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Though he only landed with 5,000
men, Henry picked up reinforcements as he marched through
Wales. He then moved through Shrewsbury, all the way across to the
Midlands. While Henry was on the move, so too was Richard, with an
army of between 12,000 and 15,000 men. Richard marched from
Nottingham to Leicester where both forces met near the market town
of Bosworth.
King Richard III had three divisions
present at the battle, one was led by the King himself, one was led
by the Duke of Norfolk, while the third was led by the Earl of
Northumberland. As battle commenced the Duke of Norfolk was at the
side of the King, while the Earl of Oxford was at the side of
Henry. Both contingents fought tirelessly and aggressively until
the Earl of Oxford’s men took the upper hand.
Richard took the decision to attack
Henry personally while he was somewhat isolated. The move looked
set to win Richard the battle until the Stanley’s made decisive
their move. Richard and his household made a desperate stand
against the influx of the Stanley’s men and legend has it that the
standard bearer kept the Royal banner in the air even though both
of his legs had been hacked off.
Contrary to William Shakespeare’s
depiction of Richard III, he refused a horse to take him to safety
and carried on fighting until the death. The blow which killed
Richard was said to have been dealt by a Welsh poleaxe. After the
battle, Richard’s body was draped over a mule and paraded through
the streets of Leicester.
The win for Henry at Bosworth marked
the beginning of the Tudor dynasty and a start of what could
have been called at the time a ‘modern monarchy’, for Henry shifted
his focus from party squabbling and greed to a concern for the
state. Henry even united the warring Houses of York and Lancaster
through his marriage to Elizabeth of York, who was Edward IV’s
daughter and Richard III’s niece. What’s more is that the Tudor era
produced some of the country’s well-known Kings and Queens,
including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
As for Richard, his body was quickly
buried in Leicester and over 500 years later it was discovered at
the site once occupied by Greyfriars. The University of Leicester
confirmed it was indeed the body of the last Plantagenet King after
a comparison of DNA with descendants of Richard’s sister, Anne of
York. It has since been confirmed that Richard III will
be reinterred at Leicester Cathedral in a ceremony on 26th March
2015.
Photo credit: JayT47 via
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