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Why did Richard lose the Battle of Bosworth?Richard III, despite being slain over half a century ago, still retains the infamous image of the “Evil King” who met his match when he was challenged by Henry Tudor. His reign is controversial, with his unpopular status being inflicted upon him by his ambition for power and his lack of judgment. This disfavour led to his downfall; it opened the path for Henry VII to seize the throne. However, it was not merely his rash decisions and apparent incompetence in battle that cost him his life – it was the treachery of his followers.

Richard’s state of unpopularity arose from the moment he usurped the throne of his nephew, Edward V, in 1483. Although Richard was named Lord Protector in brother Edward IV’s will, the King’s sudden death resulted in a hasty crowning of Edward IV’s son by the royal council, dominated by Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s family. This would render a protector such as Richard unnecessary and may have enabled the Woodvilles to rule on Edward V’s behalf. Therefore Richard, with the support of Lord Hastings, Edward IV’s former chamberlain who had always opposed the King’s secret and controversial marriage, staged a coup d’etat in which he seized Edward V and established his lodgings in the Tower of London, placed Earl Rivers and other members of the Woodvilles under custody and assumed his place as Lord Protector and thus head of government. Although the Queen and her children took refuge in Westminster Abbey, the fears of the public were pacified by the memory of Richard’s loyalty and respectfulness to their beloved Edward IV, and his continuous planning for Edward V’s coronation. However, Richard then initiated his domination over the royals and noblemen as he executed Lord Hastings, allegedly for treasonable conspiracy, but more likely to remove Edward IV’s most loyal supporter. He then secured Richard, Edward V’s younger brother, within the tower as a campaign condemning Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville as invalid and their children illegitimate was mounted. These claims were endorsed on 25th June and within days, Richard III officially began his reign. Trust in Richard was quickly dispersed upon the discovery that the two Princes were missing, believed dead. To this day the circumstances of their deaths remains a mystery, but Richard III was accused by many of murdering them in order to protect his unsteady kingship. However, a theory that has recently been explored by Phillipa Gregory in her novel The Red Queen is that the Princes’ murder was ordered by Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor.

As Richard’s popularity withered through the months of his reign, Henry VII’s grew. Living in exile in Brittany after fleeing with other Lancastrians once Edward IV claimed the throne, his rise to power was actively promoted by his mother, despite being married to Yorkist Lord Stanley. Tudor interfered with the majority opinion of Richard’s subjects, as the public, weary of the loss of life stemming from the Wars of the Roses, gave their favours to Henry when he promised to marry Elizabeth of York, now Edward IV’s heir, should he come to power. Richard’s attempt to apprehend Henry failed after he escaped from Brittany to France, and was welcomed by the promise of troops and supplies for his second invasion. Tudor’s claim to the throne was weak, due to his royal blood being passed down through females, yet the support from the people surpassed this disadvantage.

Richard’s loss at the Battle of Bosworth was the ultimate conclusion in a string of unfortunate events that occurred due to the lack of respect and love the people of England felt for their King. The violent circumstances in which he had seized the throne meant he was never able to escape the mistrust his subjects treated him with. Although the collection of uprisings within the first 3 months

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of Richard’s reign, the Buckingham Rebellions, were hastily quashed, the defection of Henry Stafford and his supporters eroded Richard’s power and support from the aristocracy. Furthermore, the majority of his power was established in the North of England, and therefore the Southern nobles increasingly developed concerns regarding the displacement of power. Richard attempted to plant loyal northerners in these areas, but this tactic was controversial and resulted in strong acrimony. Through these inattentive actions, Richard estranged his nobles. He may not have realised that, when Henry Tudor landed in South Wales in August 1485, he would need superior members and key lieutenants in order to rally not just an army, but an army he could truly trust to fight for him.

Many argue that it was Richard’s arrogance and lack of aptitude on the battlefield which cost him his life and his crown at the Battle of Bosworth on the 22nd August 1485. Indeed, he had been so confident he would defeat the ‘rebel’, Henry Tudor, he had delayed departure from Nottingham by a day, in order to carry out a celebrative feast in his joy. The numbers of the fighters gave him reason to be confident – he had approximately 15,000 men, an army three times the size of Henry Tudor’s 5,000-strong. Tudor had fewer than a thousand Englishmen in his army, and of this, 300-500 of them were exiles who had fled from Richard, while the rest were recent deserters from Richard’s army, who had found a new would-be King to rally behind. The core of Henry’s army constituted of 1,800 French mercenaries, and others were men gathered from Wales. However, the French mercenaries likely included hand-gunners and artillerymen, therefore his firepower would have matched Richard’s impressive military arsenal of around 140 cannons. Their unfamiliar French tactics also provided an advantage, but the key of Henry Tudor’s success was his humility in terms of military knowledge. Recognising his lack of military experience, Tudor appointed Lancastrian general John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, to lead his forces. While Richard was in fact a competent military commander, as all accounts attest to his strength in battle; Richard was compared to the Antichrist by John Rous, yet Rous admitted Richard ‘bore himself like a gallant knight and acted with distinction as his own champion until his last breath’ despite being ‘small in body and feeble of limb’. Therefore Bosworth was not a clash of floundering abecedarians, but a battle fought by professionals. Yet Richard is still pictured as a buffoon upon the battlefield, due to his infamous charge at Tudor’s men which resulted in his unhorsing and two lethal injuries to the head, crushing skull and brain and marking Richard as the last English monarch to die upon the battlefield. Nevertheless, while some hold the opinion that his outright lack of dexterity in warfare prompted him to charge and die with naivety, others quote accounts of how Richard managed to successfully penetrate Henry’s army before being swarmed by the treacherous forces of Lord Stanley - however rash his decision to charge may have been, the true reason of his defeat lies with his allies, whom he called upon, but received no help.

