On 22 August 1485, the Battle of Bosworth Field was fought in England between the Yorkists under Richard III and the Lancastrians under Henry Tudor during the Wars of the Roses.
Why did it happen?
The Wars of the Roses were fought between the royal houses of Lancaster and York for control of the English throne. In 1455, the Duke of York, Richard, rose in revolt against King Henry VI, for whom he had formally been regent following the king’s mental breakdown. Although the Duke of York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, fighting continued between the Lancastrians and Yorkists until Edward IV decisively defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. However, fourteen years later in 1485, another Lancastrian claimant named Henry Tudor landed in England with 3,000 French mercenaries hoping to reclaim the English throne. Despite his claim being remote, soldiers flocked to his banner as he moved further into England before Richard III, who came to the throne in 1483, met Henry at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire (The location of the battlefield was long in dispute until 2009 when archaeologists discovered primitive pistol bullets and cannonballs in a field 3.2 kilometres southwest of Market Bosworth – the traditional location of the battle).
Who was involved?
The Yorkist army at Bosworth Field numbered 5,200 infantry, 1,500 cavalry and 1,200 archers. The Yorkist army was arrayed into three divisions: The vanguard consisted of 1,200 archers supported by artillery under the command of the Duke of Norfolk; The centre comprised of 3,500 infantry and cavalry under the command of Richard III; the rear was comprised of the remaining cavalry and infantry under the command of the Earl of Northumberland. The Lancastrian army at Bosworth Field comprised 5,000 infantry, cavalry, and archers. The Earl of Oxford commanded the vanguard, which was comprised of archers and artillery. Jasper Tudor commanded the infantry in the centre while Henry Tudor commanded the cavalry to the rear. In addition, 4,000 infantry and cavalry under the command of William and Thomas Stanley were positioned to the left and the right of the battlefield, respectively.
What happened?
After manoeuvring around marshland, the Earl of Oxford began the battle with archer and artillery fire against the Yorkist army before ordering his pikemen and billmen to engage the Yorkists. After two hours of fighting, the Duke of Norfolk was killed which caused the Earl of Northumberland to not commit his forces to the battle. In response, Richard III manoeuvred around the left flank of the Lancastrian army and charged Henry Tudor and his bodyguard, hacking his way through his ranks of Welsh foot soldiers. At this point in the battle, William Stanley intervened on Henry’s behalf and charged the right flank of the Yorkist army. In the confused fighting, Richard was unhorsed and impaled on a mass of Welsh pikes. Following the death of their king and facing pressure on both flanks from Stanley’s forces, the Yorkist army crumbled and fled the battlefield. In all, the Yorkists suffered 1,000 casualties while the Lancastrians suffered just 200 killed.
What changed as a result?
The Battle of Bosworth Field was a decisive victory for the Lancastrians. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII of England by William Stanley, thus inaugurating a new dynasty of English kings, The Tudors, who would rule England until 1603. To reconcile the houses of Lancaster and York, Henry married the Yorkist princess Elizabeth Woodville, while moving the date of his sovereignty to the day before the battle to condemn the supporters of Richard III as traitors. Although a further battle at Stoke Field would be fought in 1487, the Wars of the Roses were for all intrinsic purposes at an end and Henry VII would rule England until his death in 1509.
Bibliography
Grant, R.G. 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. London, Cassell Illustrated, 2011.
Mackenzie, John. “Battle of Bosworth Field.” British Battles. Accessed December 22, 2019. britishbattles.com/wars-of-the-roses/battle-of-bosworth-field/
Regan, Geoffrey. Battles That Changed History: Fifty Decisive Battles Spanning Over 2,500 Years of Warfare. London, Andre Deutsch, 2002.
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