A comparative study of massacres during the wars of the Three Kingdoms, 1641-53

Résumé 0

This dissertation is a comparative study of massacres and atrocities perpetrated in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1641 and 1653. In this period the three Stuart kingdoms were embroiled in a series of wars that had a destabilizing and traumatizing effect on society. By concentrating on massacres and atrocities committed by the warring parties, and their impact on society, this study will not only make a significant contribution to determining the true impact of the British wars on the three kingdoms, but will provide an important insight into the character of these wars. The fifteen case studies which form the foundation of this study will be analysed within a framework of the four specific contexts in which atrocities were most likely to take place, namely following sieges, following assaults on strongholds, in the aftermath of battles, and as premeditated massacres in other settings. These categories will provide the basis for the comparison, and constitute the four main chapters of this dissertation. The thrust of the thoughts and arguments advanced in the course of the study are developed in the concluding chapter. Even though many factors contributed to the occurrence of mass killing and massacres, it will be argued that it was mainly the religious hatred towards rival confessions and the ethnic animosity felt towards the Irish by the English and Scottish people that were the major stimuli behind the massacres, in England just as much as on the Celtic fringes of the Stuart realms. As such the Wars of the Three Kingdoms are firmly embedded within the wider context of European wars of religion and conquest of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.