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The chapter surveys the popular memory of the Peterloo Massacre (1819) over two centuries of British history. Cozens demonstrates that a range of nineteenth-century radicals, including Chartists, radical-Liberals and socialists, took part in the construction of a demonology and a martyrology associated with the Manchester massacre. Cozens argues that the deaths of the Peterloo martyrs were most fervently commemorated at times of heightened class conflict. However, the radical version of events was frequently challenged by conservatives. Cozens reconstructs the disagreements within radical-liberal and conservative interpretations of Peterloo and argues that many past attempts to officially commemorate the massacre in Manchester have foundered on this lack of historical consensus.

Framed around an account of the last deserter ever to face the firing squad in England, this article assesses the extent and significance of desertion from the land forces after the Peace of Amiens. Recent historical accounts have tended to use the large number of soldiers and volunteers raised in this period as a measure of the depth of popular loyalism at this time. This article seeks to temper these arguments by examining the difficulties the government had in retaining recruits for the army and militia between 1803 and 1805. Using official returns, court martial transcripts, and little-used deserter bounty certificates it will be demonstrated that levels of desertion were unusually high in England at this time and that the scale of desertion caused great anxiety among both the civil and military authorities. Moreover, through an examination of the motives which drove thousands of men to desert from their regiments, a more variegated plebeian experience of armed service will be presented, one which did...