King Richard.—
“Caparison my horse:
Call up Lord Stanley, bid him bring his power:
I will lead forth my soldiers to the plain,
And thus my battle shall be ordered.
My foreward shall be drawn out all in length,
Consisting equally of horse and foot;
Our archers shall be placed in the midst:
John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of Surrey,
Shall have the leading of this foot and horse.
They thus directed, we will follow
In the main battle; whose puissance on either side
Shall be well winged with our chiefest horse.”Shakespeare’s Richard III. act scene 3.
(Bosworth Field.)
On the 3rd of June, 1856, I visited the celebrated Field of the Battle of Bosworth, [157b] so called from its contiguity to the town of Market Bosworth, in Leicestershire, which is in sight of, and little more than a mile distant from, the field. It is a locality of great interest, from being the place where Richard III., the last of the Plantagenet Kings, [158a] lost his throne and life, on the 22nd of August, 1485, in battle; the result of which placed his rival, Henry Earl of Richmond, [158b] upon the throne of England, by the title of Henry VII.
The description of the field and of the battle, given by that painstaking antiquary W. Hutton, F.S.A., is so full, that I am unable to add much to the stock of information on those subjects, which is contained in his interesting work, to which, however, several references will be found in the following pages.
He has expressed some surprise, at the changes which had taken place between his visit in 1788, and that in 1807. He says:—“I paid a visit in July 1807, to Bosworth Field; but found so great an alteration, since I saw it in 1788, that I was totally lost. The manor had been enclosed; the fences were grown up; and my prospect impeded. King Richard’s Well, which figures in our histories, was nearly obliterated; the swamp where he fell, become firm land; and the rivulet proceeding from it, lost in an under-drain.” [159]
If so great a change had occurred prior to July 1807, it may well be imagined, that a still greater change had occurred when I visited it in 1856. On that occasion, I had the benefit of the local information and knowledge possessed by Mr. John Rubley, an extensive farmer, and a very well informed person, residing at Dadlington Fields, near there, who was kind enough to accompany me, and explain the various positions and points of the field of battle, without which, I should have found it impossible to have understood them, even with the aid of a copy of the plan of the field, from Mr. Hutton’s work, which I carried with me.
Amongst other changes which have occurred there, and which have altered its appearance, may be mentioned, the cutting of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal, which extends through part of it.
Mr. Hutton states, that the south end of the field, by which Henry advanced, is three miles from Bosworth; and was, when he wrote, a wood of many acres. [160a] He adds, “About thirty yards above the wood is a spring, called at this day King Richard’s Well. A small discharge of water flows from the well, directly down the hill, through the wood, into the rivulet; but, having no channel cut for its passage, it penetrates through the soil, and forms that morass which Henry is said to have left on his right. Amyon Hill is nearly in the centre of the field, and is by much the highest ground; the summit is two or three hundred yards beyond the well. The hill has a steep descent on every side, but is steepest towards the north, or the Bosworth side, and terminates with a rill, a bog, and a flat, called Amyon Lays. The field extends a mile farther towards Bosworth, but that part was not the scene of action.” [160b]
He also informs us, that after Richard had made an oration, or address to his forces, his army marched in battalia, to Amyon Hill, where they arrived before Henry. [160c]
The wood called Amyon (or Ambien) Wood, still remains, and is, of course, much grown and changed, since Mr. Hutton’s time. A portion of the ground upon which it stands, seems to have been the scene of at least a part of the engagement. [160d] I walked with my son, Mr. Alexander Brooke, through a portion of it, and found that part rather wet and spongy; but there was not then any appearance of what could with propriety be called a morass, either in the wood, or below the well, or at the foot of the hill.
Mr. Hutton, in his account of the position of Richard’s army, immediately before the battle commenced, and of the place to which he considers Richard’s right wing extended, states that “The King’s right extended to the declivity of the hill, on the Bosworth side, called Cornhill Furze, [160e] or Amyon Lays, and his left towards King Richard’s well.” [161a] But it would perhaps be more correct and clear, to state, that the King’s right wing extended along the summit of Amyon Hill, towards the declivity, which slopes down in the direction of Market Bosworth, and of the road leading from Shenton to Sutton Cheney; that his centre occupied the ground where Amyon Hill Farm, tenanted by Mr. Bradfield, now is; and that his left wing probably extended a little beyond King Richard’s Well, which seems to have been in the front of a portion of his left wing. Consequently, Richard’s army must have faced to the south-westward, with Market Bosworth and Sutton Cheney, at a little distance, in its rear; and that of Henry, must have faced to the north-eastward. The precise position of the armies must, however, be admitted to be in some measure conjectural.