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.

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.

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, assisted by the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace (JPs). The entry into force of these Acts in 1558 is seen as the starting date for the organised county militia in England.

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' (pikemen with armour), 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'.

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 (many of whose tradesmen members were purveyors to the Royal Court at Whitehall Palace) 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 (with their patronage), 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.