The
English Army existed while
England was an independent state and was at war with other states, but it was not until the
Interregnum and the
New Model Army (raised by Parliament to defeat the Royalists in the
English Civil War) that England acquired a peacetime professional
standing army. At the
restoration of the monarchy, Charles II kept a small standing army, formed from elements of the Royalist army in exile and elements of the New Model Army, from which the most senior regular regiments of today's
British Army can trace their . Likewise,
Royal Marines can trace their origins back to the formation of the English Army's "Duke of York and Albany's maritime regiment of Foot" at the grounds of the
Honourable Artillery Company on 28 October 1664.