The Assize established restrictions on weapon possession by Jews, terms of inheritance, and prohibition of exports of arms, ships and timber.
... By his Assize of Arms Henry restored the Ancient Anglo-Saxon Militia System, and supplied the requisite counterbalance to the military power of the great feudatories, which, notwithstanding the temptation to avoid service by payment of scutage, they were still able and too willing to maintain.In all these measures (Assize of Arms, &c.) we may trace one main object, the strengthening of the Royal power, and one main means, or directing principle—the doing so by increasing the safety and security of the people.
The power of the Norman kings ruling at that time in England was not founded therefore on any form of standing army.
Although it did not create a standing army in the modern sense, it did lay down conditions which would enable the King to call up a fighting force at any time without the need for any formal form of taxation, which would be adequately armed to preserve social order within the country or to ward off any external threats.
[2] The Supreme Court of the United States in District of Columbia v. Heller was presented by the petitioners with written evidence that the Assize of Arms merely marked the beginning of the militia system in England.