Battlefields

Battlefields are dotted throughout the European early modern landscape, the results of numerous wars and rebellions enacted for political, social and religious reasons. Engagement with these sites of death, massacre and violence induce a range of emotional states, both at the time of the battle itself and through later commemorative practices and historiography. The emotions that are invoked range from pain, grief, displacement, anger, and sadness and horror at the atrocities, to senses of pride and JOY at the documented role of the battle in nation building and the cults of heroes. The diversity of emotions associated with battlefields speak to differences between the actual physical and emotional experiences of war, and its later reportage and promotion for political and religious purposes. When considered within a framework of the history of emotions, questions related to the personal and individual emotional costs of engagement with the battlefield spaces, and the potential for trauma to resonate through family and other communities are raised. It also prompts the re-evaluation of how battlefields and war are discussed and memorialized within national narratives, highlighting elements of political and religious propaganda.