Category: Battle Of Bosworth

Richard III The Road to Bosworth

15/4/2016

Richard III The Road to Bosworth 20th August 1485

It has been said that Richard III spent his last evening in an inn at Leicester known as The Blue Boar, although why the king chose to stay at a local hostelry rather than the cities castle is unknown. As was the norm for medieval royalty, Richard brought his own bed, supposedly stating it was because he “slept ill in strange beds.” The room in which he stayed was described as a “large gloomy chamber.”

The following morning, the 21st of August, Richard set off for Bosworth but after the battle of had gone the way of the Lancastrians the inn keeper of the Blue Boar supposedly had the quickness of mind to rename the inn. What was the White Boar became the Blue Boar for obvious reasons.

Of the inn today nothing remains, fortunately there are plans still in existence so we know what the inn looked like as it once stood on Leicesters High Street in 1485. The site on which the inn now stands is a modern Travel Lodge, where visitors have been known to ask to spend the night in the room in which the king slept.

Two of the images you see here are of the inn as Richard would have seen it. The first is 'Richards room' taken from the nineteenth century notebook in which the above mentioned plans were found, the second, an 1850 representation of the Blue Boar, and the last standing on the site of the original site is the new hotel.

The architectures gone downhill a bit don't you think?

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Rhys ap Thomas: Boasting of Killing a King

13/9/2015

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When the remains of Richard III were found in 2012, it was discovered that he had sustained a number of injuries during the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 where he fought for his crown.

On examination, Richard's skull presented a number of wounds, two of which were massive. The first wound examined is consistent with a halberd or something similar being used. The second was a jagged hole where a bladed weapon had been thrust right through the bone, resulting in an indention opposite this wound, showing that the blade had penetrated into the kings head to a depth of 10.5cm.

Both injuries would have ended the kings life, but which came first, and what doe's history tell us?

Death of Richard III. Painting by Graham Turner

Legend has it that the fatal blow was caused by a halberd struck by Welshman Rhys ap Thomas, a man once allied to the Yorkist party who traitorously changed his allegiance. With one swipe of his halberd, it has been said, he took the life of the king who was the last monarch to die in battle.

Of course, we can never know who stuck that last blow, but one intriguing piece of evidence points to the fact that Rhys ap Thomas may have been Richard's nemesis, and very proud he was of it too!

The medieval bed is synonymous with wealth and the social standing of its owner, one bed that shows this quite clearly is a bed that now stands in Rhys ap Thomas's room in Derwydd House in Llandybie, Carmarthenshire.

Made out of Welsh oak, only the three valance's are considered to be from the original bed, it is one of the side valances that may prove that the Rhys ap Thomas legend is true and that this treacherous Welshman did indeed strike the fatal blow against Richard III. A scene carved into the wood, depicts two mounted knights facing one another, between them stands a soldier with a halberd, it is this soldier that is thought to be Rhys Ap Thomas.

The bed is dated to about 1505, the same time that Henry VII appointed the Welshman to his privy council and made him a Knight of the Garter.

There's no better way of boasting how you climbed the ladder of success, never mind that you let the victor of Bosworth walk all over you, than carving your greatest achievement on your most prized possession.

Rhys ap Thomas is said to have been "a man of integrity and honour " and that of course is a matter of opinion.

It has also been suggested, I think wrongly, that the larger soldier behind the mounted knight is Rhys ap Thomas, however either one of these men could depict this Welshman, for the weapons both men are carrying would have caused the fatal injuries that resulted in the death of King Richard III. Of course, which ever one it was depends on how this Welshman saw himself and not necessarily the weapon he used. If Rhys ap Thomas saw himself as the man who brought an end to the Plantagenet dynasty and was reasonable for kick starting the Tudor dynasty then he may choose to place himself in between the two main players, or he may wish to have himself seen as a mighty poleaxe wielding welsh hero Welsh poets like to write so much about.

What ever way Rhys ap Thomas chose to boast of his exploits, or which ever weapon he used I think that we can say that this legend is possibly true.

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Richard III at Bosworth

21/8/2015

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Richard III - 2nd October 1452 - 22nd August 1485

King of England 1483 - 1485

Who decides if somebody is to be admired or is brave enough to be called a hero?

Who decides if someone is so contemptuous that he should be called a villain?

We only have the writings of men of learning who may or may not have witnessed events in the past, but whose version and personal views of these events have left their mark on our perception of our English kings. Some are described as able kings, just kings, tall and handsome, a man worthy of the title hero. Then there are the kings that are incapable, unreasonable and treacherous and their physical descriptions are usually ugly, dark, short, a hunchback! It seems to me that, nearly always, kings in the villainous category are preceded by kings in the hero category. King John followed Richard I, Edward II followed Edward I, Richard III followed Edward IV, the list goes on. Our modern kings fared no better Edward VII followed Victoria and Edward VIII followed George V. Apart from the last two Edwards, the image of these men that history had placed in my young head was not unlike The Hooded Claw, a evil caped villain who plotted his victims downfall.

