Reasons for joining

[Didz]

British army were all volenteers?

When did the medieval style of forcing people into the ranks stop?

(plz dont say it went out with the medieval period, explanation or a least a little plz ...)

I think others have already answered this question in part, but to be more specific. I would say that the biggest two events which changed the relationship in England between the people who raised the armies and those who were needed to fight in them were:

a) The Black Death (1347)
and
b) The Peasant Revolt (1381)

Although both were linked, in that the later was caused primarily by the attempts of the English nobility to retain (or reinstate) the concepts of feudal servitude that which had been rendered unworkable by the losses suffered during the former.

Prior to these events peasant labour was largely tied to the land owned by a specific noble, who in turn could demand military service from you when required. This could still be considered a form of contractual volunteering, in that the peasant knew the score when he accepted the land, but it did not require persuasion to obtain his service, and he could be punished for not complying.

This system was still in use in Scotland at the time of the 1745 rebellion as part of clan hierarchy and presumably died when the clans were subjugated. Not sure when it ended in Ireland, probably after Cromwell's invasion in the 17th Century.

After the Black Death and the peasant revolt labour in England became far more mobile and based upon wages and benefits rather than land allocations. Therefore, those raising armies found it difficult, if not impossible to insist on military service as a consequence of providing land, and the need to attract volunteers by propaganda and financial incentive became a necessary process.

I would have thought that similar changes occurred right across Europe at this time as most trading countries were affected in the same way.