“No Standing Armies!” The Antiarmy Ideology in Seventeenth-Century England

Originally published in 1974. In her study of primary materials in England and the United States Schwoerer traces the origin development and articulation in both Parliament and in the popular press of the attitude opposing standing armies in seventeenth-century England and the American colonies. Central to the criticism of armies at that time was the conviction that ultimate military power should be vested in Parliament not the Crown. Schwoerer shows how the many diverse elements of Englands antimilitarism including political principle propaganda parliamentary tactics parochialism and partisanship hardened with every confrontation between the Crown or Protector and Parliament. The author finds a general predisposition to distrust professional soldiers early in the century and from the 1620s onward she notes opposition to a standing army in times of peace. Highlighting the growth of the antimilitary tradition Schwoerer traces the development of this attitude from the Petition of Right in 1628 to the 16411642 crisis over the Militia Bill/Ordinance the military settlements of 1660 and 1689 and the climactic events of 16671699. Schwoerer shows how the anti-standing-army ideology affected the constitutional thinking of the American colonists and manifested itself in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. She addresses timeless questions of how to provide for a nations defense while preserving individual liberty citizen responsibility for military service and the relationship of executive and legislative authority over the army.