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University of Huddersfield Repository University of Huddersfield Repository Taylor, Sarah War, death and burial? A historical investigation into the disposal of the dead at English battles fought in Britain, 1401-1685 Original Citation Taylor, Sarah (2019) War, death and burial? A historical investigation into the disposal of the dead at English battles fought in Britain, 1401-1685. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/35067/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ War, death and burial? A historical investigation into the disposal of the dead at English battles fought in Britain, 1401-1685 Sarah Rachel Taylor A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2019 Copyright Statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/ or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trademarks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 2 Abstract This thesis examines the documentary evidence for what happened to the bodies of those killed in battle. It focuses on battles fought by the English in Britain between 1401 and 1685AD and is the first large-scale historical investigation of this topic to be conducted. The main aim is to establish where and how the bodies were disposed of, whilst also considering what factors affected how the dead were treated and whether the Reformation led to any changes in practice. The study is conducted primarily through the examination of contemporary and near-contemporary battle accounts. It also draws on archaeology to explore whether a better historical understanding of battle disposal practices has any implications for the interpretation of battle burials (and vice versa). Most battle accounts show little interest in the fate of the dead. Where they mention the topic, they indicate that the dead were buried on the battlefield or in churches and churchyards. Men of the elite were more likely to be taken for a church burial than lower status individuals. Some of the former were buried in churches near to the battlefield whereas others were taken substantial distances for burial on their homelands. The evidence indicates that, as expected, the Reformation did affect how contemporaries interacted with the dead in the years after a battle, as there were no longer attempts to intercede for the dead or to ensure that they were buried in consecrated ground. Surprisingly, however, there was no evidence that the Reformation led to any change in what happened to the dead immediately after a battle, as there is little evidence that people in the late medieval, pre-Reformation period tried to give the dead an immediate Christian burial. These results have helped to develop a research agenda for both history and archaeology. Thus, future historical research could consider a wider geographical and temporal scope, in order to look for further evidence of the changes in practice that resulted from the Reformation and when these occurred. It will also be important to study conflicts where major cultural differences existed between armies, such as the various Anglo-Irish wars, to see how this affected disposal practices. Further archaeological research could involve the radiocarbon dating of church burials with weapon trauma, as a way of developing understanding for how far the battle dead were taken for burial. 3 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 3 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgements and dedications ........................................................................................ 11 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 12 Chapter 1: Current literature on the disposal of the dead ........................................................ 14 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 14 1.2 Disposal of the battle dead ............................................................................................. 16 1.3 Commemoration ............................................................................................................ 24 1.4 Changes in warfare and army configuration .................................................................. 25 1.5 Archaeology ................................................................................................................... 28 1.5.1 Towton (1461) ........................................................................................................ 30 1.5.2 Stoke (1487) ............................................................................................................ 34 1.5.3 Burne’s theory on battlefield burials ....................................................................... 36 1.5.4 Investigating high-status church burials ................................................................. 38 1.6 Christian Burial Practice ................................................................................................ 38 1.6.1 Normative burial practice: pre-Reformation ........................................................... 38 1.6.2 Normative burial practice: post-Reformation ......................................................... 40 1.6.3 Non-normative burial practices: plague burials ...................................................... 44 Chapter 2: Methodology .......................................................................................................... 49 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 49 2.2 Secondary sources .......................................................................................................... 50 2.3 Primary sources .............................................................................................................. 52 2.3.1 Historical sources .................................................................................................... 52 2.3.2 Archaeological sources ........................................................................................... 54 2.4 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 55 Chapter 3: Late medieval battles (1401-1513) ......................................................................... 59 4 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 59 3.2 Quantitative analysis of the battle accounts ................................................................... 64 3.3 Form of disposal: burial ................................................................................................. 74 3.3.1 Burial location: churches ........................................................................................ 75 3.3.2 Burial location: the battlefield ................................................................................ 87 3.3.3 Form of burial ......................................................................................................... 99 3.4 Alternative forms of disposal ....................................................................................... 100 3.5 Burial Agents ..............................................................................................................
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