On the 22nd August 1485 the last battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought - The Battle of Bosworth. Its outcome would decide the fate of England and who was to be its king; Richard of York or Henry of Lancaster? The destiny of the nation was in the balance.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
He landed on 7th August and gathered supporters as he marched east through Wales and the Midlands. By the time he reached Bosworth, Henry had 5,000 men at his command
|
Stanley's son, George, was married to Baroness Strange and so he became Baron Strange
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Henry met the Yorkist commander, Lord Stanley, in secret. What the two men said is not known, but their meeting possibly changed the course of history
|
Richard had 12,000 soldiers, however 4,000 of these were commanded by Lord Stanley and their loyalty was suspect
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cannons of the period took around 6 minutes to reload, by which time hand-to-hand battle would have begun. Cannons were also prone to explode in the faces of their operators!
|
Although the Earls of Northumberland had previously supported the Lancastrians, Richard had helped them in their wars with the Scots. Because of this, Lord Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland at the time, brought his 3,000 men to Richard's aid
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Professional soldiers, the Men-at-arms, carried battle-axes, maces and hammers. The more common soldiers were armed with hooks or spikes. Chivalry was reserved for tournaments. On the battlefield, soldiers aimed to kill or wound their opponents as quickly as possible
|
Although Henry lost many of his men in this exchange, they did manage to kill the Duke of Norfolk, one of Richard's most trusted commanders
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
For this reason support for Henry was poor. His claim to the throne was also regarded at the time as tenuous, coming, as it did, through a female line of descent
|
This was no mean feat considering that Henry's men walked through the difficult terrain of Wales whilst trying to gather supporters to their cause
|