The universal obligation to serve continued under the Normans and the shire levies under the Sheriff of Yorkshire, Walter Espec, formed a large part of the army that defeated the invading Scots at the Battle of the Standard near Northallerton in 1138.

Levies from Yorkshire were summoned in October 1332 for defensive duties during the campaign by the Disinherited Scots, and again the following year for King Edward III's Siege of Berwick and subsequent Battle of Halidon Hill.

In 1584–85 the JPs of the North Riding were planning to equip and train 1000 men, 250 with corslets (armour, signifying pikemen), 400 with calivers (firearms), 200 archers and 150 billmen.

As the threat of invasion increased Huntingdon was ordered to raise 12,000 men in Yorkshire and County Durham, 3000 for coast defence, 6000 for the rest of the area, and 3000 as a mobile reserve.

When the Spanish Armada threatened to land the Duke of Parma's army on the coast of England, the captains, including Sir William Fairfax of the Bulmer and Ryedale companies (300 men) were alerted to have their bands in readiness.

As the King gathered an expeditionary force on the border in 1639, Yorkshire became an important staging-post, with the TBs ordered to rendezvous at York, though in practice many of the men sent were not trained bandsmen but untrained substitutes.

[30][32][36][41][42][43][44][45] Colonel John Scrope and members of the Darcy family, with a party of the Richmondshire TBs, held Bolton Castle, which was intermittently under siege from July 1643 until its surrender in November 1645.

Yorkshire was not directly involved in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, but after its defeat at the Battle of Sedgemoor the deputy lieutenants of the North Riding used individual militia companies to hunt for the 'principal actors' and 'suspicious persons'.

With a new invasion threatened, by William of Orange, Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle was appointed Lord Lieutenant of all three Ridings of Yorkshire on 5 October 1688 and he immediately formed the eight independent troops of horse militia into a single regiment under his own command.

The conspirators seized the main guard and gates of the city, detained the Governor, Sir John Reresby, 2nd Baronet, disarmed and turned out the old soldiers of the garrison company and installed their militia in their place.

The Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding, Robert Darcy, 3rd Earl of Holderness, commissioned Thomas Worsley as Lt-Col of the Cleveland Regiment of Militia Foot, and the parishes did their best to supply the men and equipment.

An adjutant and drill sergeants were to be provided to each regiment from the Regular Army, and arms and accoutrements would be supplied from the Tower of London when the county had secured 60 per cent of its quota of recruits.

The militia were then ordered to open fire, which cleared the rioters, leaving 18 dead and six seriously wounded in the market place though it was believed that nearly 50 had died, some bodies being found in the fields.

However, peace was concluded with France on 3 November, and on 3 December the two battalions were marched back to North Yorkshire so the men could be discharged near to the parishes where they had been balloted.

[12][79][75][84][86][92][99] The French Revolutionary Wars saw a new phase for the English militia: they were embodied for a whole generation, and became regiments of full-time professional soldiers (though restricted to service in the British Isles), which the regular army increasingly saw as a prime source of recruits.

Lieutenant-Col Dundas promised that the money would be paid at Newcastle, and the men were further encouraged by news that an Act going through Parliament meant that wives and children of militiamen would be financially supported by the county.

That year two 6-pounder 'battalion guns' were attached to each militia regiment, and the North Yorks sent parties to Tynemouth for instruction in gunnery, suffering some casualties in a training accident.

The mutiny having been quelled, the regiment remained in billets at Berwick until February 1795 when it marched through snow to the Sunderland area to join a division of regular and auxiliary troops on coast defence duties under General Sir William Howe.

In October the regiment marched to Norman Cross Prison, a large Prisoner-of-war camp near Peterborough, where it joined the East Norfolk Militia guarding against the numerous escape attempts.

In August 1803 the remainder of the supplementary militia was added to the regiment, raising its strength to 1157 in 12 companies; Maj Cornelius Smelt was promoted to be an additional lt-col.

In February 1808 it moved to Pleyden Barracks, near Rye, East Sussex, then it camped within Chatham Lines for the summer, providing guards aboard the Prison hulks.

The prisoners at Norman Cross made extra money by Straw plaiting, which required the connivance of the guards in smuggling the material into the camp and the product out.

Officers were occasionally commissioned into the regiment (the 7th Duke of Leeds became colonel in 1846) but the permanent staff was progressively reduced, those sergeants who retired on a Chelsea pension not being replaced.

Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time home defence service in three circumstances:[137][138][139][140][141] The North Riding was given a quota of 608 men to raise in 1852, followed by a further 368 the following year, for a regimental establishment of 976.

However, the demand for garrison troops in South Africa continued, 4th Green Howards was re-embodied at Richmond on 17 February 1902 and the men agreed to volunteer for overseas service.

It embarked under the command of the newly promoted Lt-Col Bernard Harrison with a strength of 29 officers (all but eight seconded from other units) and 564 ORs (recruitment had continued during the disembodiment, and the age limit had been lowered to 19).

When it arrived the few large blockhouses were about 6 miles (9.7 km) apart, and the battalion set to work building small ones at half-mile intervals, connected with each other by barbed-wire fences and communicating by telephone.

There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces (Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteers) to take their place in the six Army Corps proposed by the Secretary of State for War, St John Brodrick.

[146] On becoming a battalion of the Green Howards in 1881, it was forced to adopt the red tunic and white facings of an English line regiment, with the addition of the letter 'M' on the shoulder straps.

The list was adjusted in 1855 and no satisfactory reason was ever given for the 5th West Yorkshires, raised in 1853, being given the vacant 4th place, which gave it seniority over the North Yorks (still 22nd), which meant that they became the 3rd and 4th battalions respectively of the Green Howards in 1881.