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The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII and is the second oldest military organisation in the world (behind the Vatican's Pontifical Swiss Guard).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mass. corps votes in first female members )〕 Today it is a registered charity whose purpose is to attend to the "better defence of the realm", this purpose is primarily achieved by the support of the HAC Regiment and a detachment of Special Constabulary to the City of London Police. The word "artillery" in "Honourable Artillery Company" does not have the current meaning that is generally associated with it, but dates from a time when in the English language that word meant any projectile, including for example arrows shot from a bow, or, to take a modern example from infantry units, mortar bombs. The equivalent form of words in modern English would be either "Honourable Infantry Company"〔Oxford English Dictionary. Entries for "infantry", "artillery" and "military". "Infantry" today is closer to the meaning of "artillery" then than is "military" because "military" includes in its scope today's usage of "artillery" and also mounted troops, whereas "infantry" , like the HAC when founded, did not include these.〕 or "Honourable Military Company." Regiments, battalions and batteries of the Company have fought with distinction in both World Wars and its current Regiment, which forms part of the Army Reserve, is the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Letters Confirming The Date of Formation And Precedence of the Regiment )〕 in the Army Reserve.〔Reserve units take precedence after regular units〕 Members of the Regiment and Specials are drawn, for the most part, from young men and women working in and around the City and Greater London. Those leaving the active units may become Veteran Members and remain within the fraternity of the Company, which they then serve in a variety of ways. ==History== The HAC can trace its history back as far as 1087, but it received a Royal Charter from Henry VIII on 25 August 1537, when Letters Patent were received by the ''Overseers of the Fraternity or Guild of St George'' authorising them to establish a perpetual corporation for the defence of the realm to be known as the Fraternity or Guild of Artillery of Longbows, Crossbows and Handgonnes. This body was known by a variety of names until 1656, when it was first referred to as the Artillery Company. It was first referred to as the Honourable Artillery Company in 1685 and officially received the name from Queen Victoria in 1860. However, the Archers’ Company of the Honourable Artillery Company was retained into the late 19th century, though as a private club. Founded in 1781 by Sir Ashton Lever, it met at Archers’ Hall, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London. The Archers' Company remained a part of the regiment operated from 1784 to the late 1790s, along with Matross, Grenadier (established on 11 August 1686) and Light Infantry companies/divisions, with a Rifle or Jaeger Company introduced around 1803.〔Justine Taylor, Archivist, Honourable Artillery Company, Armoury House, London, 2009〕 The regiment has the rare distinction of having fought on the side of ''both'' Parliament and the Royalists during the English Civil War 1642 to 1649. From its formation, the company trained at a site it had occupied at the Old Artillery Ground in Spitalfields and at The Merchant Taylors' Company Hall. In 1622, the company built its first Armoury House at the site of the Old Artillery Gardens. In 1638, Sir Maurice Abbot granted the company use of lands at its current site south of Bunhill Fields Burial Ground on City Road, which in 1649 consisted of twelve acres enclosed by a brick wall and pale.〔 In 1657, it sold its old Armoury House in Spitalfield to Master Gunner Richard Woolaston for £300. It was in this New Artillery Gardens that, on 28 October 1664, the body of men that would become The Royal Marines was first formed. James (later James II), the Duke of York and Albany, Lord High Admiral and brother of King Charles II, was Captain-General of Honourable Artillery Company at the time.〔(Royal Marines History – Origins )〕 Until 1780, captains of the HAC trained the officers of the London Trained Bands. The Company served in Broadgate during the Gordon Riots of 1780 and in gratitude for its role in restoring order to the City, the Corporation of London presented "two brass field-pieces", which led to the creation of an HAC Artillery Division. (These guns are on display in the entrance hall of Armoury House.) In 1860, control of the Company moved from the Home Office to the War Office and in 1889, a Royal Warrant gave the Secretary of State for War control of the Company's military affairs. In 1883, Queen Victoria decreed that the HAC took precedence next after the Regular Forces and therefore before the Militia and Yeomanry in consideration of its antiquity.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ARMY—THE QUEEN'S REGULATIONS— THE HONOURABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=THE HONOURABLE ARTILLERY COMPANY AND THE ROYAL NAVAL VOLUNTEERS—PRECEDENCE AT REVIEWS )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Honourable Artillery Company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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