for the Second Bishops' War in 1640, though like other counties many of the men sent were probably untrained hired substitutes.Fissell, pp. 10, 208, 246-63. Charles I had attempted to reform the Trained Bands into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the king rather than local control.Cripps, pp. 8–9.Fissell, pp. 174–8. On 12 February 1641 a firm Royalist supporter, George Brydges, 6th Lord Chandos, was entrusted with organising the Militia of the County and City of Gloucester.Cripps, pp. 30–1. The Gloucester Trained Bands may have been organised as: Gloucester Trained Band (possibly under Col Nathaniel Stephens, MP) Cirencester Trained Band under Col Arthur ForbesForbes' Cirencester TB at BCW Project Regimental Wiki. Gloucester Trained Band Horse
Control of the militia was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the English Civil War in 1642. Elements of the Gloucester TBs may have been part of the Parliamentarian force at the skirmish at Shepton Mallet in August 1642, but with a few exceptions neither side made much use of the militia during the war beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. Gloucester, Bristol and Cirencester were all secured for Parliament early in the war by regular troops of the Western Association before they were besieged by Royalist forces (only Gloucester held out).Cripps, pp. 31–5.Firth, pp. 16–7.Reid, pp. 31–2. Later in the war some Gloucester TB troops may have formed part of the Parliamentarian garrison of Sudeley Castle in 1647 under Col Richard Aylworth.
Once Parliament had established full control of the kingdom in 1648 it passed legislation to reorganise the militia in various counties, including an Ordinance to settle the Militia of Gloucester, Monmouth, Brecon and Glamorgan, and to raise forces to suppress rebellion therein on 12 May, followed by an Ordinance for settling the Militia in the City and the County of the City of Bristol on 22 June. From now on the term 'Trained Band' began to disappear in most counties. Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country, for example in 1650 when the bulk of the army was on campaign in Scotland. Many militia regiments were called out in 1651 during the Scottish invasion (the Worcester campaign) and the Gloucestershire were part of a concentration ordered at Gloucester.Cripps, pp. 36–7.Gardiner, Vol I, p. 267.Gardiner, Vol II, pp. 13, 47.Gardiner, Vol III, pp. 210, 318.Hay, pp. 99–104.Militia of the Worcester Campaign 1651 at BCW Project.Scott.
Gloucestershire Militia After the Restoration of the Monarchy, the English Militia was re-established by The King's Sole Right over 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.Cripps. p. 10.Fortescue, Vol I, pp. 294–5.Grierson, pp. 6–7.Hay, pp. 104–6. The militia of Gloucestershire were called out during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1666 when a French and Dutch invasion was feared.Cripps, pp. 37–8.Holmes, pp. 94–100.Macaulay, Vol I, pp. 142–3, 340–1.
Monmouth's Rebellion During the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Beaufort, led his Gloucestershire Militia (four regiments of Foot, one of Horse and an independent company of Foot from the City of Gloucester), together with that of neighbouring Herefordshire and Monmouthshire, to join the 700-strong City of Bristol Militia and prevent that city falling into the hands of the rebels. They arrested potential rebels and then patrolled the north bank of the River Avon to prevent the rebel army moving north or crossing into Wales. The Gloucester Militia Horse may have reconnoitred as far forward as Bridgwater.Chandler, pp. 22, 29, 125. Three of the regiments of Foot had mustered at Gloucester, St Briavels in the Forest of Dean, and Cirencester, and the Horse at Gloucester.
Faced with another invasion in 1688, this time by his son-in-law, William of Orange, King James II called out the militia, and a detachment of the Gloucestershires intercepted Lord Lovelace and 70 followers at Cirencester en route to join the invader. The militia made them prisoners after a sharp skirmish in which Major Lorange of the militia and his son were killed. However, most of James's regular army and many militia regiments rallied to William, whose takeover (the Glorious Revolution) was otherwise virtually bloodless.Beckett, p. 56.Cripps, p. 39.Davies, p. 83.
The Gloucestershire Militia, horse and foot under the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Macclesfield, and Sir John Guise, 2nd Baronet of Elmore Court, were assembled for a month's summer training in 1690 during the crisis when William and the army were in Ireland and the French had won temporary command of the English Channel. However, when the French fleet failed to follow up the Battle of Beachy Head, Macclesfield and Guise were ordered to send their men to their homes to help with the harvest.Cripps, pp. 40–1.
A full return of the English Militia was compiled in 1697. By then Viscount Dursley was Lord Lieutenant of both the County of Gloucestershire and the City of Bristol, and he controlled the following regiments, though there is no mention of any training being carried out:Cripps, pp. 41–2.Hay, pp. 118–9. Regiment of Horse, 6 troops, 243 men, under Colonel Lord Dursley White Regiment of Foot, 10 companies, 583 men, at Gloucester under Colonel Sir John Guise, 3rd Baronet Green Regiment of Foot, 8 companies, 534 men, from Kiftsgate Hundred under Colonel Sir Ralph Dutton, 1st Baronet Blue Regiment of Foot, 9 companies, 551 men, under Colonel Sir Thomas Stephens Red Regiment of Foot, 9 companies, 531 men, at St Briavels under Colonel Maynard Colchester of Westbury Court City of Bristol Militia, 10 companies, 727 men, under Colonel Charles Bartley