Bosworth

             Today, 22 August 2011, is the 526th anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth, the battle in which Richard III died in 1485. His opponent Henry Tudor won and became King Henry VII, the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
             There really isn't much for me to say about Bosworth. It was a short battle, probably lasting about two hours, and Richard III went down fighting. He was probably undone by treason, for a magnate who was supposed to remain loyal to his king transferred his allegiance (and his fighting men) to Henry. This tipped the scales in Henry's favor, and Richard was cut down while he was in the thick of the fighting. His body was later stripped naked and taken to Leicester, where it was displayed for a time in a church (to prove the king was dead). Leicester Cathedral has a stone slab memorial for Richard III, but his body is not beneath it. Some people contend Richard's body is beneath a car park (parking lot), while others say his bones were thrown in the river. Suffice it to say, Richard's corpse was not treated with dignity.
              Richard III was thirty-two, going on thirty-three, when he died. He had been king for a little over two years. Despite Richard's relatively young age and short reign, his wife and son had predeceased him. With his death, the last monarch of the House of Plantagenet also died. The Plantagenets had been in power since 1066, when William the Conqueror conquered England.