Commemorating Bosworth: Bosworth Field - The Battle

There are few battles as significant as the Battle of Bosworth, which took place on August 22^nd in 1485. It is viewed as ending the long running Wars of the Roses between the Lancastrian (Red) and Yorkist (White) houses; finishing the Plantagenet dynasty under Richard III, while installing a new branch of Lancastrians under Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond.

By the C15^th  perhaps due to the ongoing dynastic strife, the age-old feudal system had been corrupted. Loyalty to the king was no longer a given; instead nobles mustered able bodied men to their own militias, under their own command. Actual personal relationships between King and lord probably held more sway than any perceived sense of loyalty to the estate of the crown. The more powerful a lord, the greater the incentive the crown would have to yield to win over a house’s support. When all else failed, of course, there was always the practice of holding hostages as insurance. 

Due to resentment over the manner that Richard had seized the throne and the disappearance of the princes in the tower; Henry Tudor, an exiled Lancastrian, left Brittany and landed in South Wales with a force of some 2000 French mercenaries.

Henry took his time travelling through Wales and the Marches gathering support. In all he called to his banners around 2000 Welsh recruits and around 1000 Englishmen. Accompanying his venture were many Lancastrian exiles, including the experienced John de Vere, Earl of Oxford; whose strategic nous would prove invaluable to the inexperienced Henry. 

Meanwhile Richard, with 3000 men, moved to intercept Henry demanding his lords to join him; his most loyal supporter was John Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, commanding around 3000 men at arms. Also answering his summons was the Duke of Northumberland with 4000 and, dragging their feet,were the Stanleys from Cheshire with 6000. During the Wars of the Roses the Stanleys had a reputation of hanging back from many of the bloodbaths until a critical point. To make matters worse relations between Richard and the Stanleys were not the best, so to ensure his reluctant allies' support Richard held Lord Stanley’s son as a hostage. Henry himself had made overtures to the Stanleys but true to form they had held back from openly declaring their allegiance to either claimant. In theory then Richard had three times as many troops as Henry.

In the C15th battlefield tactics had seen a reemergence of heavy infantry. The Longbow, Pike and Billhook - and to some extent cannon - had robbed cavalry of their battlefield supremacy. Cavalry were now mainly used to chase down a retreating enemy and ensure a rout and also to swing around the flanks and prevent the foe escaping.

Nobles and professional men-at–arms would be encased in steel plate, wielding sword and mace, while levies would have quilted armour, if fortunate a helm, and would be armed with poleaxe weapons.

Heading west, Richard’s forces moved through Sutton Cheney in Leicestershire and took position on Ambion Hill with Norfolk. Ambion Hill overlooked a plain with an area of marsh on his left flank. Behind this marshy area Northumberland’s forces formed his rear-guard.

To the west at White Moors were Henry’s forces, while south of the marsh, visible from Richard's position, the Stanleys and their 6000 men camped at Dadlington. The Stanleys had, in effect, acted as a screen to Henry’s forces, while Richard’s army assembled.

Forced to attack Henry’s army swung east, and then north, to be able to cross the river that drained into the marsh. While advancing Richard’s cannon harassed them. Although becoming more common, cannon were notorious at this time; they were inaccurate and easily overheated, with the unfortunate tendency of sometimes exploding and killing their crews. If the Stanleys had attacked at this juncture the battle would have been over. Indeed Richard demanded that they take action, threatening the death of his hostage; but Lord Stanley would not move coldly replying that he had other sons.

Staying at the rear with his guard, Henry gave command of his army to Oxford. Oxford ordered that his men stay in a single formation and formed a wedge and advanced with his cavalry guarding the flanks. After the usual exchange of arrows Richard ordered Norfolk to attack.

