Standing Army Controversy

The Standing Army Controversy (1697–1699) was a major political and ideological debate in England following the Treaty of Ryswick that ended the Nine Years' War, concerning whether England should maintain a permanent army during peacetime.

Background

Prior to the English Civil War, England lacked a permanent military force, relying instead on locally organized militia, noble levies and hired European mercenaries. Oliver Cromwell’s professional New Model Army of around 50,000 men were militarily effective but politically contentious, leading to its disbandment after the Restoration in 1660.^[1] Charles II established four regiments of guards, forming the basis of a permanent British Army. This force expanded under James II to 37,000 men in 1688. Although the Bill of Rights 1689 required parliamentary consent for a peacetime standing army, in 1694 under William III numbers increased to 94,000.^[2][3]

Protoganists

In 1697 John Trenchard and Walter Moyle wrote a pamphlet An Argument, Shewing that a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government^[4] which started the controversy. Other Radical Whigs such as Andrew Fletcher and John Toland argued through pamphlets that a standing army endangered England’s constitutional balance^[5] through corruption,^[6] royal absolutism and threats to civil liberty. There was also a Tory majority in Parliament determined to reduce costs who had in 1698 reduced the English army to 7,000 English born subjects.^[7] Pro government Whigs like Daniel Defoe and the Lord Chancellor John Somers defended a limited peacetime force under parliamentary control as necessary for national security.^[8]

Aftermath

The army cuts undermined William's ability to negotiate on equal terms with France, and despite his intense mistrust, he co-operated with Louis XIV in unsuccessful attempts to agree a diplomatic solution to the Spanish succession.^[9]

The controversy shaped enduring English and American Country Party^[10] and liberal distrust of standing armies, and helped to bring the naturally opposed Tories and Radical Whigs into a later alliance, the Country Party, against the Court Party of the Whig leadership.