Editing English Civil War (section)

==Casualties==
Figures for casualties during this period are unreliable. Some attempt has been made to provide rough estimates.<ref name="Carlton-211-214">{{Harvnb|Carlton|1992|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tVugNXnVrVAC&pg=PP10 pp. 211–14]}}.</ref>

In England, a conservative estimate is that roughly 100,000 people died from war-related disease during the three civil wars. Historical records count 84,830 combat dead from the wars themselves.<ref name="Clod"/> Counting in accidents and the two Bishops' wars, an estimate of 190,000 dead is achieved,<ref name="Carlton-211">{{Harvnb |Carlton |1992 |loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tVugNXnVrVAC&pg=PP10 p. 211]}}</ref> out of a total population of about five million.<ref name="James-187">{{Harvnb|James|2003|p=187}}, cites: {{Harvnb|Carlton|1995a|p=212}}.</ref> It is estimated that from 1638 to 1651, 15%–20% of all adult males in England and Wales served in the military. Around 4% of the total population died from war-related causes, compared to 2.23% in the [[First World War]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mortlock |first=Stephen |date=2017 |title=Death and Disease in the English Civil War |url=https://thebiomedicalscientist.net/science/death-and-disease-english-civil-war |journal=The Biomedical Scientist}}</ref>

As was typical for the era, most combat deaths occurred in minor skirmishes rather than large, pitched battles. There were a total of 645 engagements throughout the wars: 588 of these involved fewer than 250 casualties in total, with these 588 accounting for 39,838 fatalities (average count of less than 68) or nearly half of the conflict's combat deaths. There were only 9 major pitched battles (at least 1,000 fatalities) which in total accounted for 15% of casualties.{{Sfn|Carlton|1995|p=206}}

An anecdotal example of how high casualties in England may have been perceived is to be found in the posthumously published writing (generally titled ''The History of Myddle''), by a [[Shropshire]] man, Richard Gough (lived 1635–1723) of [[Myddle]] near [[Shrewsbury]], who, writing in about 1701, commented of men from his rural home parish who joined the Royalist forces: "And out of these three townes [''sic'' - ie [[Township (England)|townships]]], Myddle, Marton and Newton, there went noe less than twenty men, of which number thirteen were kill'd in the warrs".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gough |first=Richard |title=The History of Myddle |date=1981 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0-14-00-5841-9 |page=71}} Edited by David Hey. Originally published in 1831 as ''History and Antiquities of the Parish of Myddle''.</ref> After listing those he recalled did not return home, four of whose exact fates were unknown, he concluded: "And if soe many dyed out of these 3 townes [townships] wee may reasonably guess that many thousands dyed in England in that warre."<ref>''The History of Myddle'', p. 72.</ref>

Figures for Scotland are less reliable and should be treated with caution. Casualties include the deaths of prisoners-of-war in conditions that accelerated their deaths, with estimates of 10,000 prisoners not surviving or not returning home (8,000 captured during and immediately after the [[Battle of Worcester]] were deported to [[New England]], [[Bermuda]] and the [[West Indies]] to work for landowners as [[indentured labour]]ers<ref>{{Harvnb|Royle|2006|p=602}}.</ref>). There are no figures to calculate how many died from war-related diseases, but if the same ratio of disease to battle deaths from English figures is applied to the Scottish figures, a not unreasonable estimate of 60,000 people is achieved,<ref name="Carlton-212">{{Harvnb|Carlton|1992|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tVugNXnVrVAC&pg=PP10 p. 212]}}.</ref> from a population of about one million.<ref name=James-187/>

Figures for Ireland are described as "miracles of conjecture". Certainly, the devastation inflicted on Ireland was massive, with the best estimate provided by [[William Petty]], the father of English demography. Petty estimated that 112,000 Protestants and 504,000 Catholics were killed through [[Black Death|plague]], war and [[famine]], giving an estimated total of 616,000 dead,<ref name="Carlton-213">{{Harvnb|Carlton|1992|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tVugNXnVrVAC&pg=PP10 p. 213]}}.</ref> out of a pre-war population of about one and a half million.<ref name=James-187/> Although Petty's figures are the best available, they are still acknowledged as tentative; they do not include an estimated 40,000 driven into exile, some of whom served as soldiers in European continental armies, while others were sold as indentured servants to New England and the West Indies. Many of those sold to landowners in New England eventually prospered, but many sold to landowners in the West Indies were worked to death.

These estimates indicate that England suffered a 4 per cent loss of population, Scotland a loss of 6 per cent, while Ireland suffered a loss of 41 per cent of its population. Putting these numbers into the context of other catastrophes helps to understand the devastation of Ireland in particular. The [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Famine]] of 1845–1852 resulted in a loss of 16 per cent of the population, while during the Soviet famine and [[Holodomor]] of 1932–33 the population of the Soviet Ukraine fell by 14 per cent.<ref name="Conquest">[[Robert Conquest|Conquest, Robert]] (1986). ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0195051807}}.</ref>