In the final battle of the English Civil War, King Richard III faced off against the rival for his throne, Henry Tudor, in harrowing man-to-man combat.
Wikimedia CommonsThe Battle of Bosworth Field , as painted by Philip James de Loutherbourg in 1804 .
For 32 eld , England was torn apart in a roughshod civil war between the Lancasters and the Yorks . It was known as the War of the Roses , and in a brutally hand - on rumble between the two side of meat represented by King Richard III and Henry Tudor , the whole war come to an goal in the bloody Battle of Bosworth Field .
Only one of the men would leave the battlefield alive and thus bring an end to the English polite state of war and an entire dynasty .
Wikimedia CommonsThe Battle of Bosworth Field, as painted by Philip James de Loutherbourg in 1804.
The War Of The Roses
Wikimedia CommonsThe lords of England prefer their side in the civil war , ground on the oeuvre of Shakespeare , as paint by Henry Arthur Payne in 1908 .
TheWar of the Roseshad already seen 32 bloody years before the Battle of Bosworth Field . England had been in a polite war since King Richard III was an infant and Henry Tudor was yet to be contain . War , therefore , was all those two men had ever screw .
The war had start in 1455 , when Richard , Duke of York , challenge the Lancastrian King Henry VI ’s right to the throne . The York US Army had follow and imbed Richard ’s son , King Edward IV on the potty , and chased Henry VI out of the country .
Wikimedia CommonsThe lords of England choose their sides in the civil war, based on the works of Shakespeare, as painted by Henry Arthur Payne in 1908.
But the Lancasters never give up their battle to reclaim the throne , and the nation continue to tear itself apart in the throes of a civil warfare . Because each house interpret itself with a floral insignia , the war became experience as one of “ the rose wine . ”
By the metre the Battle of Bosworth Field had begin , the York ’s Richard III was king . He had been describe Protector of England by his elder brother , Edward IV , who had inquire him to guide the nation until his 12 - year - honest-to-god son became honest-to-god enough to inherit the throne .
But instead , Richard had the young prince and his 9 - twelvemonth - onetime brother lock in a tower and claim the throne as his own .
Wikimedia CommonsThe armies at the Battle of Bosworth Field charge into battle, as depicted in a diorama by John Taylor in 1974.
The boys then disappeared in 1483 . A debate remains to this solar day about what might have take place to the princes ; but at the sentence , most believed that Richard had kill the princes in the Tower to ensure his title to the throne .
With baby stemma on the hand of the king , one last revolt heighten up against Richard III and the York dynasty . But in the horror of the warfare , every Lancaster with a defensible title to the can had die out .
There was only one adult male leave with any solid ground on which to gainsay Richard III from the Lancaster side : Henry Tudor .
Wikimedia CommonsRichard III charges into battle.
Henry Tudor was the bully - grandchild of the illegitimate grandson of a king who ’d died more than a hundred geezerhood before , and even that was only on his mother ’s side . He had a fragile call to the throne , but he was England ’s only desire to overthrow the onerous Richard III .
The Battle of Bosworth Field
Wikimedia CommonsThe armies at the Battle of Bosworth Field charge into battle , as describe in a diorama by John Taylor in 1974 .
On Aug. 7 , 1485 , Henry Tudor ’s regular army landed on the southwest seacoast of Wales . They stampeded through England toward Richard III . The road forrader , though , would n’t be easy . Richard III ’s army vastly outnumber the Tudor . By some history , Richard had as many as 10 - 15,000 men , with arms and artillery at their sides , quick to meet Henry ’s mere 5,000 .
There was a third regular army , though , and they could easy change the tides of the fight . The Stanleys , a wealthy family , had 6,000 man on retainer and they had yet to choose a side . to persuade them , Richard kidnapped the firstborn Stanley boy and held him surety as collateral for the phratry ’s support in the state of war .
Wikimedia CommonsRichard III and Henry Tudor fight in the center of Bosworth Field, as painted by Abraham Cooper in 1825.
All three armies encounter in the south of the Greenwich Village of Market Bosworth to combat it out on the moors .
Richard III divided his army into the three mathematical group , positioned in strategical locations at the top of Ambien Hill . Henry kept his man together and move by the marsh underneath . The Stanleys stayed at the side and watched the battle unfurl . They waited to gauge the success before they made a move .
Richard then made his terror against the Stanleys explicit . He sent a messenger to Lord Stanley to warn him that if the family failed to fall in him in the conflict against Henry Tudor , his son would die .
The crown is placed atop Henry VII’s head, by Richard Caton Woodville in 1902.
Lord Stanley gave a briefreply :
“ Sire , I have other sons . ”
Northumberland’s Betrayal
Wikimedia CommonsRichard III charges into battle .
A hail of carom fire fell down on Henry Tudor ’s regular army as they skin to make their way around the Reginald Marsh . They press on until the armies met in the moors and the war became then a brutal clank of steel , cutis , and blood .
Richard III was a powerful warrior . Even his enemies when the battle had endedadmittedthat he “ bore himself like a gallant knight ” .
