Mackinder, Richard Bosworth. The Archaeology of the Battlefield

The Wars of the Roses came to a bloody climax at the Battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485. In a few hours, on a stretch of otherwise unremarkable fields in Leicestershire, Richard III, Henry Tudor and their Yorkist and Lancastrian supporters clashed. This decisive moment in English history ought to be clearly recorded and understood, yet controversy has confused our understanding of where and how the battle was fought. That is why Richard Mackinders highly illustrated and personal account of the search for evidence of the battle is such absorbing reading. He shows how archaeological evidence, discovered by painstaking work on the ground, has put this historic battle into the modern landscape. Using the results of the latest research, he takes the reader through each phase of the battle, from the camp sites of the opposing armies on the night before, through the movements of thousands of men across the battlefield during the fight and the major individual episodes such as the death of the Duke of Norfolk, the intervention of Lord Stanley and the death of Richard III. At each stage he recounts what happened, where it happened and what physical evidence has survived. A vivid impression of the battle emerges from his narrative which is closely linked to the landscape that was fought over on that fateful day.

This is why Richard Mackinder's richly illustrated and personal account of the search for evidence of the battle is so captivating to read. He shows how archaeological evidence, painstakingly uncovered on the ground, has translated this historic battle into the modern landscape. Using the latest research, he takes the reader through each phase of the battle, from the encampments of the opposing armies the night before, to the movements of thousands of men on the battlefield during the fight, to the key individual events such as the death of the Duke of Norfolk, the intervention of Lord Stanley and the death of Richard III. At each stage he recounts what happened, where it happened and what physical evidence survives. This creates a vivid picture of the battle that is closely linked to the landscape in which it was fought on that fateful day.