Researching violence and the emotions in early modern communities poses considerable challenges for historians. These challenges are especially evident when analysing refugee experiences, which were commonplace in the seventeenth century and occurred as part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639-1651 and beyond). This paper uses literary and illustrated representations, specifically the 1641 deposition statements, and contemporary pamphlets, to analyse the violence and emotions inherent in depictions of refugees. It contends that refugee experiences in this context constituted a distinct form of violence, as well as being inextricably linked with violent acts. This same pattern of violence also occurred in prisoner of war episodes, continuing the themes of forced and violent movement of communities. With prisoners of war coerced into what can be termed ‘proto-slavery’ in Europe and the Americas, the ramifications of this particular form of violence take on entirely new and devastating proportions. Examining representations of both forms of mobility as violence provides useful insights into how different communities were perceived, and occasionally how they may have felt. In terms of refugees specifically, it sheds light on how refugee crises in this period were responded to: whether with sympathy, indifference or fear.