Everything about Battle Of Bosworth Field totally explained
The
Battle of Bosworth or
Bosworth Field (
22 August,
1485) was
Lancastrian Henry Tudor's defeat of
Yorkist Richard III, ending the
Plantagenet dynasty to begin a new
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 fought to reclaim the crown.
Background
Henry Tudor had landed at Milford Haven after avoiding Viscount Lovells fleet sent by the queen to stop him, 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, and though Henry didn't 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'd 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.
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. This was because Richard had taken Thomas Stanley's son and would kill him if he helped Henry. So the Stanley brothers waited until Henry was in a position were he'd definitely win with their help. However if Henry was being destroyed by Richard they could help him and get Thomas' son back.
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 didn't join him, they'd at least remain neutral during the battle.
The Battle
Like most medieval battles, the events at Bosworth are difficult to interpret coherently or with great confidence. Many (if not all) of the details below are contested and are far from certain.
Richard reached
Ambien Hill first where he organized his troops into three divisions on the hill. His troops were well-rested going into the battle, while Henry's men had trouble lining up on the rough ground below; it's unclear why. Richard might then have charged, 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. There is some evidence that the difficult, wooded ground and narrow frontage of the Yorkist position prevented Northumberland from bringing his force up quickly, but it's far more likely that the Earl's dilatoriness was a calculated move. 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, only to be murdered in a minor riot four years later. But it was the decision of the Stanleys, waiting nearby, that tipped the battle's outcome in favour of Henry.
Richard's commander,
John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, was slain, and the waiting armies of Lords Stanley and Northumberland still didn't commit to any side. Richard was probably certain of treachery and his close staff counselled withdrawal. It was at this moment that Henry Tudor, also uncertain of the outcome, left the main body of his army and moved towards Lord Stanley, possibly to appeal to him in person. Upon seeing this, Richard attempted a
charge against Henry's group. 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 at the moment Richard was within sight of Henry, Sir William Stanley's army chose to come to Tudor's rescue. They threw themselves into the fray surrounding Richard and the men of his Household, overwhelming them. In the fighting, Richard's own standard bearer, Sir Percival Thirwall, had both of his legs hewn away, possibly by a poleaxe or a hand-and-a-half sword. He didn't 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 been killed by the poleaxe of a Welshman, and even sources of a hostile slant (notably
Polydore Virgil) agree that he died fighting bravely.
Richard III (Duke of Gloucester) was the last king of England to die in battle. Richard III was the only English king with a strongly northern association and powerbase, 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, and was accidentally crushed against the parapet of a bridge over the
River Soar. Richard's remains were eventually buried in the church which later became the city's
cathedral, although legend has it that they were exhumed and thrown in the Soar. His probable resting place is thought to be under a car park near the former site of the church of Greyfriars.
The battle proved to be decisive in ending the long-running civil wars later to be known as the
Wars of the Roses, although the last battle was 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 III.
Henry Tudor was in fact outlawed and barred from his own inheritance, and was under
Attainder when he seized the English Throne in 1485. His
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.
Location
The supposed battlefield site, now open to the public with a visitor centre, 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. 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. An assault against a hill, as detailed in the official signage at the battlefield, can be discounted. Battles during the latter half of the Wars of the Roses had become more mobile in nature with commanders proving able to manoeuvre their hosts. 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. The lack of details and sometimes contradictory information in contemporary and near-contemporary sources makes both the chronology and location of the fighting extremely difficult to identify.
A compelling case is 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. If the hill played a role in the battle it's likely it was as an elevated platform for Richard's artillery. A visit to the modern site would suggest the surrounding countryside would be wide enough to support a medieval battle although the geography of the site in the fifteenth century remains harder to interpret. Another school of thought is that the battle actually took place at
Merevale, just above
Atherstone in
Warwickshire; certainly
reparations were made by the king to Atherstone after the battle. However, it's possible that the damages done were caused by troop movements or bivouacing by Tudor's men. Certainly the establishment of a chantry at Dadlington by the early sixteenth century for fallen men from the battle suggests the bulk of the fighting would have taken place in the vicinity. The suggestion (made by Michael K. Jones, the leading proponent of the Merevale relocation) that the dead were carted along the Roman road from the Merevale area to be buried at Dadlington is, perhaps, the weakest point of this thesis. What little is known of medieval battlefield burial practices (
Towton,
Wisby) suggests that grave pits were dug
in situ and that the bodies were packed together quite densely. Richer men were more likely to be taken away for interment in family tombs or to nearby religious establishments. Given the condition of the battlefield dead, the proximity to consecrated ground at Merevale (if the fighting took place nearby) and that it was late August makes the transportation of the bulk of the fallen in carts seem most unlikely.
Popular culture
The battle is a key setting in
Shakespeare's
Richard III, and much of the mythology surrounding the battle seems to derive from inventions of Shakespeare for
dramatic license, which were otherwise unrecorded.
The battle is also the setting for the very first episode 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, he says in realisation, "Oh my God, it's Uncle Richard!"
Science fiction author
Andre Norton examined the
counterfactual question, 'What if
Richard III had won the Battle of Bosworth?' In her
Crossroads of Time (1962), Richard is able to get to Richmond and kill him in combat, therefore winning the field. Once secure on his throne, he further develops skills of government that are the subject of perennial debate between
Ricardian and
Tudor dynasty advocates in late
15th century English history.
Depictions in film
Footnotes
Further Information
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