Richard III remains one of England’s most notorious and mysterious Kings. He came onto
the throne at a a pivotal time in the Wars of the Roses, and he is seen as an opportunist
who shed the blood of his nephews to ensure that he became the King. Richard is a man
who came onto the throne in 1483 in very bizarre circumstances, as he was initially supposed
to be the man who was to look after the King in waiting, Edward V. However under his guardianship,
Edward V and his brother mysteriously disappeared in what is known as ‘The Princes in the
Tower’ mystery. This has made Richard a villainous figure in History, and he’s believed
to have been responsible for the death of his two nephews. However it would be within
2 years that Richard would meet a bloody fate himself, and today he’s regarded as the
last English King to die on the battlefield. So join us today as we look at ‘The BRUTAL
Death of King Richard III.’ Remember to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Richard III was crowned King on the 6th July 1483 at Westminster Abbey, but within 2 years
he would be killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire. The Wars of the Roses
had gripped England for decades before Richard became King. He was sitting following the
disappearance and denouncement of the Princes in the Tower at the top of the House of York,
which surprised many as he was the brother to the former King Edward IV. Rumours emerged
however that Richard was responsible for the murder of the true King, the boy Edward V
and through this a rebellion emerged spearheaded by Henry Tudor. He would later become Henry
vii, but despite the rebellion initially not being successful, Henry would try again two
years later and together the two met at Bosworth Field.
Richard III’s defeat at the Battle of Bosworth at the time was shocking. Specifically who
killed the King remains a slight mystery, but after the incredibly discovery of Richard’s
remains under a car park in Leicester, the final moments of the Kings life can be piece
by piece put together and told.
O the 22nd August 1485, Richard met Henry Tudor at Bosworth, and rode into battle on
his white courser horse. He had with him a strong army of around 8000 soldiers, and the
King’s army outnumbered Henry’s but the key to the battle was sitting on another hill.
Lord Stanley had a private army of 6000 men, and he was the pivotal player in the battlefield,
as his support meant everything to the two men. Richard III was deployed on amnion hill,
and Henry on an adjacent hilltop. The battle swayed from side to side, until Lord Stanley
got involved and ordered his private Army to support Henry Tudor, which surprised Richard
and his forces.
During the final part of the battle, it was said that Richard had Henry Tudor isolated
and that the royalist army were fighting in the thickest, and the King’s men were pressing
for victory. Richard was worried about Lord Stanley’s betrayal and he had heard that
Henry was situated a large distance behind his soldiers, protected by a group of bodyguards.
Richard who was known for being a competent military leader was confident he could strike
the man he deemed to be trying to usurp him, and he led a small detachment of heavy cavalry
and charged towards Henry Tudor and his surrounding force. In this attempt to end the battle,
Richard was rather successful and he smashed his way through Henry’s guards and killed
his standard bearer. Fierce hand to hand fighting them took place between the King’s small
group of charges and Henry’s bodyguards, and Lord Stanley overlooking the battlefield
noticed his step son Henry was in trouble, and he commanded his soldiers to Richard III’s
position. It was noted how Richard fought bravely and valiantly, and allegedly even
came within a swords length of Henry Tudor, however this is where things drastically changed.
Richard found himself very overwhelmed by Stanley’s mercenaries, who charged towards
him attacking his small force. It is disputed what happened next to Richard however, but
many agree that the King found himself in very marshy ground, and he and his horse became
bogged down in the terrain and he was unhorsed by this. A Burgundian chronicler wrote how
Richard’s horse leapt into a marsh and it could not get itself out from it. Shortly
after Richard was unhorsed, his final moments came.
Famously Shakespeare writes how he cried out, ‘A horse, a Horse, my kingdom for a horse.’
It was stated how, ‘the deathblow was struck by a welshman with a halberd whilst Richard’s
horse was stuck, and it was said that the blow was so violent, that the Kings helmet
was driven into his skull. The man who killed Richard has been suggested to have been Rhys
Ap Thomas, a leading Welsh Lancastrian who shaved part of the King’s head with the
blow when he struck him.
