Battle of Bosworth Field

22 August 1485, near Market Bosworth

The armies of King Richard III and the invading claimant Henry Tudor met near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire on 22 August 1485. Richard had the larger force.

Archaeology has since relocated the core battlefield roughly two miles southwest of the traditional Ambion Hill interpretation, and the narrative sources vary in reliability and contradict one another on formations, terrain and individual actions.

The charge

After the fighting reached a stalemate, Richard led a rapid mounted charge straight at Henry Tudor's banners, trying to kill the claimant himself.

Sir William Stanley's previously uncommitted force entered the fighting on Henry's side, and Richard was surrounded and killed. Thomas Stanley's family army had stayed separate for much of the battle, leaving both sides unsure of its allegiance.

Stanley's intervention was decisive, but the evidence does not establish that he personally killed Richard.

What the bones show

Examination of Richard's skeleton found multiple blows from several bladed weapons, especially to his unhelmeted head, consistent with an attack by more than one person. One wound through the buttocks was probably inflicted after death, as a deliberate insult.

The individual killer cannot be identified. Contemporary accounts refer generally to Tudor supporters or Welsh foot soldiers, and the attribution to Rhys ap Thomas is traditional rather than proved.

Henry was not crowned on the field: his coronation followed at Westminster Abbey on 30 October, and Yorkist resistance continued to the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487.