Battle of Bosworth Field 1485: Causes and Consequences

Henry Tudor's Claim and Richard III's Weakness

The Battle of Bosworth Field (22 August 1485) took place because Henry Tudor was able to mount a serious challenge to the position of King Richard III. He was able to do so because during the preceding two years Richard's position had been weakened by his own acts and by rebellion and discontent among the English nobility, and because Henry had been able to secure his place as the head of the Lancastrian tendency and the only credible challenger to Richard's throne.

This was despite the very real weakness of Henry Tudor's claim. Henry's royal blood was real enough but illegitimate, and his claim to the throne was not a particularly strong one. It was based on his descent from the Beaufort line — the illegitimate offspring of John of Gaunt's union with his mistress Katherine Swinford. John of Gaunt was the son of Edward III and held the title Duke of Lancaster; his eldest legitimate son became the first Lancastrian king of England, Henry IV. Margaret Beaufort, granddaughter of John of Gaunt, was married in 1453 to Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, half-brother of King Henry VI. When relations between the Lancastrian court and the Duke of York broke down in the late 1460s, the sons of Edmund Tudor — Owen and Jasper — sided not with the King but with York. When Henry VI and his son Edward died in 1471, Henry became de facto head of the House of Lancaster.

The revolts against Richard that took place in 1483 had the dual effect of weakening Richard further and strengthening Henry, and the latter was able to prepare militarily over the next two years to challenge Richard for the throne. The fact that Henry's place of exile was Brittany — a state hostile to Richard's England — made it more difficult for Richard to undermine his rival.

Henry's Preparation and the Road to Invasion

Many notables with a shared interest in removing Richard from power gravitated to Henry's following during 1484 and early 1485 until he had a retinue of some 500 individuals, ranging from die-hard Lancastrian loyalists to those who had fallen foul of Richard in some way and sought revenge. The clear strength of Henry's following convinced the King of France to give him the financial aid he had long sought, making invasion a realistic possibility.

Meanwhile, Richard's son Prince Edward died in 1484, and his wife Anne Neville died in early 1485, depriving him of both his heir and his means of producing another. This raised the issue of what would happen if Richard died childless. The threat of a further disputed succession — and perhaps another bout of civil war — must have loomed large in the minds of many of Richard's former supporters and made the cause of the young Henry Tudor still more appealing.

Thus, by the spring of 1485, Henry's stock was high and Richard's correspondingly low. The time for invasion and a decisive meeting on the field of battle had come. Henry's small invasion force landed at Milford Haven in south-west Wales on 7 August 1485. Henry's Welsh descent and his conscious identification with Welsh national aspirations was itself an important element in his support base. He marched through Wales and into England, gathering support as he went; Richard, from his base at Nottingham, saw much of his support dwindle and many promises of loyalty come to nothing over the same period. By 21 August the Tudor army was south of Market Bosworth in Leicestershire, some four miles from the King's force. Henry's army by this time numbered between 5,000 and 7,000 men, while Richard's army was around 8,000–12,000 strong.

The Battle of Bosworth Field

The battle began as a race between the two armies to secure the high ground midway between them, a feature known as Ambion Hill. Richard won the race and deployed the vanguard of his army, under the Duke of Norfolk, across the crest. There was not room for the whole of his force to deploy along the ridge, however, and his center and rearguard had to be positioned behind.

As Henry's army approached the hill, he discovered that his path was blocked by a marsh and had to detour to the north to avoid it. This maneuver exposed his army to attack by the archers in Norfolk's vanguard, but no such attack took place, allowing Henry to position his army for its assault unmolested. The result was that Richard's center was lined up against Henry's vanguard and center, commanded by the Earl of Oxford, with Richard at the top of the slope and Henry at the bottom. The terrain, as well as the numbers, seemed to give Richard the advantage.

After an initial bout of cannon fire, the two armies advanced upon each other and met halfway down the hill. The two vanguards became embroiled in a savage melee for something over an hour, with the entire center of each army gradually being drawn in to support the vanguards. It was during this period of struggle that the Stanley brothers began to move toward the fighting, and that the course of the battle becomes much less clear.

Works Cited

Evans, Robin. "The Battle of Bosworth Field: A Welsh Victory?" History Review, December 2002: 4–7.

Haigh, Philip A. The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1997.

Jacob, E.F. The Fifteenth Century, 1399–1485. Oxford: Clarendon, 1976.

Richmond, Colin. "The Battle of Bosworth." History Today, August 1985: 17–22.

Williams, Penry. "The Tudors and England." History Today, September 1985: 30–36.