Battle of Stoke Field: End of the Roses War
- 24 June 2025
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BATTLE OF STOKE FIELD: LAST BATTLE OF A CIVIL WAR
The Battle of Stoke Field: The Final Clash of the Wars of the Roses
The Battle of Stoke Field on 16th June 1487 is generally considered to be the final battle of the Wars of the Roses.
Margaret of York and the Yorkist Conspiracy
Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of the late King Edward IV and King Richard III, had funded 2,000 Swiss and German mercenaries led by Martin Schwartz to depose King Henry VII. She was joined by her nephew John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, Francis Lovell, and other disaffected Yorkists in her campaign. The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel was the Yorkist pretender who claimed to be Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of the late George, Duke of Clarence, brother of the Yorkist kings.
Lambert Simnel Crowned in Dublin
On 24th May 1487, Lambert Simnel was crowned King Edward VI at Christ Church in Dublin, and the Yorkist rebels were joined by Thomas Fitzgerald and his men, who then sailed to England.
The March South and Royal Preparations
The Yorkist army then marched south to York and by that time consisted of around 8,000 soldiers, including Sir Thomas Broughton and his retinue.
King Henry VII was aware of the rebel invasion, and his army of about 12,000 troops was led by John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, and based in Nottingham.
The Battle at East Stoke
On 16th June 1487, the two armies faced each other near the village of East Stoke, south of the River Trent. An exchange of arrow fire took place, with which the Irish troops suffered badly because they were lightly armoured. Having no other option, the rebel army attacked, and a fierce melee took place, with the royal army pushed back.
King Henry VII then sent reinforcements led by Jasper Tudor to bolster his vanguard, which was commanded by the Earl of Oxford. The royal army fired volley after volley of arrows at the Yorkist troops, which caused considerable casualties and thereby pushed them up the hill and over the River Trent. The rebel army was soundly defeated, losing around 4,000 men, and their leaders—the Earl of Lincoln, Martin Schwartz, Thomas Fitzgerald, and Sir Thomas Broughton—were all killed. According to the French chronicler Jean Molinet, the mercenary soldiers were “filled with arrows like hedgehogs.” The royal army also suffered heavy losses, with about 3,000 killed.
The Fate of the Yorkist Leaders
Francis Lovell managed to escape the battle to Scotland and was never seen again. In 1708, a skeleton was found in a secret chamber at Minster Lovell, which was supposed to be that of Francis Lovell. However, this story is probably just a legend, because the manor had been granted to Jasper Tudor.
Simnel’s Pardon and Afterlife
Lambert Simnel was pardoned by King Henry VII because of his age, put to work in the royal kitchens, and later became a falconer.
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FEATURED IMAGE
In this dramatic and densely detailed engraving, artist Henry Marriott Paget captures the final desperate moments of Martin Schwartz and his German mercenaries during the Battle of Stoke Field. At the centre, mounted and resolute, stands Schwartz in full armour, embodying the discipline and defiance of the mercenary core. The composition seethes with motion—pikes and spears clash amid a mass of contorted figures, faces frozen in expressions of fury, pain, or panic. Paget’s powerful use of line and shading evokes the chaos and brutality of close combat, as the rebel forces are slowly overwhelmed by the advancing Tudor army.
Paget’s work does more than depict historical warfare—it humanises it. The tangle of bodies, the exhaustion on the soldiers’ faces, and the heroic futility of Schwartz’s final stand evoke the tragic end of a cause already doomed. The engraving serves as a visual testament to the decisive end of the Wars of the Roses, where foreign mercenaries and Yorkist loyalists made their last, valiant push against the rising Tudor regime. The density and emotional charge of the scene make this a quintessential example of Paget’s narrative power as an illustrator of English history.
SOURCES
Cohen, D. (2023). Battles of the Wars of the Roses. Pen & Sword History.
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David Cohen
David Cohen, a retired civil servant from the Ministry of Justice, holds a degree in social sciences from Leicester University. With over 40 years of dedicated study in medieval history, he is a member of the Royal Historical Society and a passionate researcher of the Wars of the Roses. He frequently visits significant battle sites, including St Albans, Barnet, Tewkesbury, and Bosworth, deepening his understanding of the period. As co-admin of the popular Wars of the Roses and Medieval History group alongside historian Sharon Bennett Connolly, he contributes insightful articles on key battles and prominent conflict figures.
