On 22 August 1485 King Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth, incidentally the last British king to die in battle.   The controversy over the exact site of the battle has been going on for quite some time.

Traditionally the battle was thought to have taken place at Ambion Hill near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire.  This is where the recently upgraded visitors’ centre stands.

However, as the British Daily Telegraph reported recently it now seems certain that this was not the case.  Tests have ruled out that the battle had taken place on Ambion Hill itself, and also that the stone memorial erected to Richard III half a mile away, on the spot he supposedly fell, is situated on the wrong spot.

Latest research points to a site on low-lying ground between the villages of Shenton, Stoke Golding and Dadlington, as the most likely site.  This was first proposed by the historian Peter Foss in 1990. Another theory puts the battle around eight miles away in Atherstone, where documents show Henry’s army might have camped prior to battle.

Leicestershire County Council was awarded a £1 million Lottery Heritage grant to carry out a survey, the most comprehensive ever carried out on a British battlefield.  The official results will be announced early next year.

Read the full article from the Daily Telegraph here.

In this context the London and Home Counties Branch of the Richard III Society is hosting an open [i.e. open to all Society members able to attend], lecture, by Dr Glenn Foard FSA MISA, University of Leeds and the Battlefield Trust, entitled: ‘Finding Bosworth battlefield – archaeology and the future of battlefield studies’, on Saturday, 24th April, 2010, in the Wolfson and Pollard Rooms, at the IHR, Senate House, Malet Street, London, at 2.00 p.m.

Tags: Bosworth, Richard III