Edexcel – Unit 1 - Access to History 2

Access to History Online Edexcel Unit 1 – A6 The Wars of the Roses in England, 1455–85Tudor’s by about 10,000 men to 5,000. Richard hadthe support of many of the nobility and gentry ofEngland, including the Duke of Norfolk, whilst Henrywas an outsider who had been brought up in exileand who was partly reliant on 1,800 Frenchmercenaries. Richard was also expecting theStanleys’ 6,000 men to join his army. Furthermore,Richard III had secured the tactical advantage byplacing his men on Ambion Hill, which made itharder for Henry’s men to attack. Even whenRichard did leave the hill to lead a charge at Henry,this in many ways was good tactical thinking as hewas aiming to win the battle by killing Tudor. Thesefactors suggest that Richard should have won atBosworth, but he was unlucky because the Earl ofNorthumberland did not engage his troops, whilstSir William Stanley decided to help Tudor instead ofthe king (7).However, it was not just bad luck on the day of theBattle which led to Richard’s defeat (8).The eventsof 1483 meant that he was never fully secure onthe throne and that he had created manyopponents who united against him in 1485. Themain problem for Richard was that he had usurpedhis own nephew, Edward V, who had subsequentlydisappeared, and was probably murdered. Richardwas blamed for this, and, as a usurper, he wasconsidered to have gone against God’s word.Opposition to Richard can be seen in Buckingham’srevolt of 1483 in the South and West whichattempted to support an invasion by Henry Tudor.These events were very important in Richard’seventual downfall because the revolt involvedpreviously loyal Yorkists, like John Heron, who werenow prepared to support a Lancastrian claimant.Even though Richard put the revolt down easily,many Yorkists like Heron escaped to join Tudor inexile. It was these men who then helped to bringHenry to England in 1485, not because they wanteda Lancastrian as king, but because they weredetermined to get rid of Richard. More problemswere created for Richard because he had to ensurethat the South and West were still governedproperly, but he had lost, or could not trust, manyof the gentry who had previously done this job. As aresult, Richard ‘planted’ some of his trustedNorthern retainers such as Richard Ratcliffe in theSouth, making the king even more unpopular.Richard’s unpopularity as a usurper and the supportthis created amongst previously loyal Yorkists helpsto explain why nobles like the Stanleys were notprepared to fight for him; it was not simply bad luck(7) The candidate uses precisefactual detail to argue thatRichard was unlucky to lose atBosworth. This material showsimpressive range andunderstanding of Richard’sreign as well as events on theday of the battle. Theparagraph is closely focusedon the precise question.(8) This sentence shows thatthe candidate is aware thatthey need to give a balancedargument and that they arenow considering other reasonsfor Richard’s defeat.(9) The rest of this paragraphis a detailed explanation ofwhy Richard had lost support.The factual detail is preciseand is used to support theargument. At the end of theparagraph, the candidateshows that they are fullyaware of the demands of thequestion by comparing theproblems Richard had on theday of the battle with other© Hodder Education, 2010