He wished to form a great standing army.

He had taken advantage of the late insurrection to make large additions to the military force which his brother had left.

The bodies now designated as the first six regiments of dragoon guards, the third and fourth regiments of dragoons, and the nine regiments of infantry of the line, from the seventh to the fifteenth inclusive, had just been raised.

[4] The effect of these augmentations, and of the recall of the garrison of Tangier, was that the number of regular troops in England had, in a few months, been increased from six thousand to near twenty thousand.

No English King had ever, in time of peace, had such a force at his command.