The Real Site of the Battle of Bosworth Field

The real site of the Battle of Bosworth Field, the concluding action of the Wars of the Roses, has been revealed following the announcement of its discovery last October. The traditional site on Ambion Hill near the village of Sutton Cheney in Leicestershire has been usurped, just as Richard III was by Henry Tudor on the afternoon of August 22nd, 1485. The real site, according to Glenn Foard of the Battlefields Trust, is about a mile south-west, in a dull, flat field on Alf Oliver’s Fenn Lane Farm. That is where a strikingly beautiful silver boar, similar to the one beloved by visitors to the British Museum’s medieval galleries, was found. It almost certainly belonged to a trusted knight of Richard’s retinue who fought and died alongside his king. The boar was Richard’s personal symbol, still worn by members of the fiercely loyal Richard III Society.

Two things come to mind. First, that hoary but valuable old question posed to generations of undergraduates: did the Middle Ages come to an end on Bosworth Field? Secondly, who will answer such questions, who will teach the Wars of the Roses to future generations, who will revise past certainties if our universities and our schools continue to neglect Medieval history? Everyone should know what happened on Bosworth Field and the consequences of the events that took place that day. Today’s revelations will hopefully encourage many more to find out.

In 1985 Colin Richmond claimed in The Battle of Bosworth that 'Richard's valiant death is almost the only feature of the battle of Bosworth we can be sure of'.