The battle of London (1554) – reconstructing a renaissance battlefield

Abstract

Abstract The confrontation outside London (7 February 1554) between the rebel army of Sir Thomas Wyatt and forces loyal to Queen Mary Tudor has been frequently characterized as a bloodless contest of will rather than a military conflict. This view, however, fails to account for the action’s wider significance in the study of Tudor warfare, a field arguably distorted by the limited number of battles fought within the sixteenth-century British Isles. Furthermore, the encounter is unusually well-documented by written narratives, while its location ensures that the battlefield is depicted on several near-contemporary and subsequent maps, providing opportunities for more detailed investigation through terrain reconstruction. This article will use methodologies of map regression to define the historic landscape of the battle, permitting tactical-level consideration of the engagement and helping to discern the site’s archaeological potential. By doing so, it will also facilitate a reassessment of the battle’s key events and implications.