When Edward IV of England died on April 9, 483, his son Edward was only 12 years old. However, he had previously appointed his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as the regent of the young king. When Edward IV of England of England died, his son lived in Radlow with his uncle Anthony and Earl Rivers, and the Duke of Gloucester was in the north of England. Edward had married Elizabeth Woodville at that time, but the Woodville family had a bad reputation and it was difficult to control the London Advisory Board. Obviously, the Woodville family can't stop Richard from becoming a regent, but they want to set up a regent committee to manage the regent's behavior. They soon sent the new king back to London from Radlow.
Almost at the same time as the new king left Radlow, Richard left Yorkshire and joined his cavalry in Nottingham on April 29th. Tudor historians often describe Richard as an evil and cruel monster with prejudice, but in fact, he is not. He is loyal to his brother, an excellent commander and a brave soldier. He is smart and capable, but he is too impulsive in front of interests. He is a typical product of that era: ambitious and willing to take all cruel means to achieve his goals. This characteristic of his was exposed when Midland met his nephew: he dissolved the Welsh Guard of the new king, arrested his uncle Earl Rivers, his half-brother Sir Richard Gray and Sir Thomas Vaughan, the new king's attendant (all of whom were later executed). On the way to London, he repeatedly expressed his loyalty to the bewildered child. They arrived in London on May 4th.
Richard may not want to be crowned at this time, but he has made up his mind that he will never allow anyone to interfere with the new king's regency during his minor years; To this end, he took a series of measures to make some nobles who hated the Woodville family loyal to him. The Duke of Buckingham is one of them. He is a direct descendant of Edward III's fifth son, and his ambition is no less than Richard's. At first, the Duke of Buckingham gave him great help. When Richard began to think about becoming king in mid-June, the Duke of Buckingham tried to make the young king "live more comfortably" in the Tower of London. When Queen Edward and his family took refuge in Westminster Abbey, he accompanied Richard and the Archbishop of Canterbury to Westminster Abbey, and persuaded Queen Edward to reluctantly hand over her second son, Richard, Duke of York, and let him live with his brother in the Tower of London. Two children later died there, probably in the autumn of 1483.
At the same time, the Duke of Buckingham actively created public opinion for Richard's accession to the throne in London. On June 23, he even led a delegation to meet Richard and expressed his loyalty to him, hoping that he would become king as Richard III. The new king was crowned as scheduled on July 6th. But three months later, the Duke of Buckingham changed his mind for some reason (probably out of strong ambition) and turned to the Woodville family. They got in touch with Margaret beaufort, who was married to Lord Stanley at that time, and gave her exiled son henry vii through her. [Note: Henry's hope of inheriting the throne is slim, because his pedigree is somewhat improper. His mother is the great-granddaughter of Edward III's son John of Gaunt (whose surname was recognized by Richard II), and his father Edmund Tudor is the son of Owen Tudor and Henry V's widow Catherine. With the support of the Duke of Brittany, he led an army to invade Britain. They planned that while Henry invaded, the Duke of Buckingham would incite riots in the western part of the country. Henry did cross the sea (only with some delay), but when he arrived in Poole, there were only two ships left. The domestic riots had failed and the Duke of Buckingham had been executed. Although Henry's invasion plan failed, it told Richard that there were many people competing with him for the throne.
As time went on, Richard's throne became more and more unstable, and he faced rebellion everywhere. 1484 In April, his son, the Prince of Wales, died, and it was said that his wife could never have children again. Many people are in favor of the marriage of Eliza and henry vii of the York family. They regard it as a means to end the struggle between the York family and house of lancaster, because it is so boring. When the attempt to kidnap Henry in France and hand him over to Richard failed, Henry had more followers in England. Perhaps Richard felt a little relieved when he learned that the invasion of house of lancaster, which had threatened him for a long time, would not happen until the summer of 1485. In June this year, he lived in Nottingham Castle. He set up a post office every 20 miles on the main highway. He can keep close contact with the outside world through this position.
Henry set sail from le havre on August 1. He was accompanied by his uncle, Lord Jasper Tudor of Oxford, and some knights exiled with him. There are about 2000 French mercenaries in his fleet. On August 7th, he landed in Milford Harbor, which he knew like the back of his hand as a child, as if his great adventure was destined to start from here. He first advanced to Haverford West, then to Sweets, Arberry, and arrived there on August 10 without any resistance. Then it continued to March eastward and northeast, captured Wales, and occupied Shrewsbury on August 15. Later, he occupied Newport, Stafford, litchfield, tamworth and Arthur Si Tong. On August 20th, he camped in Arthur Si Tong.
Henry left France and landed in Wales. The date when he entered England through Wales was fixed. However, people do not fully understand the operational preparations, deployment and procedures of the two armies, and even the question of where the battlefield is still being debated recently. A few days ago, only some of these unknown factors were answered, and most of the problems still need to be speculated through careful study of existing evidence and careful textual research on ancient battlefields.
The two statements that most people can accept are the Chronicle of Leulan and the description by Polido Virgil. The follow-up author of Leulan Chronicle (whose identity is unknown) probably took part in the battle, but judging from his extremely brief description, he probably didn't see much. Polido Virgil (an Italian scholar, became a British citizen in 15 10) is the most convincing document in existence, but this book was written at the request of henry vii after 1506, which has an age gap with the actual occurrence of that battle and may be a bit biased. However, although Virgil did some processing to a certain extent (which is understandable), he did his best to truly reproduce the historical facts.