In the desperate hand to hand melee Oxford’s wedge formation began to gain the upperhand. Richard’s superior numbers were negated as they couldn’t break the formation and destroy them piecemeal. Oxford had ordered that his men shouldn’t stray more than ten feet from their banners.  Richard ordered Northumberland to attack but this force didn’t move. Whether he was mirroring the Stanleys or disloyal to Richard is unknown. If he had advanced he would either had to swing east in a wide flanking move to avoid the marsh or would have had to advance through Richard’s forces currently engaged with the enemy. To add to Richard’s woes Norfolk was struck in the face with an arrow and killed. The battles' outcome was on a knife edge and both commanders knew that the Stanleys could sway the result either way.

King Richard may have been lacking luck at Bosworth but he certainly wasn’t lacking courage. He saw that Henry had moved with his bodyguard to negotiate with the Stanleys. In a desperate bid to land a decisive blow, Richard, with a small mounted force, swung around the melee to attack Henry’s force. Richard himself felled Henry’s standard bearer and came very close to Henry himself. Henry’s bodyguard were sorely pressed to defend their lord from the battle crazed Yorkist king. It was at this point the Stanleys made their move, seeing Richard isolated they fell upon him, forcing his small force into the marsh. With his horse stuck in the boggy ground or killed beneath him as in the Shakespearian verse, and after coming within a sword length of Henry himself, Richard found himself surrounded.

Men with halberds fell upon him, striking him so fiercely that he lost his helmet with its golden circlet. It was said that it was a Welshman, Rhys ap Thomas who delivered the death blow.

With Norfolk and the king dead all hope was lost for the Yorkist cause. Northumberland and his forces fled north. The circlet was retrieved and Henry was crowned king on a hill at nearby Stoke Golding.

In 2013 the positive identification of King Richard’s remains in a car park in Leicester revealed a skeleton with ten wounds, eight of them to the head.  So died Richard III. An usurper? Maybe. A child killer? Perhaps. A brave warrior? Absolutely.

Rob Bayliss is a reviewer at The Review and is currently writing his own fantasy series.     Information on his writing projects can be found at Flint & Steel, Fire & Shadow.

Sharon Bennett Connolly Reflects on Visiting Bosworth Battlefield Today

Visiting Bosworth Battlefield Today

“Two Kings – One Battle”

The standards of Richard III and Henry VII

Last year I took my 9-year-old son and 40-something husband to visit their first battlefield. We were holidaying in Derbyshire and decided to drive down to Leicestershire and visit Bosworth. With all the hype around the discovery and re-burial of Richard III, it seemed a great way to show a 9-year-old the story of a battle.

He, of course, knows a little of the Richard III story. He can identify the king’s portrait and knows he was involved in the Wars of the Roses, but we don’t linger on the Princes in the Tower too much. I don’t think he is as familiar with Henry VII, but he can tell you all of Henry VIII’s queens, in order, and tell you their fate. So taking my son to the battlefield was a way of giving him a place and time where he could visualise the events and the people.

It worked.

However, what I found surprising was the effect it had on my husband. Hubby is a bit of a computer geek and into all the mod cons. He never had an interest in history before he met me, and even now I can see his eyes glossing over if I talk too much about the past – 15 minutes a day is usually all he can take!

The Sundial on Ambion Hill

I have visited battlefields before; Waterloo, Stamford Bridge, Hastings and a few others. The calm serenity always amazes me. I expect to hear the echoes of battle, the cries of the wounded, clashes of arms and the shouted orders of the battle’s commanders – and the thunder of the horses hooves during the cavalry charge. At Bosworth, if you close your eyes tight, and listen intently, you can almost hear it…..

The Battle of Bosworth Trail

The Battlefield trail is a wonderful leisurely walk. It’s not the actual battlefield; they found that a short distance away a few years ago, but it is Ambion Hill. And standing at the memorial you have a panoramic view of the area; you can  imagine the 2 sides facing each other, troops in the thick of it and those waiting to engage. My son listened in awe as I described the death of Norfolk and the final, desperate charge of Richard III; and Percy’s men standing, watching and waiting – possibly very close to where we were stood at that moment.

