Commission of Array

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A Commission of Array was a commission given by English royalty to officers or gentry in a given territory to muster and array the inhabitants, or see them in a condition for war.

Commissions of array developed from the ancient obligation of all free men to defend their country. Commissioners were usually experienced soldiers, appointed by the crown to array able bodied men from each shire. By the time of the Wars of the Roses conscript levies were less important than troops raised by indenture.

Though obsolete by the 17th century, the system was revived by Charles I in 1642 (in opposition to the 1641 Militia Ordinance that gave Parliament control of raising troops) in order to muster a Royalist army at the onset of the English Civil War.