Battle of Stoke
| date | June 16, 1487 |
|---|---|
| place | Nottinghamshire , England |
| output | Victory of the House of Lancaster |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 8,000 men | 12,000 men |
| losses | |
|
4,000 fallen |
3,000 fallen |
St Albans - Blore Heath - Ludlow - Northampton - Wakefield - Mortimer's Cross - St Albans - Ferrybridge - Towton - Hedgeley Moor - Hexham - Edgecote Moor - Losecote Field - Barnet - Tewkesbury - Bosworth Field - Stoke
The Battle of Stoke took place on June 16, 1487 and was the final battle of the Wars of the Roses .
prehistory
Henry VII or Henry Tudor - related to the House of Lancaster through his mother - was King of England at the time. By marrying the heiress of the house of York, Elizabeth of York , no resistance was to be expected from this side. His power, however, was not yet consolidated. He therefore kept the only male heir of the House of York, the Queen's first cousin, Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick (son of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence ), imprisoned in the Tower of London .
The impostor Lambert Simnel , impersonating Edward Plantagenet, caught the attention of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln . Although Lincoln had just reconciled with the King of the House of Tudor , the last Plantagenet , Richard III. of England , was appointed royal heir and was also entitled to the throne. He probably had no doubt about Simnel's true identity, but saw an opportunity for revenge.
On March 19, 1487, Lincoln fled the English court and went to the court of Mechelen , where his aunt Margaret of Burgundy lived. Margarete supported him financially and militarily in the form of 1,500 German and Swiss mercenaries, who were led by the German commander Colonel Martin Schwartz . At Malines, some English rebels joined Lincoln: Lord Lovell, the Richard III. had always loyally supported Sir Richard Harleston, the former governor of Jersey , and Thomas David, a captain of the English base at Calais .
Course of the battle
The Yorkist fleet set sail and arrived in Dublin on May 4, 1487 . With the help of Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Lincoln recruited 4,500 mercenaries there. With the support of the Irish nobility and clergy, Lincoln crowned Lambert Simnel as 'King Edward VI' in Dublin on May 24, 1487. Lincoln had no intention of staying in Ireland, however, and instead sailed to Lancashire with the entire army .
After landing on June 4, 1487, he was reinforced by local troops under the leadership of Sir Thomas Boughton. In the march that followed, the now 8,000 strong Yorkist army covered about 200 miles in 5 days and reached Tadcaster on the night of June 10 , where, under the leadership of Lovell , they attacked and defeated 400 Lancastrians commanded by Lord Clifford .
Lincoln then maneuvered King Henry's northern army, under the command of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, and John, Lord Scrope, by simulating an attack on the Bootham Bar gate in York on June 12th . Lord Scrope moved north, taking Percy's forces with him.
Lincoln and the bulk of the army, however, moved south. Before Doncaster , he met the Lancastrian cavalry under Lord Scales. This was followed by three days of banter in Sherwood Forest . Lincoln forced Scales back to Nottingham . The battle had weakened the army of the House of York, this allowed King Henry to strengthen his troops, which happened under Lord Strange on June 14th in Nottingham. On June 15, King Henry moved northeast towards Newark . There he received the message that Lincoln had crossed the Trent . At around 9 a.m. on June 16, King Henry's troops met the Yorkist army on a hilltop.
The Yorkists left their tactically more favorable position on the hill and attacked. The battle lasted three hours, but eventually the great losses suffered by the Irish troops meant the defeat of their army.
Unable to retreat, the Germans and Swiss led the fight to an end. All the commanders of the Yorkist Army, Lincoln, FitzGerald, Boughton, and Schwartz, died in battle. Only Lovell escaped and died in his home. Simnel was captured, but later pardoned.
Effects of the battle
With the death of Lincoln the House of York ended and so did the Wars of the Roses. Even after that, "false princes" appeared every now and then, but they could no longer seriously endanger Heinrich's rule.
literature
- MJ Bennett: Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke. Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1987, ISBN 0-86299-334-2 .
- Anthony Goodman: The Wars of the Roses: Military Activity and English Society, 1452-97 . Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1981, ISBN 0-415-05264-5 .
- Philip A. Haigh: The Military Campaigns of the Wars of the Roses . Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1995, ISBN 0-7509-1430-0 .
- JD Mackie: The earlier Tudors: 1485–1558. (= Oxford history of England. 7). Oxford University Press, Oxford 1994, ISBN 0-19-285292-2 , pp. 73-75.
- DE Roberts: The Battle of Stoke Field 1487. Newark and Sherwood DC 1987.
Coordinates: 53 ° 2 '6 " N , 0 ° 53' 16.8" W.