The English militia was descended from the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd, the military force raised from the freemen of the shires under command of their Sheriff.

In 1539 King Henry VIII held a Great Muster of all the counties, recording the number of armed men available in each hundred.

[10][11][12] During the Armada Crisis of 1588 Norfolk furnished 2,200 trained and 2,100 untrained armed foot (out of 6340 able-bodied men), together with 80 lancers, 321 light horse and 377 'petronels' (the petronel was an early cavalry firearm).

The men were given 'conduct money' for the journey to the embarkation ports (18 days were allowed for the Norfolk levies to reach Chester for Ireland)[5][14] With the passing of the threat of invasion, the trained bands declined in the early 17th Century.

[19] In 1639 men were ordered to be selected from the Norfolk TBs to form Sir Nicholas Byron's Regiment of Foot for the First Bishops' War against Scotland.

Captain Thomas Parker of the Norfolk TBs and his family ran an organised racket demanding bribes to release men illegally.

They marched to Berwick-upon-Tweed, but Byron's regiment does not appear to have been present at the final stand-off between the armies between Birks and Duns Law on the border.

[19][20][21] In March 1640 Norfolk was ordered to ship another contingent of 750 trained bandsmen to Newcastle upon Tyne for the Second Bishops' War.

Once assembled, the Norfolk contingent, like several others, was disorderly, arrears of pay and lack of provisions being among their main concerns, as well as suspicion of the government and church.

[19][22] Control of the TBs was one of the major points of dispute between Charles I and Parliament that led to the First English Civil War.

When open warfare broke out between the King and Parliament, neither side made much use of the TBs beyond securing the county armouries for their own full-time troops who would serve anywhere in the country, many of whom were former trained bandsmen, or as auxiliary units for garrisons.

Under the Commonwealth and Protectorate the militia received pay when called out, and operated alongside the New Model Army to control the country.

In 1650 the Council of State commissioned the following for Norfolk:[17][28] Only one captain was retained from 1646 (Robert Doughty of Aylsham, now major of Hobart's Regiment).

However, in December the Norfolk TBs were put at the disposal of the governors of Yarmouth and Lynn, which would be key ports for an enemy landing in support of the insurrection.

Norfolk and Suffolk were ordered to keep at least a regiment of foot in Lothingland (the area around Yarmouth), to be arranged between Walton and Col Robert Jermy of the Norfolk TB Horse, while Hobart's and Wood's regiments (with two troops of horse and possibly one of dragoons) marched out of the county to the militia rendezvous at Oxford.