Battle of bosworth
History
Mr Reynolds
Explain why Richard III was defeated at the battle of Bosworth.
Why Richard lost at the battle of Bosworth can be put into long and short-term factors. In the short term, to start with Richard outnumbered Tudor’s men 10000 to 5000 and were obviously favoured to be victorious, however when Richard tried to kidnap Tudor, this forced Tudor to seek help from the French. This allowed for King Charles to use henry as a means of unsettling the English Monarchy, to do this Charles gave Henry 60000 francs and 1800 highly professional mercenaries to use in the battle. Although Richards’s men outnumbered Tudor’s, Tudor’s men were of higher skill level and this was certainly a factor of defeat.
Moreover Tudor had a very strong tactical setup going into the war, the vanguard, under the control of the Earl of oxford, was strengthened by the mercenaries of Philibert de Chandee, Sir Gilbert Talbot commanded the right wing and john savage on the left wing. However, the most important part of their strategy was the Stanley’s. The Stanley’s had been pushing towards the side of Richard due to the capture of Lord Strange, However during the time leading up to the battle negotiations and meetings between Tudor and the Stanley’s were building and Richard started to question whether he could trust them. Tudor began to gain more and more support as he travelled through wales and the key sign of allegiance to Tudor was when the Stanley family advised the bailiffs of Shrewsbury to open the town gates to let them in. So, the Stanley’s did not actively fight at the beginning of the battle but their betrayal soon became apparent when they attacked Richard near the conclusion of the battle. Other higher powers that Richard thought he would have the support of also backed out, for example Northumberland decided to not take part in the battle at all.
The final thing that caused Richard to lose the battle was his own solo assault on Tudor. It is believed that if Richard had
Mr Reynolds
Explain why Richard III was defeated at the battle of Bosworth.
Why Richard lost at the battle of Bosworth can be put into long and short-term factors. In the short term, to start with Richard outnumbered Tudor’s men 10000 to 5000 and were obviously favoured to be victorious, however when Richard tried to kidnap Tudor, this forced Tudor to seek help from the French. This allowed for King Charles to use henry as a means of unsettling the English Monarchy, to do this Charles gave Henry 60000 francs and 1800 highly professional mercenaries to use in the battle. Although Richards’s men outnumbered Tudor’s, Tudor’s men were of higher skill level and this was certainly a factor of defeat.
Moreover Tudor had a very strong tactical setup going into the war, the vanguard, under the control of the Earl of oxford, was strengthened by the mercenaries of Philibert de Chandee, Sir Gilbert Talbot commanded the right wing and john savage on the left wing. However, the most important part of their strategy was the Stanley’s. The Stanley’s had been pushing towards the side of Richard due to the capture of Lord Strange, However during the time leading up to the battle negotiations and meetings between Tudor and the Stanley’s were building and Richard started to question whether he could trust them. Tudor began to gain more and more support as he travelled through wales and the key sign of allegiance to Tudor was when the Stanley family advised the bailiffs of Shrewsbury to open the town gates to let them in. So, the Stanley’s did not actively fight at the beginning of the battle but their betrayal soon became apparent when they attacked Richard near the conclusion of the battle. Other higher powers that Richard thought he would have the support of also backed out, for example Northumberland decided to not take part in the battle at all.
The final thing that caused Richard to lose the battle was his own solo assault on Tudor. It is believed that if Richard had