Bosworth Field and Flodden Field (Paperback) | Released: 07 Dec 2023

Today, roses are a sign of love and luxury, but for over 30 years, they provided the symbols for two houses at war for control of England. Thousands of people died and many more were injured fighting beneath the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster, and the noble families ruling England tore each other apart in a struggle that was as bitter as it was bloody. Though what followed was a period of strong rule under the Tudors monarchs, it ultimately came at a terrible cost, and even then, it was through Elizabeth of York that the Tudor line received its legitimacy. After all, while Henry VII won his throne in battle, Elizabeth of York was the daughter of King Edward IV of England, a Yorkist monarch. Few battles in English history are as famous as Bosworth Field. Fought on August 22, 1485, it was the one which decided the outcome of that long and messy conflict. English king Richard III, who had only recently taken the throne, had superior numbers at the battle, but an army fighting under future king Henry VII proved to have the better fighters. When forces near the field under Lord Stanley sided with Henry during the battle, they surrounded and killed Richard. The last York King went down fighting, but as news of the king's death spread, his army turned and ran, and with that, Henry Tudor was now King Henry VII.

Immortalized in drama by William Shakespeare and in comedy by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, the Battle of Bosworth Field has been a mainstay of British culture since the day it was fought. Meanwhile, excitement over the real history of the period reached a peak in late 2012 and early 2013 when Richard III's long-lost remains were found by archaeologists. The once proud king, who fell on the field at Bosworth, was found beneath a parking lot after the church in which he had been buried was destroyed. This provoked a new rash of books about Richard, as well as a dispute over where his remains should be reburied. Centuries later, passions can still run high about the conflict.

The relationship between Scotland and England has always been rocky. For most of their history they have been at loggerheads and frequently at war, and, even after the Act of Union of 1707 which united the two nations, there were at least four Scottish uprisings. Today, the Scottish threat to separate from the post-Brexit UK is well-known. England has historically viewed the northern nation as a threat, and Scotland for its part has feared, with justification, its richer and more powerful neighbor.

Famous encounters between the two countries include Falkirk (1298), Bannockburn (1314), Solway Moss (1542), Prestonpans (1745) and Culloden (1746), but the Battle of Flodden, or Flodden Field, fought on September 9, 1513, was the largest and perhaps most spectacular of the clashes between the ancient enemies. It involved the deployment of 56,000 men and vies with the 1461 Battle of Towton during the Wars of the Roses as the largest battle ever fought on British soil.

At the time of Flodden, England and Wales were ruled by the Tudor dynasty, founded by Henry VII in 1485. Henry had ended the seemingly endless war between the Yorkist and Lancaster factions of the House of Plantagenet when he defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 2, 1485, but his own claim to the throne of England was shaky and easily subject to challenge. His mother was Margaret Beaufort, a descendant of John of Gaunt, third son of King Edward III, and his father, Edmund Tutor, was the son of the Dowager Queen of England, Catherine of Valois. At the time, there were numerous other candidates with stronger claims to the throne, so to strengthen his hold he married Elizabeth of York, daughter of King Edward IV. Even so, Henry was constantly looking over his shoulder to guard against the surviving Plantagenets, and he suppressed rebellions and discovered conspiracies over most of his 12 years in power.