Battle of Bosworth Field

The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was an important battle during the Wars of the Roses in 15th century England. It was fought on 22 August, 1485 between the Yorkist King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty, and the Lancastrian contender for the crown, Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond (later King Henry VII). It ended in the defeat and death of Richard and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty. Historically, the battle is considered to have marked the end of the Wars of the Roses, although further battles were fought in the years that followed as Yorkist pretenders unsuccessfully sought to reclaim the crown. (Strictly, Tudor's earlier treasons had caused him to be stripped of the Richmond title, until he took The Crown and gave the title back to himself).

The campaign and its politics

Henry had landed in Pembrokeshire, the county of his birth, on 7 August with a small force—consisting mainly of French mercenaries—in an attempt to claim the throne of England. Richard III had fought similar battles with Lancastrian usurpers in the past, but this one would be his last. Although Henry did not have his opponent's military experience, he was accompanied by his uncle, Jasper Tudor, 1st Earl of Pembroke (later 1st Duke of Bedford) and John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, each of them being a brilliant and seasoned soldier. Henry gathered supporters in the course of his journey through his father's native Wales, and by the time he arrived in the Midlands, he had amassed an army of an estimated 5,000 men. The King, by contrast, could command nearly 8,000. The decisive factor in the battle was to be the conduct of the Stanley brothers—Sir William Stanley and Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley, the latter being Henry's stepfather. Richard had good cause to distrust them, but was dependent on their continued loyalty.

The battlefield site, now open to the public, is close to Sutton Cheney and Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. The actual site of the battle has been the topic of often contentious debate among professional and amateur historians, with a compelling case being made for situating the battle closer to the villages of Dadlington and Stoke Golding, although most are agreed that Richard's encampment the night before the battle was indeed on Ambion Hill. Another school of thought is that the battle actually took place at Merevale, just above Atherstone in Warwickshire; certainly reperations were made by the king to Atherstone after the battle. Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, with Lord Stanley and Sir William Stanley and their troops, watched the beginning of the engagement as the rest of Richard's army fought Henry's French mercenaries and loyal exiles. The Stanleys seem to have taken up a position some distance away from the two main armies.

The two notorious vacillators in 1469–71 were the young John Talbot, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, and the older more experienced Lord Stanley. They acted with a circumspection that bordered on deceitfulness, consistently holding back from final commitment to either side, and always keeping on good terms with the winners. Richard had taken hostages to ensure that, even if Talbot and Stanley did not join him, they would at least remain neutral during the battle.

The battle

The battle lasted about two hours, and began well for the king. Unfortunately for him, Sir William Stanley chose to enter the fray on Henry's side, with Lord Stanley abstaining from the conflict.

Richard reached Ambion Hill first and his troops were well-rested going into the battle, while Henry's men had trouble lining up on the rough ground below – it is unclear why. Richard might then have charged then, slaughtering the disorganised Lancastrians, but he missed his chance. When Henry finally was ready, his men used cannon and arrows to force Richard to come down from his hilltop. When Richard did, he called for the Earl of Northumberland, who commanded the right wing of his army, to join in with fresh forces. But Percy refused, holding his forces back from action. Although he was captured on the day, he was soon released and confirmed in all his titles and lands by the new King Henry VII. But it was the decision of Lord Stanley, waiting nearby, that tipped the battle's outcome in favor of Henry.

Richard's commander, John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was slain, and the waiting armies of Lords Stanley and Northumberland still did not commit to any side. Richard was certain of treachery and his close staff counselled withdrawal. It was at this moment that Henry Tudor, also uncertain of the outcome, moved toward Lord Stanley to appeal to him in person. Upon seeing this Richard attempted a valiant, suicidal charge against Henry, who had stayed well clear of most of the fighting and was only now in harms way. In the attack, Richard and his household hacked down Henry's small bodyguard of knights and even killed Henry's standard bearer, William Brandon. But just at the moment Richard was within sight of Henry, Lord Stanley's army raced to Tudor's rescue. They threw themselves into fray surrounding Richard and the men of his Household, in the fighting Richard's own standard bearer, Sir Percival Thirwall, had his two legs hewn away, possibly by a pollaxe or a hand-and-a-half sword. Gallantly, he did not let the banner fall, but instead held onto it until he was killed by one of the many retainers under Sir William Stanley joining the battle. Richard himself was rumoured to have being killed by the pollaxe of a Welshman, He was 32 years of age.

Richard of York was the second and last English king to die in battle – Harold Godwinson at Hastings, 1066, killed by the Normans, was the first. He was the only king from the north, and the last of the Plantagenet kings. His body was taken, ignominiously by the victors, to Leicester where it was paraded, battered and naked through the streets. Richard's remains were eventually buried in the city's cathedral, although legend has it they were exhumed and thrown in the River Soar.

The battle proved to be decisive in ending the long-running medieval series of English Civil Wars later be to known as the Wars of the Roses, although the last battle was to be fought at Stoke two years later, 1487.

Consequences

Henry Tudor was crowned as King Henry VII, marking the beginning of the 118-year reign of the Tudor dynasty in England. He immediately sought to backdate his administration to a date prior to the battle of Bosworth Field in order to attaint for treason men who had fought for the former King Richard of York.

Henry VII was in fact outlawed and barred from his own inheritance, and was under Attainder when he seized the English Throne in 1485. Henry's coronation conveniently nullified the attainder. Following this, Parliament made the declaration that any who had opposed King Henry at Bosworth were to be considered traitors.

Josephine Tey's 'The Daughter of Time' flatly contradicts this - she states (with evidence) that Parliament forcefully refused to declare those who opposed Henry at Bosworth to be traitors - one of the grounds being that such would set a dangerous precedent for future conflicts as troops, nobles etc on the ground would be demoralised at the thought they'd be considered traitors even where it was shown their cause was legally sound.

Location

For several years after the event the battle was called the Battle of Redemore and it was some time before the more famous name was used. This has led to the theory that the battle was not fought on Ambion Hill but on a reedy moor in the same area. People have long been researching to try to discover the actual site of this battle, work which has continued in the first decade of the 21st century.

Popular culture

The Battle is a key setting in William Shakespeare's Richard III, and much of the mythology surrounding it seems to derive from inventions of Shakespeare for dramatic license, which were otherwise unrecorded in the century before the play was written. In the play, Richard is unhorsed after his charge, and cries out "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!", and his crown was retrieved by Henry from a hawthorn bush. Richard would not have worn his crown but may have worn a circlet on his helmet, that his men may recognize him.

The battle is also the setting for the first episode of the first series of Blackadder, in which Richard III is victorious in the battle but is accidentally killed by his great-nephew Prince Edmund, played by Rowan Atkinson, when the king attempts to borrow his horse, saying in realisation, "Oh my God, it's Uncle Richard."

Depictions on Film

''Richard III
Blackadder 1: "The Foretelling"

External links

Bosworth Battlefield visitor info
Richard III Society, American Branch with maps, photos, articles presenting several competing theories situating the battle
The Battle of Bosworth
Bosworth Roll Call Officers there on the day.

1485 | Battles of the Wars of the Roses | History of Leicestershire | Visitor attractions in Leicestershire

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