View from Ambion Hill

As you walk round the hill and through the woods, there are markers, pointing the way; and viewpoints and information posts telling the story of the battle and explaining the technology and tactics used. One marker explains the use of the longbow, how it dealt death from afar. The marker explained where the archers were positioned during the fighting; you almost expected to look to your right and see them raising their bows to the air. 

My son was fascinated by the idea that children as young as he was had already started their knightly training, that there were only about 1,000 knights in the whole of England. And I was amazed to discover that many who could be knights chose not to, in order to avoid the duty and responsibility that came with knighthood; these men were simply called esquires or gentlemen.

Information post explaining the use of cannons in the battle

It amazed my husband to discover that cannon and handguns were in use in the battle. 1485 seems to be too long ago for men to have used gunpowder. The handguns were large and cumbersome weapons, too large for one hand to use; guns were still very much in their infancy. However, it was a scattering of cannon balls and other small metal objects (such heraldic badges, spur rowels and coins), found by metal detectors, which finally meant the location of the battlefield could be confidently identified.

Battle standards in Ambion Wood

Although the general battlefield has now been identified, we still don’t know where individual parts of the action took place. We can’t say for certain where the action between Norfolk and Oxford took place, nor where Norfolk fell. We can’t tell where Stanley and his men were standing, watching for that turn in the battle that made him decide to join Henry Tudor’s forces. 

But the specifics don’t matter as much as I expected they would. The battlefield provides its own story. And the fact you can’t say exactly where each part of the action happened serves to highlight the confusion of a battle. When you’re on the ground, in the thick of it, fighting for your life and your king, you wouldn’t be looking round to see where on the field you were. You would be looking to your own survival, fighting the man in front of you while watching your back. 

King Richard’s Well, cairn built close to where it is thought the king fell

So the locations of events are vague, but that they are remembered and commemorated is what matters. Whether the marker is where Richard fell matters less than that there is a marker to the fallen king.

Henry VII

And once you have walked the Battlefield Trail, there is the Heritage Centre to visit. The Centre offers wonderful background to the battle, told through the voices of those involved: a serving girl at a local inn, a mercenary’s wife, an archer. The 2 armoured kings stand watch over you as you view artefacts found on the field of battle and study maps and videos explaining the battle and the troop movements. The Heritage Centre is very hands-on; children can try on the armour and test out the helmets. You can test your ability to draw a longbow; it’s not as easy as you think. By far the most dramatic display is the little corner dedicated to the Barber-Surgeons. The tools of his trade are displayed and a skeleton depicting the wounds of one soldier from the battlefield. Given the recent discovery of Richard III, and the detailed descriptions of his wounds, this seemed a particularly poignant display.

Richard III

Walking the battlefield is a humbling experience. So little is known about the men who fought and died in these fields on 22nd August 1485. And, yet, the date marks so much change in English history: the end of one the Plantagenet dynasty and the start of Tudor rule; the end of the Middle Ages and the beginnings of the Renaissance. Just around the corner were the marital problems of Henry VIII and the English Reformation and the subsequent, glorious reign of Elizabeth I. But the men who fought that day would know nothing of the significance of the battle beyond that moment.





 Sharon Bennett Connolly has a lifelong fascination with history, and has recently discovered a love of writing. She has combined these two in her blog, History…the interesting bits!

Lara's Library: A Song of Sixpence

A Song of Sixpence: The Story of Elizabeth of York and Perkin Warbeck

by Judith Arnopp

Review by Lara

Author Judith Arnopp has so generously offered a FREE PAPERBACK COPY of A Song of Sixpence for one lucky winner. Please see below for details

Drawing July 23, 2015

This drawing has been held and a winner announced at Facebook.

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In the years after Bosworth, a small boy is ripped from his rightful place as future king of England. Years later when he reappears to take back his throne, his sister Elizabeth, now queen to the invading king, Henry Tudor, is torn between family loyalty and duty. Besieged by conflicting loyalties, Elizabeth experiences fear, oppression and unexpected love as the final struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster is played out.


Set against the court of Henry VII, A Song of Sixpence is a unique perspective on the early years of Tudor rule. Elizabeth, often viewed as meek and uninteresting, emerges as a resilient woman, proving that as much strength lies in endurance as in resilience.

