SOLDIER is a term applied now to every man employed in the military service of a prince or state, but it was at first given to such persons only as were expressly engaged, for pay, to follow sonic chief in his warlike expeditions. Caesar mentions a band of 600 men called "soldurii," who bound themselves to attend their leader in action, and to live or die with him (` De Bello Galileo,' ill. 22), but it does not appear that they served for pay. By some the word has been thought to come from "solidus," the name of a coin under the Roman empire, which may have been received as the payment for the service.
The troops which formed the armies of the Crusaders were engaged to serve for pay, for though the nobles voluntarily entered into the war, their vassals were not obliged by the tenure of their fiefs to accom pany them. Pere Daniel (' Hiet. de la 3liliee Fr.,' torn. p. 103) expresses his belief that l'hilip Augustus, near the end of the 12th century, was the first of the French kings who had hired troops, at leant in any considerable body, in his service ; and the practice of retaining such troops appears to have been afterwards very general. It is probable that men hired for the wars wore, from the time of that prince, called aoudoyers or soultlyours, that is, stipendiaries; but the name appears for the first time in the ' Chronicles' of Froissart, where it is applied to the hired troops both of France and Germany.
In the wardrobe account of Edward I. (1300) the term soldier occurs frequently, and Grose considers that the persons so designated were of a different class from the other troops. Some of them are called "soldiers scutifers,' or esquires; some, "soldiers constables ;" and others, simply "soldiers; " but the pay of all was the same, namely, one shilling per day. (' Mil. Antiq.,' vol. i., p. 326.) From the time of Edward 1. to the end of the reign of Edward Ill. the daily pay of a banneret was 4s., and of a knight 2s.; that of a hobiler, a sort of light horseman, was 6d. •, of a croseboteman, 4d.; and of an archer, 2d. In that age the stipendiary troops, or soldiers, were raised in England by commissions granted by the king to persona who undertook to enlist men for a certain pay (which was made to depend on the nature of the service), and for a certain portion of the ransom-money which might be obtained in the war.
Little change seems to have taken place in the pay of the English soldiers between tho times of Edward III. and Mary. We find that during the reign of this queen the daily pay of a captain of heavy cavalry was 10s., and of a cavalry soldier, ls. 6d. The pay of a captain of light cavalry was Cs., and of a soldier is. The pay of a captaiu of foot was as. ; of a lieutenant, 2s. ; of an ensign, Ds ; and of a foot soldier, 8d.; a halbardier and a hackbutter, on horseback, had each Is. daily. In the times of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., the pay of the officers was a little raised, but that of a private foot-soldier was still 9d. per day; during the civil wars the pay of the latter was 9d., but in the reign of William III. it was again reduced to 8d. At that time the pay of a private trooper was 2s. Cd., and that of a private dragoon was Is. 6d., including in both cases the allowance for the horse. It is evident that the pay of the private soldier in later times is far from having been raised in the inverse ratio of the value of money.
While armour was in general use, the common soldiers of England were distinguished only by scarfs or by badges, on the latter of which were impressed the arms of their several leaders; but in the reign of Henry VIII. something like a uniform was worn, and it appears that the colour of the men's upper garments was then generally white ; the soldiers in the king's particular service only, had on their coats a repre sentation of the cross of St. George. However, on an army being raised in 1544, the soldiers were ordered to wear coats of blue cloth bordered with red. White cloaks marked with red crosses continued to be the uniform of the troops during the reign of Queen Mary ' • hut in the time of Elizabeth tho infantry soldiers wore a cassock and long trots-sera, both of which were of Kentish gray : the cavalry were fur nished with red cloaks reaching down to the knee and without sleeves. Gray coats, with breeches of the same colour, continued to be the uniform as lato as the end of the reign of William hut soon after that time red became the general colour for the coats of the British infantry soldiers.