 It was initially garrisoned with two soldiers, six gunners and a porter, under the command of a captain.It was still garrisoned in the mid-1620s and was probably still in active service at the start of the English Civil War between the supporters of King Charles I and Parliament in 1642.Captain Swaley, a Parliamentary naval commander, seized Netley at the end of that year and decommissioned it as a fortification.