The English Militia in the Eighteenth Century

Book excerpt: First published in 1965, The English Militia in the Eighteenth Century directs light on English politics and government, through studying the militia, from the Restoration to the days of the younger Pritt. The militia occupied a significant place both in the quarrels between king and parliament in the later seventeenth century and in the struggle for power between the elder Pitt and the Duke of Newcastle. Raised and officered by the county and parish authorities, its maintenance constantly posed the problem of how to harness the machinery of local government to national purposes. The gentry had to be induced to help and the militia, like other institutions national and local, was shaped by the fashion and extent to which they responded. The book will be of interest to students of history, political science, and literature.