English king Edward IV had shown his mettle in battle and tactical acumen by winning the
battles of Towton, Barnet and Tewkesbury. Still, his house of York was facing many adversaries,
both domestic and foreign. Edward and his successors had to continue fighting to keep
the throne, as the Wars of the Roses were far from over. Everything would have to be
decided at the battle of Bosworth.
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On the 4th of May 1471, King Edward IV of the house of York decisively defeated his
enemies from the house of Lancaster at Tewkesbury. Most of the Lancastrian leaders, among them
Prince Edward and Edmund of Somerset, were killed, while the queen, Margaret of Anjou,
became captive. The king knew that some Lancastrian allies, chief among them Jasper Tudor, were
active in Wales and Northern England, so he moved his troops to Coventry to prevent these
enemies from uniting their forces. Meanwhile, one of the last representatives
of the Neville family, Thomas landed in Kent and started recruiting troops on his march
to London. By the 14th of May, he had 15 thousand under his command and was attacking London,
which was critical both as the capital, and the place the Lancastrian king Henry VI was
kept prisoner. The Londoners supported the Yorks at this
point and not only sent messengers to Edward IV but also repulsed all the attacks of Thomas
Neville. Edward was fast as usual and entered London on the 21st of May. On the same night,
Henry VI was executed, and Thomas Neville, who learned about this and the loss at Tewkesbury
retreated to the South. His troops now demoralized, the Lancastrian leader decided to surrender.
At the same time, the rebellion in the North also fizzled out.
It would be helpful to look at the family tree of the English monarchs at this point.
With the execution of Henry VI, the house of Lancaster was exterminated, and the remaining
challenger to Edward IV was 14-year-old Henry Tudor, who had a weak claim to the English
throne via his matrilineal ties to the house of Beaufort, which was descended from the
son of Edward III, John of Gaunt. Henry Tudor was with his uncle Jasper in Wales
at that point, and upon learning about the events in London, they decided to flee. They
were heading to France, which was ruled by Henry’s relative Louis XI, but a storm forced
them to land in Brittany. Its ruler - duke Francis II was willing to use Henry as a bargaining
chip in his dealings with France and England, so the Tudors became partly hostages, partly
guests in Brittany. Francis rejected the bribes and threats from the English king through
the years. Still, England entered a period of relative
peace, as Edward had no real opponents. Louis XI traditionally supported his enemies, so
when the Duke of Burgundy offered to help with the old English claim to the French throne
with his troops, Edward agreed, and in 1474 they signed a treaty in London. In June of
1475 the English king landed in Calais, but received no support from Burgundy. Neither
Edward nor Louis was willing to fight, so the former bribed the latter by signing the
treaty of Picquigny. During this period the relationships between
the brothers of the English king Richard of Gloucester and George of Clarence were tense,
and in 1478 George was accused of plotting against Edward, and then, arrested and executed.
As Richard had supported Edward throughout the Wars of the Roses, the king elevated Richard
to effectively control northern England. Although Edward was just 40 years old, he
became terminally ill in 1483 and soon passed away. There are multiple theories about his
death, and even poisoning is not ruled out, but in any case, his 12-year-old son Edward
V became the king, with Richard Gloucester as the regent. However, on the way to London
Richard ordered the relatives and closest allies of the Queen Elizabeth Woodville to
be arrested. Edward V and his brother were placed in the London tower. Just a few months
later, the offspring of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville were declared illegitimate, and
Richard III claimed the throne. The fate of Edward V and his brother is unclear, but they
had disappeared, while the legend of “The Princes in the Tower” became famous.
