Westminster Trained Bands

The Westminster Trained Bands were a part-time military force established in 1572, recruited from residents of the City of Westminster. As part of the larger London Trained Bands, they were periodically embodied for home defence, such as during the 1588 Spanish Armada campaign. Although service was technically restricted to London, the Trained Bands formed a major portion of the Parliamentarian army in the early years of the First English Civil War. After the New Model Army was established in April 1645, they returned to their primary function of providing security for the palaces of Westminster and Whitehall. Following the 1660 Stuart Restoration, the City of London Militia Act 1662 brought them under the direct control of the Crown, with the Trained Bands becoming part of the British Army.

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, notably at the Battle of the Standard. 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.
The legal basis of the militia was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters and the maintenance of horses and armour. The county militia was now under the Lord Lieutenant, 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.

Trained Bands

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. The City of London and the Liberties of Westminster and the Tower Hamlets all fell within the boundaries of the County of Middlesex but had their own militia organisations: the difference was effectively between rural and suburban parishes of Middlesex. The Armada Crisis in 1588 led to the mustering of the trained bands in April, when the Westminster contingent consisted of men from the following wards and parishes:

William Fleetwood of Ealing in Middlesex was 'Colonel and Chief Captain' of the company, which consisted of 150 pikemen and 300 calivermen. The trained bands were put on one hour's notice in June and called out on 23 July as the Armada approached. They were quickly stood down once the danger had passed
In the 16th Century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions, and between 1589 and 1601 Middlesex supplied over 1000 levies for service in Ireland, France or the Netherlands. However, the counties usually conscripted the unemployed and criminals rather than the Trained Bandsmen. Replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.
With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands 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. In 1638 the Middlesex Trained Band consisted of 928 muskets and 653 'corslets', together with the 80-strong Middlesex Trained Band Horse. The trained bands were called upon in 1639 and 1640 to send contingents for the Bishops' Wars, though many of the men who actually went were untrained hired substitutes. In 1640 Middlesex was ordered to hold a general muster on 24 May and then March 1200 men on 3 June to Harwich, there to be shipped to Newcastle upon Tyne on 8 June for service against the Scots. Many of the officers of the LTBs had received their military training as members of the Honourable Artillery Company; Westminster had its own equivalent, the 'Military Company'.

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. There is an often-repeated story that when Charles I returned from his Scottish campaign in October 1641 he ordered the guards on Parliament sitting at Westminster, which were provided by the city, Surrey and Middlesex TBs under command of the Puritan Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, to be replaced by the Westminster Trained Bands under the command of the Royalist Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, the Earl of Dorset. Subsequently, there were clashes between the new guards and the London apprentices. However, this story has been refuted in the most detailed history of the LTBs, which points out that the guards were provided by the Westminster TBs 'and the four neighbour companies' of Middlesex TBs all along, and it was only the commanders who were changed. The clashes between TBs and apprentices may have been orchestrated by the anti-Royalist faction in Parliament. The LTBs, meanwhile, were maintaining order in the City itself. In January 1642, Parliament did replace the guard with the LTBs, but the King and Court having left London, the Westminsters protested their loyalty to Parliament. Their Royalist officers were purged, including Endymion Porter, captain of the St Martin in the Fields company. There was still suspicion of the Westminsters' commitment, they took their turns at guard duty and later on campaign in defence of Parliament, although their numbers were often few and defaulters numerous.
At this point the Westminster Trained Bands were still under the authority of the deputy lieutenants and sheriffs of Middlesex, together with the unincorporated parishes of St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Giles in the Fields, parts of the parishes of St Sepulchre Without Newgate and St Andrew Holborn, the Liberty of the Rolls around Chancery Lane, and the Liberty of the Savoy in the parishes of St Clement Danes and St Mary Savoy. Together these constituted the Westminster Liberty Regiment under the command of Sir James Harington, MP, whose own company was recruited from around Temple Bar. Other companies are known to have come from the Parish of St Margarets, which included the Palace of Westminster, and from around Holborn Bar.
The Westminsters spent August 1642 searching houses for 'malignants', arresting a number of Roman Catholic priests. When open was broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the trained bands beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops. The main exception was the London area, where the large and well-trained regiments supported Parliament, beginning with the Battle of Turnham Green in November, where Charles was turned away from the city.

Lines of Communication

London had long outgrown the old city walls. At the time of Turnham Green the citizens had erected breastworks across all the streets leading to open country and set up guard posts. During the winter of 1642–3 volunteer work gangs of citizens constructed a massive entrenchment and rampart round the city and its suburbs, enclosing the whole of Westminster and the Tower Hamlets. Known as the Lines of Communication, studded with some 23 forts and redoubts, these defences were about long, making it the most extensive series of city defences in 17th century Europe. The Lines were completed by May 1643 and the City and suburban TB companies took their turns in manning the forts and key points, with one duty company responsible for Westminster.
To share the burden of guarding these extensive lines, the LTB regiments each raised a regiment of 'Auxiliaries', as did the suburbs of Westminster, Southwark and the Tower Hamlets. The Westminster Auxiliary Regiment was raised in April 1643. Its first colonel was Herriott Washbourne, a member of the Honourable Artillery Company living in the city; later Col James Prince, a Westminster man, took over and Washbourne commanded a Troop in the London Trained Band Horse. Under Col Prince the regiment was known as the Yellow Auxiliaries. One of its companies was probably recruited from St Giles's and Bloomsbury. It companies were always under strength.
In August 1643 the London Militia Committee took control of all the TBs within the Lines of Communication, the Westminsters being transferred from the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex to a subcommittee at the Savoy and taking over the companies recruited from the other Middlesex parishes within the lines, including St Giles-without-Cripplegate, Clerkenwell, Finsbury and Islington. After the London Militia Committee took over it controlled 18 regiments of Foot, about 20,000 men at full strength. Not all could be called away at once – the need to man the defences and continue the economic life of the City precluded that – but during the active campaigning season the regiments took turns to do tours of duty in the field, receiving pay for a month. At this time the regiment retained the older system of 300-man companies, making it the strongest under the London Militia Committee with 2018 men in September 1643.
One City Brigade took part on the Earl of Essex's relief of the Siege of Gloucester and the subsequent First Battle of Newbury on the march home. Meanwhile, a great muster of the LTBs had been held in Finsbury Fields on 24 September and regiments were chosen by lot for a second brigade to join Sir William Waller's South Eastern Association army. One of the regiments selected was the Westminster Liberty Regiment, which mustered with 80 officers, 854 pikemen and 1084 musketeers in 7 companies under Harington's command. In view of Essex's successful expedition the second brigade did not march out immediately, but once his City Brigade had returned home Essex's army was too weak to hold Reading. The second brigade was then ordered to join Essex and Waller at Windsor to recapture Reading. However, news of a second Royalist army advancing through Hampshire under Lord Hopton forced a change of plan, and Waller and Essex separated, the former to Farnham to face Hopton, the latter to capture Newport Pagnell, each force accompanied by a London brigade. The Westminster Liberty Regiment was assigned to the brigade with Waller, which was commanded by Harington with the rank of Major-General.