Battle-Scarred: Surgery, Medicine and Military Welfare during the British Civil Wars

Abstract

The British Civil Wars of the mid-17th Century are often overlooked in history classrooms and television channels, yet they represent one of the most traumatic periods in the history of Britain, killing proportionally far more British than the World Wars of the 20th Century. In an effort to communicate the human cost of the Civil Wars, Dr Andrew Hopper and history PhD students Stewart Beale and Hannah Worthen write about their recent exhibition ‘Battle- Scarred’, which displays medical instruments and aspects of 17th Century welfare systems.