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For Richard, the summer of 1485 would not be spent pursuing the leisurely outdoor activities kings were known to do, like hunting, hawking, archery, and playing bowls. Instead, Richard was actively preparing for an invasion from his nemesis Henry Tudor. Richard’s treasury was dangerously low and he had no time to assemble parliament to ask for a war tax, so he set about raising loans from his nobles in order to fund his defensive effort.1
In mid-May, Richard left London and rode to his summer headquarters at Nottingham Castle in central England. Richard believed this location would put him in a good position to meet his enemy no matter which coast the rebel Tudor chose to land his fleet. Richard expected Henry to arrive in southeast England near Kent, the area of so many previous insurrections. Landing there had a huge strategic advantage for Henry, not just for the numbers of Kentish men who would readily join his cause against Richard, but also for the close proximity to London itself, for to hold the capital city was to hold the entire kingdom. Richard dispatched his own fleets to patrol the English Channel off the southwest and southeast coasts of England’s shores looking for any sign of Henry Tudor.
As soon as King Richard arrived at Nottingham in mid-June, his informants brought him the news he had been anticipating for so long: Henry Tudor was assembling a large fleet near Rouen just across the English Channel and would sail soon. Richard wasted no time responding to the news. He immediately issued a second royal proclamation against Henry Tudor and his followers, this one much more alarming in tone than the first one issued in December 1484. In the new proclamation, Richard tried to frighten his English subjects into submission, threatening the total breakdown of law and order, including robberies, murders, and even worse atrocities if Henry Tudor and his followers were allowed to gain a foothold in England. Richard’s proclamation falsely accused the Breton exiles of committing ‘the most cruel murders, slaughters and robberies and disherisons that ever were seen in any Christian realm’.2 The following day Richard issued a commission of array for citizens to arm themselves and be ready to fight at a moment’s notice.
Richard was still at Nottingham Castle on 11 August 1485 when a messenger arrived with news that Henry Tudor had made his landing at Pembrokeshire in southwest Wales four days earlier.3 This was a big surprise to Richard as he had expected Henry to invade in southeast England, but for Henry it was essential to march through Wales to gather up more men for his modest army. His uncle Jasper Tudor was well-respected in Wales and Henry claimed to be descended from seventh-century King Cadwaladr of Wales.4 He even displayed the red dragon of Cadwaladr on his standard which helped recruit the wild Welshmen to his side to fight against King Richard III of England.
On the same day Richard got news of Henry Tudor’s landing, he dispatched urgent letters to his closest noble supporters ordering them to come in all haste and bring as many men as they could muster quickly. The duke of Norfolk and the earl of Northumberland planned to rendezvous with Richard at Leicester. Suspiciously enough, Lord Thomas Stanley asked permission to stay at home because he had the sweating sickness (he did not). Richard hesitantly granted his request but kept Lord Thomas’ son George, Lord Strange, as hostage for his father’s good behaviour. Just days later, Lord Strange tried to escape from Nottingham Castle but was captured and interrogated by Richard’s men. He confessed that he and his uncle Sir William Stanley had conspired to help Henry Tudor’s cause, but insisted that his father, Lord Thomas Stanley, was entirely loyal to Richard.5 Richard believed him. The Stanleys had a track record of switching loyalties according to whichever side was likely to prevail, so Richard was quite naive to accept the Stanleys’ promises of loyalty.6
While Richard anxiously waited for military reinforcements to arrive at Nottingham, Henry Tudor’s army was making its way through Wales, gaining even more Yorkist defectors by every passing day. Popular support for Richard had reduced greatly since his coronation, where thirty-three nobles had attended him. Now he only had a dozen still on his side and three of them would betray him in the end, including the Stanleys and Henry Percy, the earl of Northumberland. Northumberland commanded the rearguard of Richard’s army but didn’t join the battle. In fact, Northumberland had a plan to ensure Richard met his death during the impending battle with Henry Tudor so that he could place his cousin the young Warwick on the throne and rule through him.7
On 19 August 1485, Richard was finally comfortable enough with the numbers in his army to leave Nottingham and begin his fateful march towards his destiny with Henry Tudor. Richard’s retinue travelled over thirty kilometres that day and spent the night at Leicester where Richard joined armies with the duke of Norfolk and the earl of Northumberland. Chroniclers were notoriously bad at estimating the number of soldiers involved in medieval battles but for the Battle of Bosworth, the consensus is that Richard had about 8,000 men in his army and Henry Tudor had around 5,000 men.8
With Richard’s army in full order, he led them out of Leicester on 21 August and proceeded down the old Roman Road towards Atherstone. When Richard arrived at Sutton Cheney, about ten kilometres east of Atherstone, his scouts reported that Henry Tudor’s army was a mere five kilometres to the west. Richard decided to stop his march and let his men rest there for the evening before battling the following day. Richard didn’t get much rest that night because he was troubled by terrible dreams in which he was allegedly tormented by demons. When he emerged from his tent, he was apparently pale and shaken from whatever vision he had in his dreams that night.9
For such an epic and consequential battle as the Battle of Bosworth, we have very little idea of what exactly happened. There were no detailed accounts left behind, only second-hand stories documented through various chroniclers. The best description we have is from Polydore Vergil who was Henry VII’s historian. Vergil would have been told firsthand accounts of the battle from Henry and others that were present.10 Despite the lack of comprehensive documentation, we can piece together major milestones within that battle to determine what happened.
