The article shows the development of the idea and institution of standing army in Great Britain of the Stuart age. On the example of English militarization the process of formation of the military-fiscal state in the British Isles is shown. The main political event that led to the creation of a regular army was the Civil War. The navy was spawned by the confrontation with the United Provinces and France. It is concluded that the process of militarization of seventeenth-century England was an important part of state policy, both of the Crown and of its opponents.