The Battle of Bosworth Field

Grit drags Shark, Squirrel and Tiger to the Battle of Bosworth Field today. The real proper battlefields in Leicester where blood spilled and the visitor centre got built. Shark, Squirrel and Tiger say they'll come so long as they can pick up ideas for reenactment.


Now we normally reenact the Battle of Hastings on the front room carpet, where the sofa cushions do nicely piled up as Senlac Hill, and we do Bannockburn over the back of the sofa so the dead can tip properly into the gorge, but really, there is no substitute for standing on the raddled earth to feel the tremors of battle. Here you can feel the cold wind whip against your cheeks and watch your fingers grow red raw. Here, on the fields encircling small English towns with made-up names like Dadlington and Sutton Cheney, we can breathe that air as the battered and beaten Richard III, or as the triumphant, exhausted rival Henry Tudor, or the thousands of men who waited for that battle sign, fought and fell.


This battle, 22 August 1485, changed the course of English history. Richard, that evil, plotting murderous sod, was hacked after death and some time later thrown in a ditch, and probably lies there still, no-one knows where. Or much cares. Henry Tudor, an efficient administrator, strategist, writer of new history, got the girl, the glory, the Hollywood contract, and started a dynasty to keep Keith Mitchell in paid employment and provide some toys for chums of Cate Blanchett.

And of course here at the exhibition centre the gritlets can try on armour...


watch the battle video...

and take home the all important military strategy so they can reenact the day properly with the bathroom carpet, three unicorns, and a mermaid standing in for Henry Tudor.


Never let it be said that our history education is not respectful.