Richard III Falls at Bosworth: Wars of the Roses End

Richard III charged directly at Henry Tudor across the muddy field at Bosworth on August 22, 1485, gambling his crown on a single cavalry strike that would kill his rival and end the battle in minutes. The gamble failed. The last Plantagenet king of England was unhorsed, surrounded, and hacked to death, his crown reportedly found hanging in a thornbush and placed on Henry's head before the blood had dried. The Wars of the Roses had torn England apart for thirty years, with the houses of Lancaster and York trading the throne through murder, battle, and betrayal. Richard had seized power in 1483 by declaring his twelve-year-old nephew Edward V illegitimate and imprisoning him alongside his younger brother in the Tower of London. Both boys vanished, and the widespread belief that Richard had ordered their murders eroded his support among the English nobility. Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian claimant living in exile in Brittany, saw his opportunity. Henry landed in Wales on August 7 with a small force of French mercenaries and Welsh supporters. He marched east, gathering men as he went, though his army of roughly 5,000 remained heavily outnumbered by Richard's 10,000. The critical variable was Thomas, Lord Stanley, who arrived at Bosworth with 4,000 men but refused to commit to either side. Richard noticed Henry was lightly guarded and launched his charge, nearly reaching his rival before Stanley's forces intervened, surrounding the king. Richard fought on foot after losing his horse, reportedly shouting that he would die a king. His body was stripped naked, slung over a horse, and carried to Leicester for public display. Henry VII married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York, uniting the warring houses and founding the Tudor dynasty that would rule England for 118 years. Richard's body, lost for centuries, was discovered beneath a Leicester parking lot in 2012 and reburied in the city's cathedral.