Burial and the Battlefield War Memorial in the Late Middle Ages

Atherton, Ian

Abstract

At the heart of late medieval post-bellum practices was the burial of the dead, by which a battlefield became sacred ground. Commonly, the battlefield would then be marked by the erection of some form of structure such as a cross or a battlefield chapel, or by endowing a chantry chapel adjacent to the battlefield for the souls of all the dead. The chapter analyses these practices at a number of late medieval battle sites, but uses the battle of Neville’s Cross (1346) as a case study: there, two crosses were erected on the battlefield, while the neighbouring Durham Cathedral became a noted site of battle memory, with captured flags and relics gifted to the shrine of St Cuthbert (whose intervention was credited for the English victory over the Scots). Many battlefields, including Neville’s Cross, Towton (1461), and Bosworth (1485) became managed sites of memory.

Citation

Atherton, I. (2024). Burial and the Battlefield War Memorial in the Late Middle Ages. In Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century (83-105). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0004

• Online Publication Date: Aug 19, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 19, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 6, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 83-105
• Book Title: Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century
• Chapter Number: 4
• ISBN: 9780198912859
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0004
• Keywords: memoryscape, Neville’s Cross, Durham Cathedral, consecrated ground, pilgrimage, sacred space, chantry chapel
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/889979
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/book/58081/chapter-abstract/478610657?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=true