The tycoon ran straight into the ruffle and even took on Henry Tudor ’s behemoth , the 6’8″ marvellous John Cheney . Cheney was the marvellous soldier in all of England and one of the most feared human on the field of battle . Richard III challenge him on his own and rap the giant down to the ground .
The York ground forces , though , did n’t partake in their baron ’s strength and fervency . Even with the numbers on their side , they failed fast under the Lancasters ’ blade at the Battle of Bosworth .
Some human race watched in repugnance as Richard ’s standard - bearer , Percival Thirwall , had his peg hacked off from under him in battle . Thirwall tried to keep them inspired , clinging on to his king ’s standard even as his limbs were torn from underneath him , but it was n’t enough . Panic sweep through the York ’s rank .
The third part of the York army , those who belong to the Stanleys and under the command of the Earl of Northumberland , still had n’t enter the fray . Richard signaled to Northumberland to defend his king and bring him triumph at the Battle of Bosworth .
But the Earl of Northumberland and the thousands of human being under his command simply support back and learn , until Northumberland ordered his man to forget the battlefield — and their male monarch to his death .
simple minutes before , Richard III had outnumbered his enemy nearly three - to - one . But with this treachery , the York man were panicked and run for their lives from Bosworth Field .
A abrasive , inescapable truth now asterisk Richard in the face . He was go to recede the Battle of Bosworth – and the war .
Richard III’s Last Charge
Wikimedia CommonsRichard III and Henry Tudor fight in the center of Bosworth Field , as painted by Abraham Cooper in 1825 .
Richard ’s army – or what continue of them – begged their king to flee the battlefield , but the king refused . “ God prohibit I yield one step , ” he said . “ This daytime I will die as a king or win . ”
Henry Tudor hid in the back rows of his U. S. Army and Richard knew that there was still a probability to win .
Richard and his most desire men bestride their horses and tear through the Lancaster regular army . They drove their charge flat toward Henry himself . They plowed through the USA until the tip of Richard ’s shaft was little more than a foot away from his enemy .
But it was at that moment that the Stanleys get into into the Battle of Bosworth . They hasten Richard ’s complaint and cut off it short . Then they criticise him off of his gymnastic horse .
One - by - one , Richard ’s manpower were cut down around him , but the Rex fight down on , no matter how much blood he lost .
Based on the skeleton he left behind , historiansbelievethat a halberd – an axe - similar weapon on the end of a six - metrical foot long pole – came down on Richard ’s head and knocked his helmet off as he was throw off to the ground .
But even that could not end the lion - hearted Richard . He fought on , his head uncovered , and was even repeatedly gouged by a dagger into the skull . Gushing blood , Richard staggered back to his feet and lunged at Henry .
The halberd fell once more and finally crushed the magnate ’s unprotected head . The back of his skull was cut clean off .
Richard staggered for a mo , still refusing to accrue , and terrified that nothing could possibly kill this devil of a man , another soldier thrust his blade up through the stand of his skull until it had lodged into his brain .
The king – finally – was stagnant .
The Battle of Bosworth thus terminate the civil war .
The Dawn Of The Tudor Dynasty
The diadem is placed atop Henry VII ’s fountainhead , by Richard Caton Woodville in 1902 .
No humiliation was spar for Richard III . Henry ’s man tie up him up like a grunter with his private parts exposed and paraded his corpse through Leicester .
A whole dynasty died with him . The era of the Yorks and the Lancasters , known as the Plantagenet Dynasty , came to an destruction . Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII of England under a nearby oak tree in Stoke Golding , not far from where the Battle of Bosworth had take place .
Northumberland , for his part , paid the price for betraying his king in the Battle of Bosworth Field . On April 28 , 1489 , a mob run him down and bust him from branch to tree branch .
Few drop split for his , or the male monarch ’s , death . Even with Henry VII in power , the Great Chronicle of Londondeclaredthat Northumberland had been killed for his “ mortal malevolency ” in “ the disappointing of King Richard at Bosworth Field . ”
Within a few eld , peace had devolve to England . There were other claimant to the toilet , but Henry was capable to hold them off , and the Tudor dynasty express on .
The impingement on history would be unbelievable . The Battle of Bosworth Field was the fluttering of the butterfly ’s offstage that would remold the facial expression of England .
Henry VII ’s heir , Henry VIII , would skip ties with the Roman Catholic Church and depart the Church of England . His granddaughter , Elizabeth I , would serve add in a expand era of English literature and exploration that saw the success of men like Sir Francis Drake and William Shakespeare .
Without the Battle of Bosworth Field , pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony may never have traveled to the New World . The whole history of England , of the Americas , of Christianity , and of the whole world would have followed down an entirely different itinerary .
When Richard III called for his horse to charge Henry , in that trice , the intact public changed .
After this look at the Battle of Bosworth Field , check more about the mystery story behind Richard III and thePrinces in the Tower . Then , read up on Henry VII ’s rebel son , Henry VIII .
