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Bosworth was one of England’s four great decisive battles of the last 1000 years, alongside Hastings, Naseby and the Battle of Britain.
The Battle of Bosworth, fought on 22nd August 1485, was:
For over 200 years the battle was thought to have been fought on Ambion Hill (see the Ambion Hill Theory).
Since 1985 there has been a sometimes vociferous debate between historians as to the true location of the battlefield, with at least four contending sites.
In 2004 I was asked to undertake a reassessment of the evidence. This led in 2005 to the Battlefields Trust being commissioned by Leicestershire County Council, with £154,000 funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to undertake a major investigation to resolve the issue.
We brought together a team of specialists from various disciplines to apply the techniques of battlefield archaeology to search for the battlefield.
In the latter stages of the project we have obtained further assistance from the University of Leeds, Cranfield University and the Royal Armouries.
The are several topographical clues in the names of the battle and the original accounts of the action, but the key phrase is that by Vergil, writing in the early 16th century:
‘Between the armies was a marsh which Henry purposely kept on his right, so it would serve as a fortress to protect his men. At the same time, also by doing this he left the sun behind.’
A range of evidence allowed us at an early stage to dismiss the Atherstone site suggested by Jones (see the Michael K Jones/Atterton Theory). The reconstruction of the medieval landscape then showed that a marsh had never existed on Ambion Hill. It could only lie in the areas identified as meadow. Soils mapping identified those soils which developed in waterlogged conditions, and these closely matched the areas identified as medieval meadow.
The reconstruction of the medieval landscape together with mapping of fen, moor and heath names led us to the general area where the four townships met - where Foss had suggested the battle took place. While pollen analysis followed by Carbon14 dating of peat deposits showed the marsh suggested by Foss had gone many centuries before the battle, we found another that proved to have continued into the medieval period. (See the Peter Foss/Redesmore Theory)
Then we discovered that Stoke Golding’s claim to be the birthplace of the Tudor dynasty is likely to be valid, with Crown Hill almost certainly the location where Henry Tudor became Henry VII. Our first record of Crown Hill and Crown Hill Field is in 1605 but a document from just before 1485 shows clearly that they were then called Garbrodys and Garbrodfelde respectively.
While all this evidence took us to the general area where the action was fought, it was systematic archaeological survey with metal detectors that was the method by which we finally located the battlefield.
In all 7 sq km have been surveyed. Of this 3.7 sq kms have been systematically on 10m transects and 1.1 sq km in the core area on 2.5 m transects. More than 5000 finds have been recorded, though only a tiny proportion of these relate to the battle.
For more than a year we had hints we were close to the action but it was only in the last week of planned fieldwork, in the last possible area, that the critical evidence was found. The project was then extended and intensive work undertaken during 2009 to explore the core of the battlefield. This work now continues in areas lacking evidence because we need to prove where the edges lie.
The troops who decided the battle were the typical infantry and cavalry of the late medieval period, with bow, bill and lance. But it is the new gunpowder weapons which have provided the key archaeological evidence for the location of the battlefield.
‘The king had the artillery of his army fire on the earl of Richmond, and so the French, knowing by the king’s shot the lie of the land and the order of his battle, resolved, in order to avoid the fire, to mass their troops against the flank rather than the front of the king’s battle.’ Jean Molinet (1490)
The archaeological survey of Bosworth battlefield has so far produced 22 lead roundshot fired from artillery and bullets fired from early hand guns – more than all the lead roundshot from all the other battlefields of the 15th and 16th century in Europe put together. They range in size up to 93mm – so the train of artillery at Bosworth already contained some guns as large as saker, the largest mobile field pieces normally deployed on battlefields in succeeding centuries.
The scatter of roundshot from artillery and of bullets from hand guns extends over a distance of more than a kilometre. Because no comparable evidence has been seen before from a medieval battlefield, the interpretation of the pattern we have recovered demands various new research. This will involve the application of modern ballistics and other methods of scientific analysis.
The combined evidence proves that the battle was fought in the area between the villages of Dadlington, Shenton, Upton and Stoke Golding – in a location not previously suggested. Currently we are not releasing the exact location because we fear illicit treasure hunting, which has caused so much damage on Towton battlefield. Though here they would be sadly disappointed, for it has taken us thousands of man hours to recover the small number of finds from the battle, but even if they removed just a handful of finds from the site would destroy important evidence.
The application of gunpowder weapons to the battlefield transformed the nature of warfare and proved a major influence in defining the character of the modern world. Our battle was fought during the period of greatest experimentation and innovation in this new technology, in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. At Bosworth we see an English army a few steps down that path which would ultimately lead to an empire which spanned the globe.
Bosworth has shown the potential of archaeology to contribute to our understanding of the Origins of Firepower – a story of international significance which must now be explored on battlefields across Europe.
The Archaeological Finds | Battlefield Found! | Useful Links