Henry VII’s official historian stated how Richard died alone fighting bravely in the
thickest press of his enemies, and another account said how he fell in the field struck
by many mortal wounds,’ with another account suggesting that ‘they beat his bead until
the Brain came out with blood, they never left him until he was dead.’
The true brutality of the final moments of King Richard III were confirmed when his body
and skeletal remains were discovered in 2013 following the identifications. The wounds
on the body suggested that Richard’s death was as bloody as suggested, with 11 wounds
being visible on the remains and 8 of these were to the skull. These had all been sustained
during battle, which leads us to believe that Richard lost his helmet during battle. These
wounds were sustained through a frenzied attack by more than one person piling on the King
as he came under pressure on the muddy battlefield. There was a narrow V shaped cut found along
the bottom right side of the lower jaw, suggesting that his face was cut by a dagger or knife
or a small blade. There was another cut on his lower jaw, which could have been done
when a blade was thrust up inside of his helmet, to slice the strap off, and take off the kings
protection to his head.
His body was relatively well protected when he died, as there were no visible injuries
to his torso meaning that chances are the King had a significant and effective amount
of plate armour on, and that he was wearing this when he died. There were also three glancing
blows caused by a sharp blade such as a poleaxe or a sword on the scalp that shaved the bone.
Two wounds were found on the left side above the ear and one on the top, but these wounds
would not have been immediately fatal. They were all caused by the same weapon too. On
top of the skull was a small piercing hole, which was caused by a weapon delivered to
the King from above, and this could’ve been dealt by the spike of an poleaxe, or a rondel
dagger. The aim of this was to drive a hole into the King’s skull, inflicting damage
to his brain. At the base of Richard’s skull, there were two significant wounds found which
caused damage to the top vertebrae and this was caused by a blade that entered the King’s
head, and sliced through his brain and it was done so hard that it struck the other
side of the of the skull.
These massive wounds were likely to have been the fatal, and were inflicted by a weapon
such as a halberd, sword or a bill. This blow would have been savage, and was done with
such brutality that it passed through the King’s brain, and it was this wound that
likely killed Richard. This wound would have been enough on it’s own to have killed the
King.
There were other wounds to Richard’s body, for example one was delivered as a blow from
behind with a dagger which damaged his 10th rib, and another scraped the pelvis and was
delivered into the king’s right buttock which could also have been fatal. But it was
believed this was done after death to shame the King as his armour would have protected
this area during battle. Richard’s remains were able to tell the world the definitive
story as to what happened to the King in his final moments.
As Richard was unhorsed with his horse being stuck in the mud, he was forced to dismount
and at some point he lost or removed his helmet leaving him in a very vulnerable position.
He was surrounded by a number of skilled soldiers with medieval weapons, and despite being protected
by his own soldiers, when Lord Stanley’s men went for the King, Richard’s men were
quickly overwhelmed. He was attacked by a number of men who thrust their swords, daggers
towards him, but a crushing blow from a halberd or a bill stopped the King in his tracks.
Richard stood no chance at all against the men intent on killing him, and with the strike
from the halberd the King was killed, and the reign of the Tudor dynasty began shortly
after.
Richard III’s face was not mutilated after death to ensure that the population knew that
the King was killed. His armour and clothes were taken off, and his naked body was carried
to nearby Leicester on a horse, being displayed in public and exhibited with everyone to see
that the King had been slain. It was left on display for two days, and was then interred
in a plain coffin and tomb inside the low key Church of the Grey Friars. His burial
remained lost until 2013 when it was discovered and DNA testing put the remains beyond any
doubt that they did belong to Richard III.
With the death of Richard III, one of the most famous royal families in English History
came onto the throne, The Tudors. The Tudors were known for their brutality, but Richard
III was a king who was also cut from the same cloth. He would do anything to become King,
but it’s believed that during the Battle of Bosworth Field, Richard fought bravely
and valiantly, something that Henry VII’s own historian confirmed, and that Henry wanted
to preserve. His death was incredibly brutal, and the final moments of Richard III show
how tough and bloodthirsty the final moments of the Wars of the Roses were.
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