Battle of Bosworth Field Timeline

Edward IV died 12 years after Tewkesbury in April 1483. His death destabilized the realm, as his twelve-year-old son Edward V was deemed too young to rule unaided, opening the door for Richard of Gloucester to seize power.

Image source: Edward IV of England

Richard's reign began in 1483 when he ascended the throne after his twelve-year-old nephew, Edward V, was declared illegitimate, likely at Richard's instigation. His seizure of power created deep resentment among disaffected Yorkists who would later side with Henry Tudor.

In October 1483, a conspiracy emerged to displace Richard from the throne. The revolt failed, but it marked a turning point in opposition to Richard's reign and strengthened Henry Tudor's claim as a rallying point for dissenters.

Henry's first attempt to invade England in 1483 foundered in a storm before reaching shore. Undeterred, he regrouped in exile in France and prepared a second expedition that would ultimately succeed two years later.

Image source: Henry VII of England

On 16 March 1485 Richard's queen, Anne Neville, died, and rumours spread across the country that she was murdered to pave the way for Richard to marry his niece, Elizabeth. These rumours further damaged Richard's reputation and eroded support for his reign.

Image source: Anne Neville

Henry's crossing of the English Channel in 1485 was without incident, and his second attempt arrived unopposed on 7 August 1485 on the south-west coast of Wales. He gathered support as he marched through Wales towards England, building an army to challenge Richard III.

He spent the night at the Blue Boar inn (demolished 1836) in Leicester as he prepared to confront Henry Tudor's approaching army. The next day he marched out to meet the Lancastrian forces near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire.

Image source: Blue Boar Street

Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by an alliance of Lancastrians and disaffected Yorkists. It was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, ending Plantagenet rule and beginning the Tudor dynasty under Henry VII.

He led a charge of mounted men around the melee and tore into Henry's group; several accounts state that Richard's force numbered 800–1000 knights, but Ross says it was more likely that Richard was accompanied only by his household men and closest friends. Near this spot, at the age of 32, King Richard III fell fighting gallantly in defence of his realm and his crown against the usurper Henry Tudor.

The earliest record, a municipal memorandum of 23 August 1485 from York, locates the battle 'on the field of Redemore'. This is corroborated by a 1485–86 letter that mentions 'Redesmore' as its site; according to historian Peter Foss, records did not associate the battle with 'Bosworth' until 1510.

The rebel army fended off several attacks by Northumberland's forces, before engaging Henry's army at the Battle of Stoke Field on 16 June 1487. This final engagement secured Henry VII's hold on the throne after Bosworth.

Image source: Battle of Stoke Field

A rebellion in 1489 started with Northumberland's murder, reflecting continued unrest in the north of England even after Bosworth. Military historians have noted the significance of this event in the consolidation of Henry VII's rule.

According to Reader Colin Burrow, André was so overwhelmed by the historic significance of the battle that he represented it with a blank page in his Henry VII (1502), an unusual literary tribute underscoring how momentous contemporaries considered the victory.

According to historian Peter Foss, records did not associate the battle with 'Bosworth' until 1510, some twenty-five years after the event. Earlier sources consistently referred to the site as 'Redemore'.

The history of Scottish author John Major (published in 1521) claims that Charles had granted Henry 5,000 men, of whom 1,000 were Scots, headed by Sir Alexander Bruce. Such accounts shaped early understandings of the forces assembled at Bosworth.

The church was demolished following the friary's dissolution in 1538, and the location of Richard's tomb was long uncertain. Centuries later, archaeologists would rediscover his remains beneath a Leicester car park.

Image source: Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England

Foss brings further evidence for his 'Redemore' theory by quoting Edward Hall's 1550 Chronicle, which supports the identification of the battlefield with the Redemore wetland rather than the traditional site near Bosworth village.

Image source: Edward Hall

Holinshed stated in his chronicle that he found firm ground where he expected the marsh to be. Hutton later misinterpreted a passage from Holinshed's 1577 Chronicle when locating the battle west of Ambion Hill, an error that influenced battlefield theories for centuries.

Image source: Raphael Holinshed

From the 15th to the 18th centuries the battle was glamourised as a victory of good over evil, and features as the climax of William Shakespeare's play Richard III. Shakespeare drew inspiration from Henry IV's use of them at the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403) to amplify the perception of Richard's courage on the battlefield, and despite dramatic licences taken, his version was the model of the event for English textbooks during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Image source: Richard III (play)

Historian William Burton, author of Description of Leicestershire (1622), wrote that the battle was 'fought in a large, flat, plaine, and spacious ground, three miles distant from [Bosworth], between the Towne of Shenton, Sutton [Cheney], Dadlington and Stoke [Golding]', providing important evidence about the battlefield's true location.

In 1788, a local pointed out one of the springs to Hutton as the one mentioned in the legend. Peter Foss proposes that Daniel Williams was influenced by William Hutton's 1788 The Battle of Bosworth-Field, which Foss blames for introducing the notion that the battle was fought west of Ambion Hill on the north side of the River Sence.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ashby Canal carved through the land west and south-west of Ambion Hill. The changes to the landscape were so extensive that when Hutton revisited the region in 1807 after an earlier 1788 visit, he could not readily find his way around.

Image source: Ashby Canal

Samuel Parr in 1813 marked the well from which the king is said to have drunk during the battle with an inscription commemorating where Richard III fell fighting gallantly in defence of his realm and his crown.

In Laurence Olivier's 1955 film adaptation of Richard III, the Battle of Bosworth is represented not by a single duel but a general melee that became the film's most recognised scene and a regular screening at Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre.

Image source: Richard III (1955 film)

The council engaged historian Daniel Williams to research the battle, and in 1974 his findings were used to build the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre and the presentation it houses. Erected in 1973, the memorial site was selected on the basis of Williams's theory.

The Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre was built in 1974, on a site that has since been challenged by several scholars and historians. It became the focal point for visitors seeking to learn about the battle.

After the battle's quincentenary celebration in 1985, a dispute among historians led many to doubt the accuracy of Williams's theory. Elton pointed out that the 20th-century English public largely ignored the battle until its quincentennial celebration.

The adaptation of the setting for Richard III to a 1930s fascist England in Ian McKellen's 1995 film, however, did not sit well with historians, who objected to the liberties taken with the historical setting of the Battle of Bosworth.

Image source: Richard III (1995 film)

Geological surveys conducted from 2003 to 2009 by the Battlefields Trust show that the southern and eastern flanks of Ambion Hill were solid ground in the 15th century, contrary to Williams's claim that it was a large area of marshland, casting doubt on the traditional battlefield location.

In October 2009, a team of researchers who had performed geological surveys and archaeological digs in the area since 2003 suggested a location two miles (3 km) south-west of Ambion Hill, based on extensive survey work carried out by the Battlefields Trust headed by Glenn Foard, leading eventually to the discovery of the real location of the core battlefield.

On 12 September 2012, archaeologists announced the discovery of a buried skeleton with spinal abnormalities and head injuries under a car park in Leicester, and their suspicions that it was Richard III.

On 4 February 2013, it was announced that DNA testing had convinced Leicester University scientists and researchers 'beyond reasonable doubt' that the remains were those of King Richard.

On 26 March 2015, these remains were ceremonially buried in Leicester Cathedral, finally giving the king slain at Bosworth a dignified resting place more than five centuries after his death.