The so called ‘Renaissance’ had already started when Henry claimed the throne as William Caxton had begun to publish books under the patronage of Lord Rivers, Sir Anthony Woodville and then Richard III. An act of 1484, under Richard III, had specifically exempted ‘merchant strangers’ from any restrictions on either printing in England or bringing in books from abroad, introducing new ideas and ideals. After Richard’s death, Margaret Beaufort became his main patron and in 1490 he printed the statutes of the first three parliaments of Henry VII, the first time the statutes of England were produced in English rather than legal French.
Henry VII’s descendants would be responsible for radical changes in England. Besides being remembered for his six marriages, his son, Henry VIII (1491–1547), was instrumental in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church, and the ‘Dissolution of the Monasteries’. Henry VII’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) ushered in a period now known as the ‘Golden Age’, which was a time of national pride through classical ideals and international expansion. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad and the height of the so-called ‘English Renaissance’, which saw the flowering of poetry, music, literature and the theatre of William Shakespeare.
51. Richard III’s badge and motto in stained glass at York Minster. (Author’s collection)
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
When the wars started, English had only been universally spoken by the aristocracy for around fifty years. Before then French was their main language, and this is why today many of the words that are related to those pursuits that were once restricted to the aristocracy, such as politics, law and war, have French origins.
On Elizabeth’s death, James VI of Scotland (1566–1625) succeeded to the English throne as James I, joining the two countries for the first time. It was also the time of the ‘Gunpowder Plot’, which was led by Robert Catesby, a descendant of William Catesby, Richard III’s right-hand man. Throughout the Tudor age, plots, conspiracies and rebellions continued to haunt its rulers, although the Protestant/Catholic divide was often at its heart. After Bosworth, all the kings and queens still believed in the right of divine rule and, although Parliament grew in power during the period, it was not strong enough to challenge the ruler; it would be 157 years before it could do that and would lead to another bloody civil war.
Sir Thomas More, a leading councillor of Henry VIII, wrote The History of King Richard III, which was the first literary work to portray Richard as a vile monster and is believed to have been heavily influenced by John Morton, More’s mentor and one of the main conspirators in the rebellions against Richard. Whilst it lacks historical accuracy, it is however noted for its literary skill and adherence to classical principles; Shakespeare would go on to write his play Richard III largely based on More’s work and would blacken Richard’s character completely. Since then there have been many books written about Richard and also the fate of the Princes in the Tower, with some generally agreeing with More, while others believe that Richard was a good king and a victim of Tudor propaganda.
It was William Hutton who wrote the first detailed study of the battle, The Battle of Bosworth-Field, in 1788. He placed the location of the battle as Ambion Hill, largely based on a comment by Polydore Vergil that: ‘King Richard pitched his field on a hill called Anne Beame, refreshed his souldiers and took his rest.’ For many years to come this would be the accepted site.
52. Richard’s livery badge. One similar to this was found on the site of the battle. (Author’s collection)
In 1974 Leicestershire County Council, with the agreement and co-operation of the local farmers and landowners, set up a visitor centre at Ambion Hill Farm. However, during the years that followed, several historians put forward alternative locations for the battle and all have their merits, making it increasingly probable that Ambion Hill was not the actual site of the battle. In 2005, Leicestershire County Council commissioned the Battlefields Trust to find the exact location of the battlefield, and a team of specialists from many different disciplines were brought together to carry out the search. They finally found the site almost 3km (1.8 miles) from Ambion Hill, after a metal detector survey covering 7sq km. The survey discovered a concentration of over thirty-two pieces of lead shot, some from hand-guns and others, up to 93mm in diameter, from field artillery pieces of the time. Although the first major use of artillery in the wars was at the Battle of Northampton in 1460, more shot was found at this one site than all those previously found on all the medieval battlefields of Europe put together. Another key find was a 30mm-long, silver-gilt livery badge of a boar, close to the edge of an area that was once marsh. This was King Richard III’s own personal badge and would almost certainly have been worn and lost by a knight of King Richard’s retinue in the heat of battle, probably during Richard’s last charge. On 19 February 2010, the real location of the battle was finally revealed to the public.