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British Civil War Massacre Was Covered Up

Discussion in 'Military History' started by GRW, Nov 17, 2020.

  1. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Evidence seems a bit flimsy, but worth keeping an eye on the story to see what happens next.
    "A "frenzied" massacre, which may have included women and children, has been almost forgotten due to a cover-up, a historian has claimed.
    About 160 died when Parliamentary troops stormed the Royalist stronghold of Shelford, Nottinghamshire, in 1645.
    Dr David Appleby believes the presence of "European Catholics" among the dead and unease over the bloodshed led to the battle later being hushed up.
    He said: "Shelford was covered up by both sides."
    "The Parliamentarians wanted to forget the savagery, the Royalists, the use of unpopular foreign troops," he added.
    Dr Appleby, from the University of Nottingham's history department, said he was prompted to research Shelford as it did not appear in histories of the war, but he noticed it mentioned in contemporary documents asking for financial aid.
    Shelford was a moated manor between Nottingham and the Royalist fortress of Newark.
    The war began in 1642 between supporters of King Charles I's absolute rule and those who believed parliament should run England.
    In the aftermath of Charles's decisive defeat at Naseby in June 1645, Parliamentary forces looked to mop up areas of resistance.
    "Some of Charles' battered army were billeted at Shelford, namely the Queen's Regiment who were mainly European Catholics with a very bad reputation among fellow Royalists, as well as the xenophobic and anti-Catholic parliamentarian press," said Dr Appleby.
    Dr Appleby said the attackers were "in a state of frenzy".
    "Records of the Royalist casualties are vague, but it's estimated [the defending commander} died with the bulk of his garrison," he said.
    "Their bodies were perhaps mutilated after death and buried together in hastily-dug pits somewhere near the battle site.
    "There is also a claim in a petition... that several women and children in the garrison had also been murdered."
    He believed while some women were soldiers' wives, others joined the army on the road.
    "They worked as nurses, cooks, companions, and it has to be said that prostitution was very common," he said.
    Despite the blood-letting, the battle quickly disappeared from the written record."
    www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-54973017
     
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  2. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake Member

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    Dr Appleby has obviously managed to get some good PR for his research. The story of Shelford is not unusual. The Civil Wars 1639-51 - or wars of the three kingdoms were Britain's bloodiest war.

    Much of the violence was local and the there were local pockets of Royalists and Parliamentarians. Its a bit like the pattern of Pro Brexit and Pro remain in the UK. - Also on the face of it about sovereignty of Parliament, but had a lot to do with town v country North and West v South and East. A fortified manor house might be ignored until their field armies were beaten.

    It was also vicious Although the wars were not on the surface religious wars, there were few Catholics on the side of Parliament or Puritans fighting for the King. The conflict took place during the century and a half of religious wars following the reformation. The enemy were often regarded as heretics unworthy of Christian treatment. . The Puritans were a bunch of religious extremists. Parliament's soldiers massacred hundreds of Welsh camp followers captured after Naseby, thinking that they were Irish Catholics, after confusing Welsh for Gaelic. Healthy prisoners, such as the Scots captured after Dunbar were used as slave labour. Hundreds ended up in New England as slaves of the puritan colonists. The memory of the brutality of the war has been kept alive by Irish Nationalists who tell a distorted story about Cromwell's men at Drogeda and Wexford - but the story is bigger and featured appalling massacres by both sides.
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2020
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  3. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Aye, nasty by anyone's standards.
     
  4. belasar

    belasar Court Jester

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    Some parallels to the US revolution in the southern colonies and western US states (Kansas/Missouri) during the American civil war where local rivalries colored war time actions.
     

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