ABSTRACT
The first standing Army for Britain, a force of some 5,000 men on the English establishment, was formed at the Restoration in 1660-61. Parliamentary preference was for any military expenditure to be confined to the part-time Militia under the control of county Lord Lieutenants generally large land-owning aristocrats, with Deputy Lieutenants drawn from the gentry as a check on any Royalist excesses. The garrison of Scotland for most of Charles II's reign was the Guards regiment already noted, a troop of Horse, a few garrison companies and a militia. The Horse Guards units included, as Brigadiers, Lance-Corporals and gentlemen privates many who had served as Colonels or junior officers in the Royalist Army. The Tangier garrison regiments saw almost continuous small-scale but real action against Moroccan assaults. A social and sporting life was established in Tangier, officers hunting wild boar or shooting a variety of wildfowl.
