It may be surprising to know
that there have always been rules around the conduct of wars.
For example Deuteronomy 20:19-20 limits the amount of
acceptable collateral and environmental damage:
When thou shalt
besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not
destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat
of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's
life) to employ them in the siege: Only the trees which thou knowest that they
be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt
build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.
In the early 7th century, the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, whilst
instructing his Muslim army, laid down the following rules concerning warfare: Stop, O people, that I
may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit
treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies.
Neither kill a child, nor a woman, nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees,
nor burn them with fire, especially those which are fruitful. Slay not any of
the enemy's flock, save for your food. You are likely to pass by people who
have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone.
There were practical reasons not to lay waste land through
which armies passed...you may well find yourself returning that way!
Basic rules of respect for the wounded, prisoners of war, laws against looting, treatment of dead bodies, respect for women have been known throughout history - often more honoured in the breach than the observance but offences against basic rules of humanity have always provoked outrage and made for valuable propoganda.
Basic rules of respect for the wounded, prisoners of war, laws against looting, treatment of dead bodies, respect for women have been known throughout history - often more honoured in the breach than the observance but offences against basic rules of humanity have always provoked outrage and made for valuable propoganda.
 |
| St. Bertheline Barthomley |
I could find little written about “war crimes” committed
in the English Civil War, but there is no doubt they went on. For example one of the crimes cited against
Charles I at his trial was the massacre of civilians in St. Berteline’s church in the village of Barthomley
in Cheshire on December 23 1643.
A
Royalist raiding party from the Chester garrison led by Major Connaught entered
the village of Barthomley. A number of the villagers fled to the church for shelter
and when the royalist troops entered the church, they retreated to the steeple.
The royalists started a fire with the intention of smoking them out and when
the party in the steeple called for quarter, Connaught granted it. “...But
when hee had theim in his power, hee caused theim all to be stripped starke
Naked; And moste barbarouslie & contr[ar]y to the Lawes of Armes,
murthered, stabbed and cutt the Throates of xii of theim;...& wounded all
the reste, leavinge many of theim for Dead....” (Malbon)
Of the twenty male civilians, 12 died on the spot and the
remaining 8 were badly wounded. The massacre had occurred within the curch.
Lord Byron, the royalist commander at Chester was
unrepentant saying in a letter to the Marquis of Newcastle “...The Rebels had possessed themselves of a
Church at Bartumley, but wee presently beat them forth of it, and put them all
to the sword; which I finde to be the best way to proceed with these kind of
people, for mercy to them is cruelty...”
There are other accounts of the massacre that indicate that
the men within the church had been actively resisting the royalist attack and a
call to surrender had been refused. Once an offer of quarter had been refused,
there was no obligation on the attacking force to grant quarter to a surrendering force. Other
sources suggest one of the villagers wounded or killed a royalist soldier,
negating any agreement.
In 1654 Connaught was tried for the murder of one of the
villagers, John Fowler. The jury heard that Connaught, with a battleaxe (valued
at 6d) in his right hand, had caught hold of Fowler and struck him on the left
side of his head, inflicting a wound which, though only one inch long and one
inch deep, was instantly fatal. The jurors found the case proved, Connaught
offered nothing in mitigation and John Bradshaw, who five years before had
presided over the king’s trial, passed sentence of death. Connaught was hanged
at Boughton, on the outskirts of Chester, on the aftemoon of Tuesday 17 October
1654. According to the diarist, Henry Newcome, he went to the scaffold protesting
his innocence.
 |
| Hopton Castle, Shropshire |
Another famous “war crime” was recently featured in one of
my favourite television programs, Time Team
. I had researched the siege of Hopton
Castle in Shropshire for one of my current WIPs so I became unduly excited when
Tony Robinson announced that they had “just 3 days” to uncover the fate of the
defenders of Hopton Castle.
In 1644 Hopton was one of the few parliamentary strongholds
in a royalist county. Samuel Moore and
his 30 defenders found themselves besieged by Sir Michael Woodhouse with a
royalist force of over 500. After holding out for some weeks, Moore eventually surrendered
on agreed terms. As the garrison marched out, Woodhouse seized Moore and
ordered the garrison to be massacred. The men were bound together in pairs and
their throats slit and the bodies thrown into the moat. Other accounts say they
were clubbed to death. There does not seem to have been any justice meted out
to Woodhouse for this gross abuse of the fundamental laws of war.
The following video is based on Samuel Moore's account of the siege of Hopton Castle and is worth a watch.
The Parliamentarians were not above committing war crimes. The massacre of the Welsh camp followers following the Battle of Naseby (see my post of 20 June 2010) remains one of the saddest events of the English Civil War.
 |
| Re-enactors at Hopton Castle |
Sadly in any war, the losers are often the innocent.
Alison's latest book GATHER THE BONES, is released on September 3 by Lyrical Press
