Bosworth Field, War of the Roses, 1485, Leicestershire, U.K.
Posted by: GeoRams
N 52° 35.767 W 001° 24.681
30U E 607603 N 5828528
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.
Waymark Code: WM369D
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/17/2008
Views: 133
The Battle of Bosworth
22 August, 1485
Principal Commanders
|
Tudor |
York |
Henry Tudor
Oxford |
Richard III of Gloucester
Norfolk
Northumberland |
Stanley |
Stanley |
Edward IV died in 1483. His son, Edward V, was only twelve years old, so
Edward IV had designated his brother Richard as Protector. Richard had Edward's
two sons taken to the Tower of London, where they vanished, so Richard was
proclaimed king as Richard III. It is not known what actually happened to the
boys, but most likely they were killed. The mystery remains as to who killed
them, and if it was done on Richard's orders.
Richard had many enemies, and on 7 August, Henry Tudor landed near Milford
Haven with about 2,000 French mercenaries and a handful of Lancastrian lords
and knights. He gathered reinforcements as he marched through Wales, then
through Shrewsbury, Stafford and Atherstone. Richard was at Nottingham, and
moved from there to 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.
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. Henry had only
5,000 troops. During the battle Both the Stanleys changed allegiance to Henry,
swinging the numerical advantage to his favour.
The battle was fought on and around Ambion Hill, close to Sutton Cheney, and
lasted only two hours. Richard had the better position, but did not take
advantage by attacking Oxford while he was still deploying his troops. This
allowed Oxford to launch the first attack and the Duke of Norfolk, who was
commanding Richard's forward battle division, was soon killed. For the first
hour, the fighting was evenly matched, but Richard lost the battle through the
treachery of the the Stanleys, who deserted his cause. Even more damaging was
of the Earl of Northumberland's failure to bring Richard's reserves into action
when he saw the Stanleys go over to the enemy.
Richard made a last attempt to win victory by directly attacking Henry with
is personal guard, and almost succeeded, having cut down Henry's standard
bearer. Richard's gamble failed, and he was struck down. The battle ended
because his followers had no other definite leader. Richard was the last king
of England to die on the battlefield. His death effectively ended the Wars of
the Roses, and Henry VII started a new dynasty, the Tudors.
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