Throughout history there are stories and legends that entice our imaginations. The tale of the two princes in the Tower is one of those. Another is the account of Perkin Warbeck. Even if you do not know the true facts or complete history of this time, nor the story of Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, A Song of Sixpence is an extraordinary book that will entice you to read further and set you on a road of discovery. 

This book is a wonderful journey through a most precarious and perilous chapter in the very beginnings of Tudor history. The format and characters, along with the storyline, are the result and testament of  penmanship and of great story-telling. I felt I was right there, in the presence and minds of the characters and time, more than just a voyeur looking in. In A Song of Sixpence the author does not attempt to prove that Warbeck is Richard, Duke of York, but has created a narrative based on a probability that he was.

The story begins with a chapter titled ‘The Boy’ in the autumn of 1483, London. It does not take too long for the reader to grasp what is happening, and to whom:

The Princes in the Tower

With a muffled curse, the man throws back his head but, keeping hold of his prisoner, he hurries onward down narrow, dark steps, turning one corner then another before halting abruptly. The boy hears his assailant’s breath coming short and sharp and knows he too is afraid.

The boy is Richard. His introduction begins as a prisoner in the Tower of London, taken in the night by a stranger, and then later treated as a slave: "'I hate being your servant,' he spits but he keeps his voice lowered… He owes his life to the man. His captor assures him that he is '...no one, nothing…until I say you are.'"


The author’s treatment of Richard is convincing. It makes me wonder, if he had succeeded in taking the throne, the Tudors would have ceased to exist and the lives of Elizabeth’s children would have come under threat, perhaps suffering the same fate as he. Through years of training and grooming in exile, he returns to claim his throne. One can only wonder, if this was Richard, how the trauma of his childhood, with all its losses, could ever make this broken boy into a king one day. Does he have his father’s qualities to be king? He has not yet been tested on the battlefield. Richard even doubts himself at times as the narrator suggests, when his chance to seize the throne arrives: "He had imagined that when the time came he would be brave, invincible, but now the moment is here, his overriding emotion is one of fear" and “I don’t even know how to be a king.” 

Richard is an endearing but sad figure who was accepted and celebrated in the houses and great courts throughout Europe, only to be ridiculed and humiliated before his demise at the hands of Henry Tudor. Richard at one stage laments about his role and wonders if his quest is worth the price. 

As a silent backdrop, the memories of Richard III and Elizabeth’s father, Edward IV, are interwoven between these two main characters, and adds to the validity of Warbeck’s assertion that he is the rightful king. Within the book's narrative Richard III, despite all he did to secure his own claim to the throne, is not portrayed as a monster, as most historical novels do. Although it was Richard who took the princes into the Tower, there is great disbelief in the characters that it was Richard who had killed or disposed of them. (The question of who killed the princes, if indeed they were murdered, remains one of history’s greatest mysteries.)                 

Henry VII & Elizabeth of York

The author presents Henry VII as a man whose claim to the throne was precarious. Arnopp’s Henry is wary of the successive pretenders to his reign, as he spends much time and effort in tracing the identity of each of these pretenders, especially Perkin Warbeck. This puts a considerable strain on the marriage of Elizabeth and Henry. The first Tudor king, Henry knows there are those who have a much better claim to the throne than he did.

Elizabeth had a greater claim to the throne than Henry Tudor. She knew her place, and her time as queen would come one day, even as the Battle of Bosworth was to decide the victor. "It is I, the eldest of my father’s daughters, who will be served like a pig on a platter to the triumphant king.” 

Henry Tudor eventually crowns Elizabeth Queen of England fourteen months after the birth of their first son, Arthur. Elizabeth has finally achieved her ambition to become queen. Elizabeth is often portrayed in history as a woman of no great strengths, other than her devotion to her family, and her inner relationships with her sisters and mother. Added to this, she has been contemporarily recorded as being “kept in subjection by the mother of the king” and by the king himself. Although Elizabeth is restrained in her role as queen, especially with Henry, it is only for fear for her children: "I watch him quietly. There is no point in interfering. He will not listen. He will go his own way, and if that entails the destruction of my entire family, it will not deter him."

