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.

The trained footmen were organised into five regiments, each of 400 'shot' and musketeers, 280 'Corslets' (body armour, signifying pikemen) and 120 billmen, under the command of:[6][11][12] The county sent off 600 men to join Queen Elizabeth I's bodyguard, and in July the whole contingent marched to join the royal army at Tilbury, where the Queen gave her Tilbury speech on 9 August.

However, in 1590 the commissioners of musters in Somerset wrote to the secretary of state saying that they had been advised by lawyers that their commissions to levy men were invalid, except in time of rebellion or invasion.

'Coat and conduct money' was recovered from the government, but replacing the weapons issued to the levies from the militia armouries was a heavy cost on the counties.

As his regiment passed through Warwickshire, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Lunsford and his officers admitted that they had killed some of their men in self-defence.

Sir John Beaumont's regiment, conscripted in Somerset, Bristol, and Wiltshire, marauded through Derbyshire, attacking the property of unpopular landowners, and were accused of being 'West Country clownes'.

[18] At the Battle of Newburn, roughly 800 raw Somerset musketeers under Lunsford were holding two hurriedly-erected breastworks or 'sconces' on the south side of the River Tyne.

By early evening the whole Royal army was in full retreat to Newcastle and shortly afterwards the King had to concede a settlement with the Scots.

Armed with the King's Commission of Array, Sir Ralph Hopton, Member of Parliament for Wells, raised the TBs there in July 1642, but when he rode into Shepton Mallet with a company of horse on 1 August and attempted to call out the TBs there, he was confronted by William Strode, MP for Ilchester, who claimed authority over the trained bands under Parliament's Militia Ordinance.

[24][25][26] The Somerset TBs divided as follows: As Parliament tightened its grip on the country after winning the First Civil War it reorganised the militia to counterbalance the power of the Army.