Early in the morning of 22 August 1485 on the high ground of Ambion Hill King Richard III lined up his army into three primary lines of defence. The duke of Norfolk commanded the vanguard (the advance guard), Richard led the centre guard, and the earl of Northumberland led the rear guard. As every great warrior king did before battle, Richard gave a motivational speech to his troops giving them courage and stoking their bloodlust. Then Richard donned his coronation crown, which in hindsight really wasn’t a good idea because it made him an easy target on the battlefield.11 Richard watched from the hill as Henry Tudor’s army moved into battle formation at the bottom of Ambion Hill. Henry had managed to raise a respectable 5,000 strong army but was clearly outnumbered by Richard. Sir William Stanley had a force of 3,000 men stationed north of the battlefield while his uncle Lord Thomas Stanley had 5,000 men to the south. The fickle Stanleys held back their men so they can watch the drama unfold and decide which side to join.12
After a brief exchange of cannon fire, the two armies advanced on each other simultaneously. The two vanguards battled each other for an hour in fierce hand-to-hand combat.13 The next account we have of the battle is the decisive moment when Richard spotted Henry Tudor on the battlefield. Richard decided to seize the opportunity and end Henry Tudor for good. Richard gathered a mounted force of 700 men and charged down the hill toward Henry. Henry’s pikemen jumped into action, surrounding their leader and deploying very long pikes with metal spears, forming a nearly impenetrable wall of protection. As Richard’s men crashed into the wall of pikes, chaos ensued and Richard’s men were scattered.14 It was at this moment when Sir William Stanley finally decided to commit himself, throwing in his lot with Henry Tudor. Seeing that he was betrayed by Stanley, Richard nonetheless bravely fought on, making it near enough to Henry that he was able to cut down his standard and kill the standard bearer, William Brandon. But soon enough Richard and the few men he had left were overtaken by the enemy. Richard was killed and his crown was placed on Henry Tudor’s head by Sir William Stanley.15 Despite a rather dubious royal bloodline, Henry Tudor, was proclaimed King of England by right of conquest.
Once Richard was seen being killed on the battlefield and his royal standard fell, his host broke apart. The last Plantagenet king was dead and a new dynasty had begun. As a final humiliation, Richard’s body was stripped naked, slung across a horse, and paraded through Leicester where it would remain on display for two days so the public could see he was really dead.16 His bones were unceremoniously buried without any stone or marker to identify him, as if he was a mere pauper. Astonishingly, in 2012 Richard’s bones were discovered in Leicester buried under a parking lot. Researchers knew it was Richard when they saw the curved spine which was reported by several contemporary chroniclers and wildly over-exaggerated by Shakespeare. Archaeologists studied Richard’s skeleton and determined that he died from a massive blow to the head, probably caused by a halberd or some other sharp-edged weapon.17 In the spring of 2015, Leicester held several days of celebration leading up to a proper funeral and burial at Leicester Cathedral for the misfortunate King Richard III.