Battle of Stoke Field
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Stoke Field (16 June, 1487) may be considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses
, since it was to be the last engagement in which a Lancastrian king
faced an army of Yorkist supporters, under the pretender Lambert Simnel
. However, there is some dispute whether the Battle of Stoke Field was the last battle in the Wars of the Roses, as a number of historians consider the Battle of Bosworth, two years previously, as the real last remaining battle in the Wars of the Roses. Despite being the final major conflict between York and Lancaster (Tudor), it was one of the costliest in terms of life, as there was a mutual agreement that there would be a policy of no quarter
for those left standing.
Later in Henry's reign emerged another pretender to the throne, Perkin Warbeck
, however this was resolved without resorting to arms.
held the throne for the House of Lancaster
(House of Tudor), and had tried to gain the acceptance of the Yorkist faction by his marriage to their heiress, Elizabeth of York
, but his hold on power was not entirely secure.
The best surviving male claimant of the York dynasty was the queen's first cousin, Edward, Earl of Warwick
(son of George, Duke of Clarence
). This boy was kept confined in the Tower of London
.
An impostor claiming to be Edward, whose name was Lambert Simnel
, although it is difficult to say if that was his real name, came to the attention of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. Lincoln, although apparently reconciled with the Tudor
king, himself had a claim on the throne; moreover, the last Plantagenet, Richard III of England
, had named him as the royal heir. Although he probably had no doubt about Simnel's true identity, Lincoln saw an opportunity for revenge and reparation.
Lincoln fled the English court on 19 March, 1487 and went to the court of Mechelen
(Malines) and his aunt, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. Margaret provided financial and military support in the form of 2000 German mercenaries, under the commander, Martin Schwartz
. Lincoln was joined by a number of rebel English Lords at Mechelen, in particular Richard III's loyal supporter, Lord Lovell, Sir Richard Harleston, the former governor of Jersey
and Thomas David, a captain of the English garrison at Calais
.
and his brother Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh
, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
, Lincoln recruited 4,500 Irish mercenaries, mostly Kerns
, lightly armoured but highly mobile infantry.
With the support of the Irish nobility and clergy, Lincoln had the pretender Lambert Simnel
crowned "King Edward VI" in Dublin on 24 May, 1487. Although a Parliament was called for the new "King", Lincoln had no intention of remaining in Dublin and instead packed up the army and Simnel and set sail for north Lancashire
.
On landing on 4 June, 1487, Lincoln was joined by a number of the local gentry led by Sir Thomas Broughton. In a series of forced marches, the Yorkist army, now numbering some 8,000 men, covered over 200 miles in five days. On the night of 10 June, at Bramham Moor
, outside Tadcaster
, Lovell led 2,000 men on a night attack against 400 Lancastrians, led by Lord Clifford. The result was an overwhelming Yorkist victory.
Lincoln then outmanoeuvered King Henry's northern army, under the command of the Earl of Northumberland
by ordering a force under John, Lord Scrope to mount a diversionary attack on Bootham Bar, York, on 12 June. Lord Scrope then withdrew northwards, taking Northumberland's army with him.
Lincoln and the main army continued southwards. Outside Doncaster
, Lincoln encountered Lancastrian cavalry under Lord Scales. There followed three days of skirmishing through Sherwood Forest
. Lincoln forced Scales back to Nottingham. However, the fighting had slowed down the Yorkist advance sufficiently to allow King Henry to receive substantial reinforcements under the command of Lord Strange, on arriving at Nottingham on 14 June.
On 15 June, King Henry began moving north east toward Newark after receiving news that Lincoln had crossed the Trent
. Around nine in the morning of 16 June, King Henry's forward troops, commanded by the Earl of Oxford
, encountered the Yorkist army assembled in a single block, on a brow of a hill surrounded on three sides by the River Trent at the village of East Stoke
.
In an unusual military manoeuvre, the Yorkists surrendered the high ground by immediately going on to the attack. The battle was bitterly contested for over three hours, but eventually, the lack of body armour on the Irish troops meant that they were cut down in increasing numbers.
