Local volunteer forces officered by the country gentry kept In Scotland clanĬhiefs raised regiments of clansmen, while in Ireland native princes gathered local defense units of knights, gallowglasses and kerns (heavy and light infantry) to resist the Anglo-NormanĪfter threat of invasion of England disappeared with the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 the general levy decayed. Eventually a lord lieutenant replaced the sheriff in each county as its chief military officer, and he was usually a peer answerable to the Crown. In time “train bands” (trained bands) of burghers and farmers arose in England as local volunteers mustered periodically by each county’s However, after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, this general levy of all free adult males was replaced generally by a feudal levy based upon landholding and personal In the English-speaking world the militiaīegan as the “fyrd” of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms by the ninth century.
The later terms of “levee en masse” and “the nation in arms” have much the same meaning. Militia refers to citizens of a state who are not in the regular military service, but who areĬalled to bear arms in its defense in emergencies. In Ancient Rome, “militia” was the Latin word for military service, derived from “miles”, a soldier. “The militia is certainly an object of primary importance, whether reviewed in reference to the national security, to the satisfaction of the community or to the preservation of order” Taken from “A brief history of Alabama’s Citizen-Soldiers” A Brief History of the Alabama Citizen Soldier
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