The Battle of Bosworth along with Hastings and Naseby is one of the most important battles in English history and on the death of Richard, ushered in the age of the Tudors. This is the story of two very different men, Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England and Henry Tudor and how they met in battle on 22 August 1485 at Bosworth Field.

The battle of Bosworth was the culmination of the War of the Roses, the dynastic struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster that dominated England in the second half of the 15th century. Edward IV had secured the throne for the house of York, but his early death in 1483, followed by the death of his sons and the taking of the throne by his brother, Richard of York, saw a renewed outbreak of fighting. His reign began with a major rebellion and was dogged by rumours of his involvement in murder, with Richard facing threats not only from the lords he alienated but also the Lancastrian faction waiting in the wings. Henry Tudor eventually decided to take the huge risk of attempting to seize the throne and Richard's army marched to meet him, finally clashing near Market Bosworth. Guiding the reader from the campaign's origins to its aftermath, and covering the commanders and forces of King Richard III and Henry Tudor, this is a complete treatment of one of the most important events in English history. The story of Bosworth has been transformed in the 20th century as an extensive survey between 2005 and 2009 by the Battlefields Trust has pinpointed the location of the battlefield, for many years a source of debate and controversy, and this new history is based on that interpretation. It will also highlight the incredible discovery of Richard III's remains in Leicester, the study of the bones and relate this to what was previously thought to have happened to him at the end of the battle.

On the morning of the 22nd August 1485, to the sound of thundering hooves, gunshot, the clash of steel and the cries of men in battle, Richard III, King of England, lost his life and the Platangenet line came to an end. But what do we really know of the battle which became known as the Battle of Bosworth Field? How do we separate fact from legend when our knowledge is based on sources which are meagre, garbled or partisan?

From acclaimed historian Chris Skidmore comes the authoritative biography of Richard III, England’s most controversial king, a man alternately praised as a saint and cursed as a villain. Richard III is one of English history’s best known and least understood monarchs. Immortalized by Shakespeare as a hunchbacked murderer, the discovery in 2012 of his skeleton in a Leicester parking lot re-ignited debate over the true character of England’s most controversial king. Richard was born into an age of brutality, when civil war gripped the land and the Yorkist dynasty clung to the crown with their fingertips. Was he really a power-crazed monster who killed his nephews, or the victim of the first political smear campaign conducted by the Tudors? In the first full biography of Richard III for fifty years, Chris Skidmore draws on new manuscript evidence to reassess Richard’s life and times. Richard III examines in intense detail Richard’s inner nature and his complex relations with those around him to unravel the mystery of the last English monarch to die on the battlefield.

In 1485 on a battlefield in Bosworth, King Richard III was dealt a death blow by the man who had sworn loyalty to him only a few months earlier. He was Rhys ap Thomas. This is the story of the man who helped forge the course of British history.