Jean Plaidy: The Sun in Splendour

He went forward wielding his battle-axe.

‘Treason!’ he cried. ‘Come, Henry Tudor ... Come out and fight.’

His men were falling about him, Ratcliffe was down now, but Richard fought on valiantly, the crown on his head. He was determined to storm his way through to the Tudor. If he were going to die he would take him with him.

They were attacking him now. The blows were coming fast. Then he was sinking into darkness. He fell to the ground and his crown rolled from his head.

It was the end. The battle was over. It was victory for Henry Tudor. Of Richard’s loyal friends Norfolk, Ratcliffe and Brackenbury were slain. Catesby was captured and hanged; Lovell escaped to live on into the new reign.

It was Lord Stanley – to whose treachery Henry Tudor owed his victory – who found the golden crown in a hedge and placed it on Henry Tudor’s head.

So ended the battle of Bosworth, the last in the Wars of the Roses. So ended the rule of the Plantagenets. A new reigning family had come to England with the Tudors.

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