Geology and Warfare in England and Wales 1450–1660

Abstract

Arguably, geology had an important influence on battlefield tactics in the Middle Ages and 17th century in Britain, but did it also constrain patterns of warfare at the strategic level in those times? Between 1450 to 1660 AD there were several periods of active warfare in England and Wales, in the course of which some 75 significant field engagements have been identified. An investigation of the geographical distribution of these battle-sites in relation to the solid (bedrock) geology depicted on the 1:625,000 geological maps of Britain, reveals that some chronostratigraphical units sufficiently widespread to be depicted at this scale (notably the Permo-Trias and Upper Carboniferous) are associated with more battlefields than might be predicted from the relative extent of their area of outcrop, whereas others (notably the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Lower Carboniferous, Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous) exhibit a below-average number of battlefields per unit of outcrop area. The application of a Chi-squared test confirms at a >99.5% confidence level that the relationship between bedrock geology and these battlefields is non-random, which strongly suggests that geology was an important influencing factor an the conduct of the campaigns in question. Other than the avoidance of militarily unsuitable, mountainous or rugged terrain underlain by relatively resistant strata, the precise nature of this relationship remains to established but the following outline is proposed as the basis for further investigation: lithology, structure and geological history of an area constrain relief, topography and the distribution of mineral resources, affecting drainage and overlying soil type and hence vegetation patterns and the ‘going’, which in turn determine agricultural productivity and the routing of lines of communication. Areas of resource production, substrate properties and drainage and lines of communication locate centres of population. Tactics on the battlefield are determined by topography and going, while strategy is dictated by the need to control centres of population, resource production and lines of communication, objectives whose location is further removed from, but none the less in part attributable to, the influences of the underlying geology.