This naked power grab would stir the political situation in England once again. Queen Elizabeth
started plotting with the mother of Henry Tudor – Margaret Beaufort. Margaret’s
new husband the Earl of Derby Thomas Stanley and the Duke of Buckingham Henry Stafford
also became part of this plot. In the Fall of 1483, Henry Tudor sailed from
Brittany, while Buckingham started a rebellion in the West and South of England. However,
severe storms prevented Henry from landing in England, while Buckingham was slowed down
and not able to unite his forces with other rebels. Soon the rebels were defeated by Richard,
Buckingham was executed, and Henry had to return to Brittany. Here he was joined by
the remainder of the rebel forces. The English king demanded that Francis of Brittany extradite
Henry, but his demands were rebuked, so Richard sent his navy to blockade Brittany. At this
point duke Francis fell ill, and as his ministers were willing to surrender the fugitive for
a bribe, so Henry escaped to France. At the end of 1484, Henry publicly promised
to marry the daughter of Edward IV Elizabeth to unite the dynasties, which strengthened
his position in England. Henry received support from the new French king Charles VIII and
recruited mercenaries. Back in England, Richard’s wife passed away, and the rumors claimed that
he wanted to marry his niece, Elizabeth. This spurred Henry to action and on the 1st
of August 1485 he set sail from France at Honfleur and landed in Wales on the 7th without
meeting any obstacles, despite the fact Richard had placed small garrisons to blockade a naval
invasion. As Henry had Welsh blood, many local lords joined him, and on the 15th he entered
England near Shrewsbury. Meanwhile, Richard learned about the landing
on the 11th of August; it took him a few days to gather all his forces. On the 16th the
Yorkist forces started moving towards Leicester. Although that gave Henry a chance to move
towards London, he also marched his troops towards Leicester, as he had allies in the
area and needed their help to win. Gathering these allies, Henry moved closer to Richard.
On the 21st the armies encamped to the south of Bosworth, with Richard taking Ambion hill,
while Henry stopped at a place called White Moors. Thomas Stanley seemingly promised to
join both sides but instead made camp at a hill called Dadlington to the south of Henry
and Richard. The Tudors had more than 5 thousand troops, while the Yorks probably fielded an
army closer to 10 thousand. Stanley’s 5 thousand were a wildcard.
In the morning of the 22nd, Henry arrayed most of his forces in one large unit commanded
by the Lancastrian veteran of the battle of Barnet, John of Oxford, while he led a small
reserve. The Tudor army started marching towards their numerically superior enemy. Richard
was surprised by this as he expected Henry to take a defensive stance. The battle was
not beginning according to his expectations. Still, he managed to get his army into three
groups: John of Norfolk commanded the right, Percy of Northumberland the left, while the
king was leading the center. While the Tudors were getting closer, the
Yorkist artillery opened fire upon them. Oxford was prepared for that, and his troops started
shifting to attack the left flank of the Yorkist army. This put his main division directly
against Norfolk, and the artillery barrage stopped to prevent friendly fire. Although
the Yorkists had numbers on their side, Oxford widened his line on the march before two groups
finally clashed. The Tudor forces started to push back their counterparts.
At the same time, Northumberland on Richard’s left flank wasn’t moving in, either due
to betrayal or in fear that Stanley, who still hadn’t made his move, might attack him from
the rear. Richard needed to turn his center to descend from the hill, but it was moving
too slow and that allowed the Tudor rearguard to move in and attack Norfolk from the right.
Seeing Henry’s Dragon banner, Richard decided to charge against him with a thousand horsemen.
Initially, this charge pushed Henry’s forces back, and the unit was close to panic. However,
the challenger to the throne stood firm, and his bodyguards managed to stem the tide. Oxford
also supported his liege, sending a group of pikemen to attack Richard from the left.
This attack started pushing the English king towards the marshes in the southeast.
Simultaneously, Stanley sent his younger brother William to join the battle, and he attacked
Richard’s group from the right. This was the final straw. The knights around Richard
started dying, and soon he was killed with a blow to his head. The news of his death
ended the battle. We have conflicting information on the casualties, but it seems that they
were relatively low, as the fight took less than 2 hours and was decided in the engagement
of two groups of knights. A few months later the victor assumed the
throne as Henry VII, establishing the House of Tudor. Even though the new king had to
defeat a number of rebellions and pretenders, the Wars of the Roses were over. The House
of Tudor would play a critical role in English history, but that is a tale for another documentary…
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