ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of the Restoration, the closure of the former Parliamentarian military hospitals left a vacuum that could not be sustained for long. This chapter examines the various attempts made to fill this void during the immediate post-Restoration years and also documents the measures taken to define and improve the welfare and social condition of soldiers in an era of rapid change and development. Unlike the Royal Navy, whose involvement in the two Dutch Wars had resulted in considerable combat experience, the newly formed Standing Army of Charles II undertook, as a body, very little fighting either at home or in Europe. On 1 August the English force began its two-week journey inland en route to join the allied army camped south of Brussels. They travelled in locally hired flat-bottomed boats along the extensive inland waterways of Flanders but, during their journey, their sufferings increased.
