Tudor Battles
Every day life of the English during Tudor monarchy can be described as bloody, because of so many wars, conflicts and battles that happened under the sovereignty of the different Queens and Kings and the way they exercised their own power. The War of the Roses is the series of wars and hostile encounters that occurred in the middle of 1455-1485 between two princely rulers, the House of Lancaster and the House of York. Under this civil war, many other serious battles and conflicts happened which led to some important leaders, commanders, places and dates.
The Battle of the Bosworth Field happened on August 22, 1485 at the Market Bosworth, Leicestershire between two great Kings, named Richard III and Henry Tudor. The reason why this battle happened was because Richard III had banished Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond from England.
Henry Tudor is known to be the leader of the Lancastrian family while Richard is the head of the House of York. Bringing together the support of French armies and other mercenaries from abroad, Henry landed in Milford Haven to attack Richard's forces. Richard truly believed that he had enough troops to vanquish the Tudor forces, but he was absolutely wrong. The refusal to fight of his left wing armies, under Northumberland and the treachery made by the Stanley's brother to support Henry killed Richard in the field of the battle.
The Battle of Barnet on April 14, 1471 at the Barnet, Hertfordshire between Edward IV together with the Yorkist troops versus Warwick (The Kingmaker) and his Lancastrian forces. As Barnet still remains one of the longest and bloodiest civil wars, contending for England's throne and crown, when Warwick manifestly fought the return of Henry VI to power as he was imprisoned by Richard at the London Tower. The crowning of the impostor King Edward VI behind the identity of Lambert Simnel as Earl of the Warwick brought Yorkist supporters to revolt under leaders Fitzgerald, Viscount Lovell and Earl of Lincoln, versus the 6000 strong armies of the Earl of the Oxford and Duke. This conflict ended as the Battle of Stoke that massacred thousands of Lincoln's rebels and wounded almost half of Oxford's forces.
Aside from the serious wars, the Wars of the Roses, there were also many rebellions and revolts occurring among various supporters and followers, which caused this war to happen such as the Blackheath Rebellion, when the Cornish rebel intersect the River Tamar into England and eventually gathered to Deptford Bridge to revolt about the increase in war taxes being charged to them by King Henry VII. In Northumberland, another battle called the Battle of Flodden took place when King James IV, together with his Scottish troops, positioned in Flodden Hill ready to invade England, to resist their French treaties when King Henry VIII entered France forcefully.
The bloody War of the Roses ended with the death of many rebels, armies and troops and the triumph and sorry of leaders one way after the other. Weapons used in the original battle between Lancastrian and Yorkist rebels were spears consisting of a long shaft with a sharp pointed end, battle-axe with a blade head on the handle, swords typically of a long, straight and slightly curved blade with a sharp edge on both sides fixed on a hilt and long infantry pikes.
Original Authors: Phil Post
Edit Update Authors: RPN
Updated On: 22/05/2007
