The Rediscovery of the Battlefield in the Eighteenth Century

Atherton, Ian

Abstract

In the 1720s and 1730s a new series of battlefield monuments began to be erected on past battlefields such as Lansdown (1643), the Boyne (1690), and even on the presumed site of the ancient Alleluia Victory (429). The chapter argues that these were the product of a new antiquarian interest in the past, and focused less on remembering the dead, and more on proclaiming the benefits of (often Protestant) liberty and ideas of the British as an ever-free nation. By the end of the eighteenth century it was commonplace for landowners to erect monuments to past battles on their estates, with examples including the Duke of Northumberland’s commemoration of Alnwick (1093) and Otterburn (1388), as well as monuments at Naseby (1645) and Bosworth (1485), harnessing histories to family lineage and aggrandisement.

Citation

Atherton, I. (2024). The Rediscovery of the Battlefield in the Eighteenth Century. In Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century (153-185). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0006

• Online Publication Date: Aug 19, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 19, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 6, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 153-185
• Book Title: Britons and their Battlefields: War, Memory and Commemoration since the Fourteenth Century
• Chapter Number: 6
• ISBN: 9780198912859
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912880.003.0006
• Keywords: Battle of the Boyne, Alleluia Victory, antiquaries, liberty, Ancient Britons, fame, battlefield visiting, standing army, centenary
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/889983