The Aftermath of Battle

Atherton, Ian

Abstract

Scholars typically lose interest in a battlefield as soon as the outcome is clear and the killing ends. But any army had a series of post-battle rituals which, though ignored by historians, are key to understating both the meaning of the battle for contemporaries and the memories of the battle for later ages. These post-bellum customs included dealing with the wounded and prisoners, clearing the field, burying the dead, and celebrating the victory. This chapter looks at these rituals are both part of the aftermath of a battle and as key determinants of the memory and commemoration of conflict in later ages.

Citation

Atherton, I. (2024). The Aftermath of Battle. In Britons and Their Battlefields: War, Memory, and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century (27-49). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0002

• Publication Date: Sep 19, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 2, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 27-49
• Book Title: Britons and Their Battlefields: War, Memory, and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century
• Chapter Number: 2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0002
• Keywords: post-bellum processes, rituals, nature, thanksgivings, stripping the dead, prisoners or war, clearing the field
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/889975
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/book/58081/chapter/478610225