Has history been unfair to these men and why does history play on the successes of one and the failures of another's, each king is not wholly good or bad!

I was lucky enough to visit the scene of the Battle of Bosworth to watch the re enactment of the battle in the August of 2012, it was the first event of this kind I had been to. I had some knowledge of medieval warfare after reading accounts of the different battles during the Wars of the Roses, I knew about the swords and archery and I know about the armour, but what I wasn't prepared for was the sheer force of it all, the shouting, the noise of metal on metal but most of all the brutality. I was shocked.

In 1485 the action I witnessed was REAL A real BATTLE, real lives!

The images below were taken in 2012 and tell Richards Story.

Richard III arrives to address his troops, he shouts “ By the grace of god, am I not the King of England, By the grace of god, am I not the King of France, are you with me?”

The battle began early and the fighting was fierce, over two hours later the whole of the field was littered with the bodies of the dead and dying, casualties on both sides were heavy.

After the battle Richards crown is found and his body is striped naked.

as it is mutilated Henry Tudor is handed Richards crown.

Henry Tudor holds the crown high for his supporters to see and orders Richards body to be taken to Leicester.

Richards body is thrown across his horse and is subjected to another insult, a knife in the base of his buttocks.

What was a shock to me was the last moments in the life of Richard III. The re-enactment of the kings death was based on the evidence of written accounts in the two years after his death, and the results of the 4th February makes it all the more poignant for me, and hopefully my photographs go some way in giving us a glimpse of how Richard III ended his days.

Five hundred and twenty eight years later Richards remains are found with his wrists tied, his body buried in a grave that was too small for him at Grey Friars in Leicester.

I have followed Richards story for a long time, read many books about him and I can truly say that the past six months has been both sad and thought provoking.

When Dr Jo Appleby read out her findings and we saw for the first time the bound skeletal remains I knew that we were looking at the body of Richard III, and I am not ashamed to say that I did have a tear in eye.

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What was the Last Battle of the Wars of the Roses?

17/6/2015

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This is a question with no easy answer, but it can be looked at in a number of ways.

If we consider the Wars of the Roses began in 1455 with the first battle of St Albans we should look at the Battle of Tewkesbury as the final battle in these wars.

The origins of these battles had their roots in the rivalry between the Duke of Somerset and the Duke of York. Following King Henry VI 'regaining his senses' Edmund Beaufort was given back his former post. To make matters worse, Beaufort was also given the captaincy of Calais which really rubbed York up the wrong way, eventually, it came to blows at St Albans. You could say that the following fifteen battles, not including Bosworth and Stoke, were just a continuation of this, although there was far more to it than that.

The beginning of the end was the death of Henry VI's son Edward at Tewkesbury, followed seventeen days later by Henry himself.

You could that say the Wars of the Roses did indeed end at Tewkesbury.

On the other hand, if you consider, like I do, the Wars of the Roses began or at least the seeds were set on the 8th June 1376 with the death of Edward III's heir Edward the Black Prince.

The fallout from the Black Prince's death cannot be underestimated. A boy king, an influential and 'lustful' uncle, an illegitimate brood and a usurper, lead you to follow two lines. Firstly that of the usurper, where you end up at Henry VI and Margaret Beaufort/Henry Tudor and secondly, if you follow the line of John Beaufort, Gaunt's illegitimate son, you get Margaret Beaufort and Henry Tudor. Which line you follow makes no difference you will end up with events of 1483 to 1485.

With all that in mind, you will have to say that the Wars of the Roses ended at Bosworth.

Two years after Bosworth the armies of York and Lancaster met again at Stoke Field in Nottinghamshire. Henry VII found himself in the same position as that of Richard III defending his crown and facing a rebel army who were intent on placing a Plantagenet on the throne, albeit an impostor. Lambert Simnel, a claimant to England's throne posing as Edward, Earl of Warwick, was crowned in Dublin by John de la Pole and Francis Lovell. With a Plantagenet claimant as their figurehead, only Henry VII stood in their way.

John de la Pole died on the battlefield, Lovell's body was not among the dead, but his days were numbered. This battle effectively wiped out the last of the Yorkist rebels, enabling Henry VII to establish the Tudor dynasty virtually unchallenged, on the battlefield at least.

Did the Wars of the Roses end with the Lancastrian victory at Stoke Field?

What is the answer then Tewkesbury, Bosworth or Stoke?

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Forward>>

Richard III The Road to Bosworth

Rhys ap Thomas: Boasting of Killing a King

Richard III at Bosworth

Richard III - 2nd October 1452 - 22nd August 1485

What was the Last Battle of the Wars of the Roses?

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