Respect for the dead and care for the sick and wounded were part of the international codes of war of early modern Europe. They were moral obligations, but they also had a utilitarian dimension for, as the earl of Orrery observed, provision of care was ‘as much the Interest, as the Duty' of a commander who wished to have willing troops. The English practices we shall examine here were not unique. England shared problems and solutions with continental Europe, with whose wars many soldiers, medical practitioners and civilian observers were familiar. Unlike their continental counterparts, however, and despite their recent northern excursions, the English were not accustomed to the presence of war and armies. In 1642 they had to create systems of care virtually from scratch.

Obligation to the dead and wounded was taken seriously by both sides. It extended to enemies as well as friends, for the former could not decently be left to die. Bipartisan observance was — like adherence to laws of war that governed conduct to the defeated, to prisoners, to women and children — an ameliorating factor in relations between enemies, one that facilitated post-war co-existence and social and political reconciliation.