Today is the 527th anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth Field. This was the decisive battle that ended the 30-year long English Wars of the Roses with Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond defeating Yorkish King Richard III. Richmond would assume the throne himself as King Henry VII ushering in the Tudor Dynasty which would end 118 years later with the death of Henry’s granddaughter Queen Elizabeth I.
The Battle of Bosworth Field is famously portrayed in Shakespeare’s Richard III where we find one of Shakespeare’s best known lines.
CATESBY:
Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue!
The king enacts more wonders than a man,
Daring an opposite to every danger:
His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!KING RICHARD III:
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
CATESBY:
Withdraw, my lord; I’ll help you to a horse.