As the tale unfolds Elizabeth is torn between her conscience and duty. She thinks to herself: "How can I trust him? How can I ever have faith in him when his duplicity is so transparent? I have an overwhelming urge to run away, but queens do not run away, and besides, there is nowhere for me to run."  Her courage shines through in her decisions to support her husband and king, and to protect her children from what she herself admits, that "her family had suffered." Elizabeth however, maintains hopes of romance with the harsh man she married: "Henry and I may have our differences but we share a deep love and joy for our children." I believe, as Arnopp states in her afterward, that "Elizabeth deserves more credit. There is as much strength in resilience as in resistance."

The relevancy, which Elizabeth faced in the Tudor times to today, in respect to being "bound to duty" and how a woman’s strength is measured, has not changed that much, even for a mere mortal woman like me. I loved Arnopp’s portrayal of Elizabeth, and although it seemed she was not a strong woman, I felt that she was. Elizabeth left a legacy: she had fulfilled her duty by filling the royal Tudor nursery with children, combining the houses of Lancaster and York, and as a result, creating the Tudor dynasty. I cried when she died in the end, even though I knew it was to be. Elizabeth of York will always be a heroine in my eyes.

Perkin Warbeck greeted by loyal subjects of 
Edward IV

Written with passion and empathy, Arnopp’s insight and extensive and faultless research shines throughout A Song of Sixpence. Arnopp has brilliantly mastered combining the story of Elizabeth of York, the eldest daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Wydville, with the story of Perkin Warbeck, the most famous pretender to the throne. She cleverly uses alternating chapters between the points of view of Elizabeth and Richard (or ‘The Boy’ as the chapters are titled).  I enjoyed this refreshing format and Arnopp’s writing style. Using this layout, the author brings a voice and insight to the characters.

This is not just a novel of interpretation, but one of substance, with all that is known of Elizabeth and her new husband Henry Tudor, to the possibility of Perkin Warbeck being one of the princes taken from the Tower. A genuine page turner, A Song of Sixpence is brilliant in drawing the reader into the delicious historical detail and story, and as the author breathes life to the characters with her use of words, which are like vibrant colours on a canvas, she enables the reader to visualize the characters and ambience clearly. With empathic portrayals,  the reader experiences the intimate feelings of the characters, from their fears to their innermost thoughts and desires.

A Song of Sixpence is a stand-alone book in itself. One does not have to be an avid Tudor fan, historian, or enthusiast to enjoy this outstanding novel, which I would highly recommend to  readers of all ages and inclinations. I look forward to reading more of Arnopp’s novels and, having had the opportunity to review this masterly tome, Judith Arnopp is now on my list of favourite authors. I loved the book!

For your chance to win a FREE PAPERBACK COPY of A Song of Sixpence, simply comment below OR at this review's Facebook thread, located here. 

About the Author:

Judith Arnopp is the author of seven historical novels. The first three are set early in the historical calendar in Anglo-Saxon and Norman Britain; the latter books take place in Tudor England. She is currently working on a trilogy, The Beaufort Chronicles, which tells the story of Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII. Arnopp's books include:

Peaceweaver: Set during the run up to the Battle of Hastings

The Forest Dwellers: Set after the Battle of Hastings

The Song of Heledd: set in 7^th century Powys

The Winchester  Goose: At the Court of Henry VIII

The Kiss of the Concubine: A Story of Anne Boleyn

Intractable Heart: The Story of Katheryn Parr

A Song of Sixpence: The Story of Elizabeth of York and Perkin Warbeck

You can find out more about Judith and her work on her webpage or blog. Her books are available at Amazon.

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Lara is a new addition to The Review and currently working on a family memoir set in Ukraine and Australia. She enjoys gardening and reading Tudor history in her spare time, and lives with two crazy cats.