They were periodically embodied for home defence, for example in the army mustered at Tilbury during the Armada Campaign of 1588, and they saw some active service during the English Civil War.

The universal obligation to military service in the Shire levy was long established in England and its legal basis was updated by two acts of 1557 covering musters (4 & 5 Ph.

In compensation for paying for this training, these counties received a lower quota of men to fill, which meant that they provided a smaller but better-trained force.

In the continuing war against Spain, the Surrey Trained Bands were called out to London in 1594 and to a new camp at Tilbury in 1596 (when they consisted of eight lancers, 39 light horsemen and 1000 footmen).

In 1592 Captain Taxley with 100 Surrey men served in the army led by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex to aid King Henry IV of France against the Catholic League and the Spanish under the Duke of Parma.

Similarly, the accession of King James I saw 100 Surrey trained bandsmen summoned to help guard the City of Westminster during the coronation.

[26] The Trained Bands declined during the following decades until James's son King Charles I attempted to reform them into a national force or 'Perfect Militia' answering to the monarch rather than local officials.

Surrey was not affected in 1639, but in March 1640 the county was ordered to send 800 picked men to rendezvous at Gravesend to embark for the forthcoming campaign in the north.

[35][36] As the crisis deepened, Lord Digby and Sir Thomas Lunsford began raising Royalist volunteers and gathering arms and armour at Kingston upon Thames.

[9][28][29][37][38] In August and September 1642, the Surrey Trained Bands left their county and marched to take part in the Siege of Portsmouth.

[9][28][39][40] Once the Civil War developed, neither side made much further use of the Trained Bands except as a source of recruits and weapons for their own full-time regiments.

In August 1643 (along with Westminster and the Tower Hamlets in Middlesex) its Trained Bands were transferred from the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey to the Committee of London Militia.

The Yellow Regiment of Southwark Trained Bands formed part of a City brigade that served with the Earl of Essex's army between October 1643 and January 1644.

[47][54][55][56] The White Auxiliaries served in a City brigade under Sir Richard Browne supporting the New Model Army's Siege of Oxford in 1645.

This ended the London Trained Bands' participation in the First English Civil War, but all the city and suburban regiments attended a great muster in May 1646.

[47][58][59] As Parliament tightened its grip on the country it passed legislation to reorganise the militia in various counties, including an 'Ordinance to put the County of Surrey in a posture of defence by regulating Trained Bands and other forces' on 1 July 1645, and an 'Act for settling the Militia of the Borough of Southwark and parishes adjacent' on 19 July 1649.

New Militia Acts in 1648 and 1650 replaced Lords Lieutenant with county commissioners appointed by Parliament or the Council of State.