The advantages arising from the services of corps trained to the use of arms on board of ship, as well as on land, were found when the British navy acquired a superiority over that of other nations of Europe; and as the safety of Great Britain, from its insular position, chiefly depends on the efficiency and excellence of her fleets, the importance and value of Marine Forces have consequently been at all times acknowledged and appreciated by the Sovereign, as well as by the Nation at large.
1664
The first corps raised for Sea-service, of which history gives an account, is that which was formed by King Charles II., in the year 1664, when the war with Holland took place: this corps was commanded by the Duke of York (afterwards King James II.), then Lord High Admiral of Great Britain, and was designated “The Admiral’s Maritime Regiment.”[44]
1672
In the year 1672 a dispute on the subject of naval precedence, and other causes, gave rise to another war with the Dutch, and battalions for Sea-service were formed, as the occasions of the State required, by drafts from the land forces, which were embarked on board the fleet; several companies of the Foot Guards were employed on the Marine duty; these companies were engaged in a sharp fight with the Dutch fleet on the 28th of May, 1672, in which upwards of two thousand men were killed; they were also engaged in several other actions during the war which ended in February, 1674.
1689
In 1689 King William III. incorporated “the Admiral’s Regiment” (which was then considered the third regiment of Infantry) in the Second, now the Coldstream, regiment of Foot Guards. Two Marine regiments were, about the same time, established for service on board the fleet, which were disbanded in 1698.