Lord Stanley, Rhys ap Thomas and the Duke of Northumberland were amongst the men that betrayed their King, meaning that, regardless of Richard’s abilities in combat, he was likely to be defeated from the start. The majority of the Welsh in Henry Tudor’s army were recruited by the most important defector to Tudor in the early stages of his campaign: Rhys ap Thomas, who had been offered the Lieutenancy of Wales if Tudor succeeded, surpassing his already powerful position of Lieutenant of Western Wales under Richard. Similarly, Lord Stanley had flourished under Richard’s regime, yet his marriage to Margaret Beaufort, Henry Tudor’s mother, placed him in a difficult situation, as Beaufort provided constant support for her son and frequently advertised the idea of his accession to the throne. Furthermore, the Stanleys had a long history of fighting not for loyalty, but for power and personal gain; Lord Stanley wanted to be on the side of the future King, not a man who would be seen as a traitor. In an attempt to ensure Stanley’s loyalty after holding doubts over his allegiances, Richard took Strange, Stanley’s son, hostage, with a threat of execution if Stanley did not attack on Henry Tudor immediately. However, it is said that Stanley merely stated ‘my liege, I have other sons’. Tudor had also sent messengers to Stanley asking him to declare his allegiance, yet

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the evasive reply that the Stanleys would ‘naturally’ come gave both sides no choice but to begin the fight without knowing whose side Stanley’s 5 to 8,000 men would take. The men stood aloof until the closing stages of the Battle. Not only did Richard lose King Stanley’s men, but his own army began to desert him after the Earl of Oxford crushed Richard’s vanguard, turning the battle into Henry VII’s favour. The Duke of Northumberland led 7,000 men in Richard’s rear guard, yet his troops took no part even as Richard commanded them to engage. This treachery led to the Duke’s execution by his own supporters after the Battle, for ‘disappointing’ Richard, and within the Battle, it led to the death of the King. Observing that the Earl of Oxford was crushing his troops, Richard attempted to end the fight quickly by leading a charge of mounted men into the heart of Henry’s guard – some sources suggest he led 800 – 1,000 knights, others state he was accompanied only by close friends. His charge was not a failure; penetrating Tudor’s forces, he butchered the standard-bearer and unhorsed another man. Witnessing the Lancastrian bodyguards surrounding their master and fighting the Lancastrian, William Stanley led the Stanley men into the fight, on the side of Henry Tudor. Richard had not the slightest hope of success now, outnumbered by the Stanleys and Lancastrians, yet his banner man, despite losing his legs, still held aloft the Yorkist emblem aloft until he was hacked to death. The separation of the King from his army meant that total defeat came quickly for the Yorkists. Their King was not treated regally in death; placed on the back of a horse, exposed, and taken to Leicester to be put on public display. King Henry VII graciously rewarded those who had renounced their loyalty to Richard III in favour of this new King who had ended the Plantagenet dynasty and united the two Houses of England.

Richard’s loss at the Battle of Bosworth stems from three points. Firstly, he allowed Henry Tudor to influence the public opinion, despite his status of exile. Tudor’s promise to unite the Houses of the Roses, in contrast with displaced power across England resulting in frustrated nobles perpetrating negative rumours about Richard III, validated Tudor’s claim to the throne in the eyes of the people. It could be argued that if Richard had been a more popular King, Henry VII would never have gained sufficient support to return from France. Secondly, in the Battle, Richard was beaten in terms of sheer skill, due to the tactics shown by Henry Tudor’s appointed army leader, the Earl of Oxford, and the French influence on their attack. However secondly, and, in my opinion, more importantly, Richard’s loss was due to the refusal of his own people to fight for him, and the infidelity of key noblemen. Nevertheless Richard is at the fault of this, due to his violent seizure of the throne and his unpopularity with his public, worsened by his negligent decisions. His destruction was merely a culmination of the mistakes his desires led him to, with Henry VII being clever enough a man to take advantage of him.