Battle of Bosworth

The War of The Roses consisted of a series of battles fought between 1454 and 1485 by two rival branches of a dynasty for the control of the English throne. Each family has a rose as its emblem, white for the York family and red for the House of Lancaster. Eventually the yorkist Edward IV won the series of the battles. Richard III was Edward’s youngest brother and succeeded him to the throne in 1483. In 1485 fourteen years after the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, Richard III rode into battle once more.

The Battle of Bosworth took place on 22nd August 1485. In the late 15th Century full time professional armies were rare. The major source of soldiers for the armies who fought in the Wars of the Roses were Lord’s retainers and tenants who served for a short time. As such the loyalty of the men who fought was based upon their Lord’s ability to pay them. It was because of this that the leaders of armies were never really sure of who they could rely upon. All of the forces that met at Bosworth had been on forced marches mainly over rough terrain, some for over a week, with very little rest.

Richard III

Richard’s army was just under 12,000 strong, but 4,000 of his troops were commanded by the Stanley brothers, whose loyalty was suspect. Richard was at Nottingham, and marched from there to Leicester on 19 August, and by 21 August the two armies were facing each other about two and a half miles south of Market Bosworth.

In 1485, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, set sail from the port of Harfleur in France with 2000 troops, aiming to seize the English throne. He landed at Milford Haven in Wales on August 7 and gathered reinforcements as he marched through Wales, then through Shrewsbury, Stafford and Atherstone. On the day of battle he commanded an army of 5000 men.

Henry’s forces were the first to attack, under the command of the Earl of Oxford, they met Richard’s vanguard, under the command of the Duke of Norfolk, who charged downhill in to a desperate hand-to-hand struggle between hacking and slashing ranks of common soldiers. The first part of the battle lasted an hour, and although their ranks were severely depleted Henry’s men had managed to kill Norfolk, depriving Richard of a valued commander.

As the battle became more desperate, Henry and his entourage became cut off and were spotted by Richard from the top of Ambion Hill. Richard seeing his enemy’s depleted ranks, spurred forward, apparently furious and determined to slay his opposite number, and with him thundered a glittering array of some 1,500 mounted knights in the last great cavalry charge of the medieval era.

Henry VII

Seeing this writhing wall of steel and horseflesh heading towards him, it appears that Henry was dumbstruck and his command faculties fled temporarily. Nevertheless, Henry and his faithful retainers formed a tight knot and braced themselves for the impact.

Legend would have us believe that Richard drew upon reserves of almost superhuman strength in his furious charge, and hacking and slashing and stabbing, he carved a swathe directly towards Henry Tudor. He and his forces cut down Henry’s standard bearer and Richard himself is said to have come within a greatsword-length of his quarry before the press of men and horses carried him off course.

At that point, seeing the moment, the Stanleys acted decisively. With a battle cry of, “A Stanley, a Stanley!” their troops crashed into Richard’s formation. Richard’s army disintegrated, and he himself was forced into the swampy ground, thrashing out furiously, determined to sell his life dearly. In a last desperate attempt to salvage the battle and his throne, Richard managed to send orders to Northumberland to attack Stanley, but Northumberland either couldn’t obey due to the terrain or simply chose not to. Either way Richard was eventually cornered by a large group of polearm fighters who unhorsed him before they hacked and smashed him into. This is the moment of Shakespeare’s famous line immortalising Richard III, a King betrayed, unhorsed, surrounded by his enemies and finally calling out “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.” Richard was the last king of England to die on the battlefield.

The entire battle lasted two hours. History is unsure what happened to Richard’s body. What is certain is that Henry Tudor was crowned Henry VII on the field by his new ally, Lord Stanley.

Henry Vll (representing the Lancaster family) married Elizabeth of York (representing the York family). This marriage united the two families. Henry created the Tudor rose, containing both the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster. It symbolized the end of a struggle between York and Lancaster.