First organised in 1572 from earlier levies, they were periodically embodied for home defence and internal security, including the Spanish Armada campaign in 1588 and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Southampton, whose seaward approaches were well covered by artillery fortifications, would be guarded by its own town militia and some men drawn from the Mansbridge and New Forest hundreds.

However, Sir George Carey, Governor of the Isle of Wight, ordered special musters of his companies in spring and summer to ensure that sick and dead men were replaced, and that training was kept up.

In 1584 Hampshire was charged with providing 800 trained 'shot' (men with firearms), 200 bowmen and 500 corslets, and the numbers certified as being present almost exactly met these requirements.

The 1572 defence plan was updated: different districts were made responsible for guarding certain parts of the coastline, while other villages in the west and north-west of the county were to send 2339 reinforcements to the Isle of Wight, recognised as the most likely place for an invasion.

[1][8][16][17][18] With invasion threatened in 1588, Sir John Norreys was appointed in April to oversee the defences of the maritime counties and the lords-lieutenant were instructed to carry out his orders in relation to rallying-points for the coast defenders if they were driven inland by invaders.

By this time the Hampshire militia was divided into two contingents under joint lords-lieutenant: 4747 able men, of whom 4037 were 'furnished', under the Marquess of Winchester at Portsmouth, and 3944, of which 2678 were furnished, under the Earl of Sussex, Governor of Southampton.

The Royal Navy continued its attacks, and during this Battle of the Isle of Wight Carey offered to send some of his musketeers from the island to reinforce the English fleet.

[5][8][21][22] In the 16th century little distinction was made between the militia and the troops levied by the counties for overseas expeditions, and between 1585 and 1602 Hampshire supplied 641 men for service in Ireland, 1400 for France and 525 for the Netherlands.

On one occasion Sir John Norreys complained that 100 of the pressed men had escaped on their way to the embarkation port, and the countryfolk were hiding them.

[1] When the Hampshire TBs were mobilised to protect Portsmouth on 8 August Paulet reported that the men were slow to arrive, were poorly equipped and showed little enthusiasm.

[27] In November 1638, as the King's relationship with Scotland moved towards outright hostilities (the First Bishops' War), the English counties were ordered to muster their TBs and keep them in readiness.

When the Isle of Wight TBs were alerted in 1639 as a Spanish fleet cruised in the English Channel, they had few weapons because so much equipment had been sent to the King's army in the north.

At the outbreak of hostilities in 1642 Lord Goring held Portsmouth for the king, but his attempts to raise the TBs led to several companies deserting to Parliament.

[30] Sir Thomas Jervoise Member of Parliament (MP) for the Hampshire constituency of Whitchurch commanded one of the regiments of Hampshire TBs, and four companies of his regiment (292 'common soldiers') served alongside Sir William Waller's Parliamentarian Southern Association Army at the subsequent Siege of Portsmouth and possibly that of Southsea Castle as well.

[34][35] In contrast Sir John Mill, 1st Baronet, who had been a colonel of Hampshire TBs in 1625, raised regiments of horse and foot for the King, which served in the Royalist garrisons of Christchurch and Salisbury.