On Monday, 22 August 1485, King Richard III fought the invader Henry Tudor in Leicestershire, near the village of Bosworth. Henry had landed in Wales on 7 August with a small army. Richard's royal army was much larger, but the Stanley brothers, whose loyalty was uncertain, kept their men apart, and the Earl of Northumberland's large force never came to blows. With his vanguard giving way, Richard led a mounted charge at Henry and killed his standard-bearer, but then Sir William Stanley's men joined Henry and the king was cut down in the press. Henry was hailed king on the field as Henry VII, and the Tudor dynasty began.
The Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485: the death of a king
22 August 1485 · 541 years ago
By 1485 England had been torn for thirty years by the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster. Richard III had taken the throne in 1483 amid the disappearance of his young nephews, the Princes in the Tower, and many of his own nobles distrusted him.
Read the full story of The Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485: the death of a king ›The Battle of Obertyn, 1531: Tarnowski's wagon fort
22 August 1531 · 495 years ago
The Battle of Obertyn was fought on 22 August 1531 between a Polish army of about 6,000 under Hetman Jan Tarnowski and a Moldavian army about three times larger under Voivode Petru Rareș.
Read the full story of The Battle of Obertyn, 1531: Tarnowski's wagon fort ›Also on this day
Battle of Baesweiler
22 August 1371 · 655 years ago
Near Baesweiler north of Aachen, Duke Wenceslas of Brabant led an army against William II, Duke of Jülich, after Brabantine merchants were robbed on Jülich territory. Wenceslas's larger army was defeated and he himself was taken prisoner.
