The Battle of Bosworth: The Dawn of the Tudors

Battle of Bosworth by Philip James de Loutherbourg (1804)

The Armies Gather at Redmoor Plain

The Battle of Bosworth, fought on 22nd August 1485, took place on Redmoor Plain, according to York city records. Modern research has identified the site about two miles southwest of Ambion Hill, south of Market Bosworth. King Richard III led the royal army of around 12,000 troops, with John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, and his son, the Earl of Surrey, commanding the vanguard. Richard himself rode at the centre with his household knights, while Henry Percy, the fourth Earl of Northumberland, was stationed with his men in the rearguard.

Opposing them was Henry Tudor’s force of about 5,000—composed of French troops, Welshmen, and English exiles—led by John de Vere, thirteenth Earl of Oxford, at the vanguard, with Sir Gilbert Talbot on the right wing and Sir John Savage on the left. Lord Thomas Stanley and his brother, Sir William Stanley, with approximately 3,000 men, waited nearby to see which way the wind would blow.

Between the two armies lay a marsh, which the Tudor army had to cross to deploy in battle order.

Clash and Betrayal on the Battlefield

Portrait of King Richard III (1280)

King Richard ordered his archers to attack, followed by the artillery and infantry. A fierce hand-to-hand melee ensued. The Earl of Oxford commanded his men not to stray more than ten feet from the banners to maintain a solid line. During the fighting, the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Ferrers were killed in the royal army, leaving the Earl of Surrey to take over command of the vanguard.

Richard ordered the Earl of Northumberland to join the attack with his troops, but the order was disobeyed—possibly because the earl was not fully committed to the battle. Richard then spotted Henry Tudor riding away from his army to seek aid from Sir William Stanley. Realising a headlong charge with his household knights might swiftly decide the battle, Richard attacked with his small force, killing Sir William Brandon, Henry Tudor’s standard bearer, and knocking down Sir John Cheney, a giant of a man.

At this critical moment, Sir William Stanley chose to attack the royal force with his 3,000 men, causing most of Richard’s men to be killed or put to flight. King Richard was isolated, unhorsed, and cut down after refusing to flee the battlefield.

“If I may speak the truth to his honour, although small of body and weak in strength, he most valiantly defended himself as a noble knight to his last breath, often exclaiming that he was betrayed.”
— Chronicler John Rous

Aftermath and the Fate of Richard III

The Earl of Northumberland, seeing this action, retreated with his men, having taken no part in the battle. The Earl of Surrey also retreated with his remaining troops towards Stoke Golding. Around 1,000 soldiers in the royal army were killed. Richard’s crown, found in a thorn bush, was placed on the head of Henry Tudor by Lord Thomas Stanley.

That same day, Henry Tudor’s army rode to Leicester with King Richard’s body, stripped naked and slung over a horse, parading it around the town. Richard was buried at Greyfriars Church, which was later destroyed during the Reformation under King Henry VIII. For centuries, it was believed that Richard’s bones had been dug up and thrown into the River Soar in Leicester. However, in 2012, the “Looking for Richard” project, led by Philippa Langley and the late John Ashdown-Hill, located Richard’s bones at the site of Greyfriars Church. The authenticity of the remains was confirmed by DNA examination, and Richard III was reburied at Leicester Cathedral on 26th March 2015, in a ceremony attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Gloucester.

The Legacy of Bosworth

The Battle of Bosworth marked the end of Plantagenet rule in England after 331 years and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty. King Richard did not lose through lack of military skill but through betrayal and the indifference of many nobles and common soldiers.