Unable to retreat, the German and Swiss mercenaries fought it out. All of the Yorkist commanders: Lincoln, Fitzgerald, Broughton, and Schwartz, fell fighting. Only Lord Lovell escaped and, according to legend, died hidden in a secret room at his house. Simnel was captured, but was pardoned by Henry in a gesture of clemency which did his reputation no harm. Henry realised that Simnel was merely a puppet for the leading Yorkists.
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
, since it was to be the last engagement in which a Lancastrian king
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
faced an army of Yorkist supporters, under the pretender Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel was a pretender to the throne of England. His claim to be the Earl of Warwick in 1487 threatened the newly established reign of King Henry VII .-Early life:...
. However, there is some dispute whether the Battle of Stoke Field was the last battle in the Wars of the Roses, as a number of historians consider the Battle of Bosworth, two years previously, as the real last remaining battle in the Wars of the Roses. Despite being the final major conflict between York and Lancaster (Tudor), it was one of the costliest in terms of life, as there was a mutual agreement that there would be a policy of no quarter
No quarter
A victor gives no quarter when the victor shows no clemency or mercy and refuses to spare the life in return for the surrender at discretion of a vanquished opponent....
for those left standing.
Later in Henry's reign emerged another pretender to the throne, Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the English throne during the reign of King Henry VII of England. By claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV, one of the Princes in the Tower, Warbeck was a significant threat to the newly established Tudor Dynasty,...
, however this was resolved without resorting to arms.
The pretender
Henry VII of EnglandHenry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
held the throne for the House of Lancaster
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
(House of Tudor), and had tried to gain the acceptance of the Yorkist faction by his marriage to their heiress, Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York was Queen consort of England as spouse of King Henry VII from 1486 until 1503, and mother of King Henry VIII of England....
, but his hold on power was not entirely secure.
The best surviving male claimant of the York dynasty was the queen's first cousin, Edward, Earl of Warwick
Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick
Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick was the son of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and a potential claimant to the English throne during the reigns of both Richard III and his successor, Henry VII...
(son of George, Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, 1st Earl of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Warwick, KG was the third son of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III. He played an important role in the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the...
). This boy was kept confined in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
.
An impostor claiming to be Edward, whose name was Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel was a pretender to the throne of England. His claim to be the Earl of Warwick in 1487 threatened the newly established reign of King Henry VII .-Early life:...
, although it is difficult to say if that was his real name, came to the attention of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. Lincoln, although apparently reconciled with the Tudor
Tudor dynasty
The Tudor dynasty or House of Tudor was a European royal house of Welsh origin that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms, including the Lordship of Ireland, later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch was Henry Tudor, a descendant through his mother of a legitimised...
king, himself had a claim on the throne; moreover, the last Plantagenet, Richard III of England
Richard III of England
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty...
, had named him as the royal heir. Although he probably had no doubt about Simnel's true identity, Lincoln saw an opportunity for revenge and reparation.
Lincoln fled the English court on 19 March, 1487 and went to the court of Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
(Malines) and his aunt, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. Margaret provided financial and military support in the form of 2000 German mercenaries, under the commander, Martin Schwartz
Martin Schwartz (mercenary)
Martin Schwartz was a German mercenary who died at the Battle of Stoke Field while fighting for Lambert Simnel, a Yorkist pretender to the English throne....
. Lincoln was joined by a number of rebel English Lords at Mechelen, in particular Richard III's loyal supporter, Lord Lovell, Sir Richard Harleston, the former governor of Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
and Thomas David, a captain of the English garrison at Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
.
The Yorkist rebellion
The Yorkist fleet set sail and arrived in Dublin on 4 May, 1487. With the help of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of KildareGerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare
Gerald Mór FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, KG , known variously as "Garret the Great" or "The Great Earl" , was Ireland's premier peer...
and his brother Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh
Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh
Sir Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh , younger son of the 7th Earl of Kildare, was Lord Chancellor of Ireland under Richard III and Henry VII, but rebelled against Henry and was killed at the Battle of Stoke....
, Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
The office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland was the highest judicial office in Ireland until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. From 1721 to 1801 it was also the highest political office of the Irish Parliament.-13th century:...
, Lincoln recruited 4,500 Irish mercenaries, mostly Kerns
Kern (soldier)
A Kern was a Gaelic soldier, specifically a light infantryman in Ireland during the Middle Ages.-Linguistic roots:The word kern is an anglicisation of the Middle Irish word ceithern or ceithrenn meaning a collection of persons, particularly fighting men. An individual member is a ceithernach...
, lightly armoured but highly mobile infantry.
With the support of the Irish nobility and clergy, Lincoln had the pretender Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel
Lambert Simnel was a pretender to the throne of England. His claim to be the Earl of Warwick in 1487 threatened the newly established reign of King Henry VII .-Early life:...
crowned "King Edward VI" in Dublin on 24 May, 1487. Although a Parliament was called for the new "King", Lincoln had no intention of remaining in Dublin and instead packed up the army and Simnel and set sail for north Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
.
On landing on 4 June, 1487, Lincoln was joined by a number of the local gentry led by Sir Thomas Broughton. In a series of forced marches, the Yorkist army, now numbering some 8,000 men, covered over 200 miles in five days. On the night of 10 June, at Bramham Moor
Battle of Bramham Moor
The Battle of Bramham Moor was the final battle in the Percy Rebellion of 1402 – 1408, which pitted the Earl of Northumberland, leader of the wealthy and influential Percy family, against the usurper King of England, King Henry IV...
, outside Tadcaster
Tadcaster
Tadcaster is a market town and civil parish in the Selby district of North Yorkshire, England. Lying on the Great North Road approximately east of Leeds and west of York. It is the last town on the River Wharfe before it joins the River Ouse about downstream...
, Lovell led 2,000 men on a night attack against 400 Lancastrians, led by Lord Clifford. The result was an overwhelming Yorkist victory.
Lincoln then outmanoeuvered King Henry's northern army, under the command of the Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, KG son of Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland and his wife Eleanor Poynings, daughter of Richard Poynings, Lord Poynings....
by ordering a force under John, Lord Scrope to mount a diversionary attack on Bootham Bar, York, on 12 June. Lord Scrope then withdrew northwards, taking Northumberland's army with him.
Lincoln and the main army continued southwards. Outside Doncaster
Doncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
, Lincoln encountered Lancastrian cavalry under Lord Scales. There followed three days of skirmishing through Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, that is famous through its historical association with the legend of Robin Hood. Continuously forested since the end of the Ice Age, Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve today encompasses 423 hectares surrounding the village of...
. Lincoln forced Scales back to Nottingham. However, the fighting had slowed down the Yorkist advance sufficiently to allow King Henry to receive substantial reinforcements under the command of Lord Strange, on arriving at Nottingham on 14 June.
On 15 June, King Henry began moving north east toward Newark after receiving news that Lincoln had crossed the Trent
River Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
. Around nine in the morning of 16 June, King Henry's forward troops, commanded by the Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford , the second son of John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Howard, was one of the principal Lancastrian commanders during the English Wars of the Roses...
, encountered the Yorkist army assembled in a single block, on a brow of a hill surrounded on three sides by the River Trent at the village of East Stoke
East Stoke, Nottinghamshire
East Stoke is a small village in Nottinghamshire nestled between the A46 Fosse Way trunk road and the River Trent. It lies about 6 miles southwest of Newark...
.
In an unusual military manoeuvre, the Yorkists surrendered the high ground by immediately going on to the attack. The battle was bitterly contested for over three hours, but eventually, the lack of body armour on the Irish troops meant that they were cut down in increasing numbers.
Unable to retreat, the German and Swiss mercenaries fought it out. All of the Yorkist commanders: Lincoln, Fitzgerald, Broughton, and Schwartz, fell fighting. Only Lord Lovell escaped and, according to legend, died hidden in a secret room at his house. Simnel was captured, but was pardoned by Henry in a gesture of clemency which did his reputation no harm. Henry realised that Simnel was merely a puppet for the leading Yorkists.