The mutual inconveniences attendant on the nature of the military services due from those who held the feudal tenures of the crown disposed both parties to consent to frequent commutations. Money was rendered instead of service, and thus the crown acquired a revenue which was applicable to military purposes, and which was expended in the hire of native-born subjects to perform service in the king's armies in particular places and for parti cular terms. The king covenanted by indenture with various persons, chiefly those of most importance in the country, to serve him on certain money-terms with a certain number of followers, and in certain determinate expeditions. There appears little essential difference between this and the modern practice of recruiting armies. It was chiefly by troops thus collected that the victories of Creel, Poic tiers, and Agincourt were gained.
In the office of the Clerk of the Pella in the Exchequer, Dugdale perused nu merous indentures of this kind, and he has made great use of them in the history which he published of the Baronage of England. A few extracts from that work will show something of the nature of these engagements.
Michael Poynings, who was at the zttle of Creel, entered into a contract with King Edward III. to serve him with fifteen men-at-arms, four knights, ten esquires, and twelve archers, having an allowance of twenty-one sacks of the king's wool for his and their wages. Three years after the battle of Crest, King Edward engaged Sir Thomas Ugh tred to serve him in his wars beyond sea, with twenty men-at-arms and twenty archers on horseback, taking after the rate of 200/. per annum for his wages during the continuance of the war. In the second year of King Henry IV., Sir William Willoughby was retained to at tend the king in his expedition into Scotland, with three knights besides him self, twenty-seven men-aterms, and one hundred and sixty-nine archers, and to continue with him from June 20th to the 13th of September. When Henry V. had determined to lead an army into France, John Holland was retained to serve the king in his "voyage royal" into France for one whole year, with forty men-at-arms and one hundred archers, whereof the third part were to be foot men, and to take shipping at Southamp ton on the 10th of May next In the 12th of Henry VII., John Grey was retained to serve the king in his wars in Scotland, under the command of Giles, Lord Daubeney, captain-general of the king's army for that expedition ; with one lance, four demi-lances, and fifty bows and bills, for two hundred and ninety miles ; with one lance, four demi lances, and fifty bows and bills, for two hundred and sixty-six miles ; and with two lances, eight demi-lances, and two hundred bows and bills, for two hundred miles. These were nearly half what is now the usual complement of a regiment.
Troops thus levied, together with fo reign mercenaries, make the nearest ap proach that can be discovered in English history to a permanent, or, as it is techni cally called, a standing army. The king might, to the extent of his revenue, form an army of this description : but as to the other means of military defence or offence put into his hands, the persons engaged were only called into military service on temporary occasions, and soon fell back again into the condition of the citizen or agriculturist. But the king's power was necessarily limited by his revenue, and the maintenance of a per manent force appears to have been little regarded by our early kings, since, before the reign of King Henry VII. it does not appear that the kings had even a body guard, much less any considerable num ber of troops accoutred and ready for immediate action at the call of the king. In modern times, Charles VII. of France (1423-1461) first introduced standing armies in Europe: this policy was gra dually imitated by the other European states, and is now a matter of necessity and of self-defence. In England, pro bably in a great degree owing to her insular situation, this took place later than in most continental countries. Still the example of the continental states, a sense of the great convenience of having always a body of troops at tommand, and the change in the mode of warfare ef fected by the introduction of artillery, which brought military operations within the range of science, and made them more than before matters which required mach time and study in those who had to undertake the direction of any large body of men, led to the establishment of a per manent army, varying in numbers with the dangers and necessities of the time.
The few troops who formed the royal guard were the only permanent soldiers in England before the civil wars. The dispute between Charles I. and his par liament was about the command of the militia. Charles II. kept up about 5000 regular troops as guards, and to serve in the garrisons which then were established in England. These were paid out of the king's own revenue. James II. increased them to 30,000 ; but the measure was looked on with great jealousy, and the object was supposed to be the destruc tion of the liberties of Englishmen. In the Bill of Rights (1689) it was de dared that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom, in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is against law. An army varying in its numbers has ever since been maintained, and is now looked on without apprehension. It is raised by the authority of the king and paid by him : but there is an important constitutional check on this part of the royal preroga tive in the necessity for acts of parliament to be passed yearly, in order to provide the pay and to maintain the discipline,