The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the Houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on Monday 22 August 1485, the battle was won by an alliance of Lancastrians and disaffected Yorkists. Their leader Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became the first English monarch of the Tudor dynasty by his victory and subsequent marriage to a Yorkist princess. His opponent Richard III, the last king of the House of York, was killed during the battle, the last English monarch to die in combat. Historians consider Bosworth Field to mark the end of the Plantagenet dynasty, making it one of the defining moments of English history.
Richard III was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the protagonist of Richard III, one of William Shakespeare's history/tragedy plays.
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands, being within the East Midlands. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warwickshire to the south-west, Staffordshire to the west, and Derbyshire to the north-west. The border with most of Warwickshire is Watling Street, the modern A5 road.
Hinckley and Bosworth is a local government district with borough status in south-western Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Its only towns are Hinckley, Earl Shilton and Market Bosworth. Villages include Barwell, Burbage, Stoke Golding, Groby, Shackerstone and Twycross. The population of the Borough at the 2011 census was 105,078.
Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle of the Wars of the Roses.
Dadlington is a village administered by Hinckley and Bosworth District Council in Leicestershire, England. It is situated between Hinckley, Market Bosworth and Nuneaton.
Sutton Cheney is a village and civil parish in the borough of Hinckley and Bosworth in the county of Leicestershire, England, near the county border with Warwickshire. In addition to the village of Sutton Cheney itself, the civil parish also contains the villages of Dadlington and Shenton, a number of farms, and the location of the Battle of Bosworth. Its closest large towns are Nuneaton and Hinckley. Its closest market town is Market Bosworth.
Desford is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district, 7 miles (11 km) west of the centre of Leicester and around 7 miles north east of Hinckley. Situated on a hill approximately 400 feet above sea level, the parish includes the hamlets of Botcheston and Newtown Unthank and a scattered settlement at Lindridge. The population at the 2011 census had increased to 3,930. Desford is in the Doomsday Book of 1086 but the name itself is older than that meaning Deor's Ford suggesting an Anglo Saxon origin. Another suggestion is that it means 'ford frequented with wild animals'.
Fenny Drayton is a village in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England. The population is counted with that of Witherley. It lies near the Warwickshire boundary, three miles north-east of Atherstone in the Coventry postcode area, just off the A444, the Roman Watling Street. Another Roman road crosses at the end of the scenic Fenn Lanes. The village is four miles from Stoke Golding, where Henry VII of England was crowned after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The reinterment of Richard III of England on 21 March 2015 started along Fenn Lanes, near the village. The name means "farm/settlement for portage" or "farm/settlement used as a dragging place". "Fenny" reflects the fen-like ground along the Roman road.
Snarestone is a small rural village in North West Leicestershire, England.
Stoke Golding is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England, close to the county border with Warwickshire. According to the 2001 census, the total population was 1,721 in just over 700 houses. The population at the 2011 census was 1,684 in 723 households. The village is 16 miles (26 km) from the city of Leicester, about 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Hinckley and 4 miles (6.4 km) from Fenny Drayton. The village is bordered on one side by the Ashby Canal, and Poland on the other.
Shenton is a hamlet in Leicestershire, lying about two miles south-west of Market Bosworth. The hamlet is included in the civil parish of Sutton Cheney and is part of Hinckley and Bosworth District. Shenton was formerly a chapelry and township of the parish of Market Bosworth. The settlement is almost entirely agricultural, containing several farms. Much of the land has been in the same family since William Wollaston purchased the manor in 1625. It is essentially a privately owned estate village and has seen comparatively little modern development. It has been designated a conservation area.
The River Sence is a river which flows in Leicestershire, England. The tributaries of the Sence, including the Saint and Tweed, fan out over much of western Leicestershire from Charnwood Forest and Coalville in the north-east to Hinckley and almost to Watling Street in the south and south-west. Its watershed almost coincides with Hinckley and Bosworth Borough of Leicestershire, which was formed in 1974 by amalgamation of Market Bosworth Rural District and Hinckley Urban District. It flows into the Anker, which in turn flows into the River Tame. It is part of the wider River Trent catchment, which covers much of central England. In 1881, Sebastian Evans wrote that the usual names for this river were Shenton Brook and Sibson Brook.
Donington le Heath Manor House Museum, now 'The 1620s House and Garden at Donington le Heath' is a surviving example of a manor house built over seven hundred years ago in Donington le Heath, near the town of Coalville, Leicestershire. It was once owned by a relative of one of the Gunpowder plotters, and is now managed by Leicestershire County Council.
The White Boar was the personal device or badge of the English King Richard III of England, and is an early instance of the use of boars in heraldry.
Greyfriars, Leicester, was a friary of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans, established on the west side of Leicester by 1250, and dissolved in 1538. Following dissolution the friary was demolished and the site levelled, subdivided, and developed over the following centuries. The locality has retained the name Greyfriars particularly in the streets named "Grey Friars", and the older "Friar Lane".
The remains of Richard III, the last English king killed in battle, were discovered within the site of the former Grey Friars Priory in Leicester, England, in September 2012. Following extensive anthropological and genetic testing, the remains were ultimately reinterred at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015.
Glenn R. Foard is an English landscape archaeologist, best known for discovering the location of the final phases of the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485). He is Reader in Battlefield Archaeology at the University of Huddersfield.
Benjamin Broadbent (1813–1862) was an English master builder, stonemason, and architect. In 1840 in Leicester, he formed the company Broadbents Ltd, a busy which serviced builders' merchants and roofing contractors. He was also associated with Broadbent and Hawley, stone and marble masons and gravestone cutters. Broadbent built his home, Victoria House, in 1861 in Humberstone. The large estate included a mansion house, stables, coach house, winery, orchard, conservatories and outbuildings. His first wife was the daughter of a farmer from Dodleston, Cheshire called Anne Wright and they had four children. The eldest, also Benjamin, inherited the family business. His second wife was Mary Geary and they had six children. Three years after his death, Victoria House was purchased by the Leicester Corporation to establish the Leicester Borough Asylum, which became the Towers Hospital.
Kevin SchürerFAcSS FRGS is a British historian, genealogist and statistician, previously Pro-Vice Chancellor of Research and Enterprise, who teaches at the University of Leicester. He specialises in the historical demography, the history of the family and migration in nineteenth-century England and Wales.
