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 peace time 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 regiments of the today's British Army can trace their antecedence.
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