The Battle of Bosworth
Henry Tudor defeated and killed Richard III in battle in August 1485. That much is certain. Colin Richmond, however, wonders how the battle was fought; what prompted Yorkists to defect to the Lancastrian side; and above all, where exactly did the battle take place?
The English love their disasters: Dunkirk, Scott of the Antarctic, Harold, St Edmund. Nor is it only the English. Remember the Gododdin, Easter 1916, the Song of Roland, the Song of Igor, St Wenceslas. This is understandable; winners are too often unadmirable. Nevertheless, attachment to the loser sometimes is perverse, when the loser is even more unpleasant than the winner: Simon De Montfort, Thomas of Lancaster, Richard III. The first two became popular saints, while support for the latter, though hardly popular, at times has the appearance of crusade. Yet all three were failed politicians, political disasters, and if Simon and Thomas were seen as the victims of tyranny, on that score there can be no sympathy for Richard: he was the tyrant overthrown. The manner of his death may account for the sympathy he (otherwise unaccountably) evokes. As the Spanish Letter's account has it, Richard, the treason around him becoming apparent, is urged to flee; he responds 'God forbid I yield one step. This day I will die as a King or win', and donning his crown he 'began to fight with much vigour'.
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