Eli5: Why is the British Army not Royal Army?
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Because by tradition the army doesn’t belong to the King, it belongs to the nobility.
The King is responsible for maintaining the Navy, and later the Air Force (at least on paper) hence the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
But historically the army was made up of various units maintained by the Lords. The Lord would be responsible for equipping and training his own forces and would also serve as commander of that force which is where the idea of Officers came from.
Armies would be put together on demand at the request of the King and combined together to form a larger force.
The idea of a permanent standing army didn’t come in being until 1660.
Another point is the current British Army is actually descended from the New Model Army in the British Civil War, since they fought for the parliamentarians against the crown it wasn’t considered appropriate to call the army ‘Royal’. However numerous units like Royal Signal Corps have Royal in their name because they were founded later.
The British Parliament actually has to pass a law every year to maintain a standing army. If they don’t technically the British Army ceases to exist. This was a check on the Kings power to prevent him from maintaining an army too long at the expense of British tax payers or using against his own people.
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