Commission of array: Difference between revisions

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A '''Commission of Array''' was a [[Letters patent|commission]] given by [[England|English]] royalty to officers or gentry in a given territory to muster and array the inhabitants and to see them in a condition for war, or to put [[soldier]]s of a country in a condition for military service. The term '''arrayers''' is used in some ancient English statutes, for an officer who had a Commission of Array.

Commissions of array developed from the ancient obligation of all free men to defend their countrytribal lands. Commissioners were usually experienced soldiers, appointed by the crown to array able bodied men from each shire. By the time of the Wars of the Roses conscript levies were less important than troops raised by [[indenture]].

Though obsolete by the 17th century, the system was revived by [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] in 1642 (in opposition to the 1641 [[Militia Ordinance]] that gave [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] control of raising troops) in order to muster a [[Cavalier|Royalist]] army at the onset of the [[English Civil War]].