G2G: What earliest age to purchase a Royal Army or Navy junior officer commission in Elizabeth I and James I era?

Question

In common practice of the times, what was the earliest age that an English landed gentry family could expect to purchase, or  otherwise obtain by influence, a Royal Army or Navy most junior officer commission for a young son not in line for succession during the Elizabeth I and James I era?

Comments

Maybe around 13?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midshipman

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Thanks Melanie, that fits, I am looking at a guy referred to as a Lt. but must be about 14 or 15.

Answer 1

There wasn't a standing army in Elizabethan times. 

Purchasing commissions in the Army didn't start until 1683 and according to this  wikipedia article never occured in the Royal Navy. (BUT no citation to the statement about the Navy)  It still mattered who you knew and your parents status in society .

As Melanie says the youngest naval officer rank of midshipman could be as young as12- 13. 

Comments

Thanks Helen, that is a very interesting comment about no standing army in Elizabeth I times. That thought had never occurred to me. What then, would the armies E-I raised and sent to fight the 9-years Irish war or to fight in Spain and the Netherlands in the late 1500's be properly styled by Brits today? Those were offensive units, so I am not sure 'Militia' is the right word.

Were E-I's armies assembled on-demand with privateer-type compensation like the tradition made famous in the Navy? Or were they hired volunteer adventurers and mercenaries, or relicts of some feudal call-to-arms system offering favor and rewards if they lived to collect them?