Editing Battle of Bosworth Field (section)

==After the battle==
[[File:Lord Stanley Brings the Crown of Richard (wide).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|right|alt=Against a background of cheering men, an armoured man on the left hands a crown to a mounted armoured man on the right.|Finding Richard's circlet after the battle, Lord Stanley hands it to Henry.]]
Although he claimed<ref>{{cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |title=Questions raised over Queen's ancestry after DNA test on Richard III's cousins |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/02/king-richard-iii-dna-cousins-queen-ancestry |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=2 December 2014 |access-date=27 July 2019}}</ref> fourth-generation maternal Lancastrian descendancy, Henry seized the crown by right of conquest. After the battle, Richard's [[circlet]] is said to have been found and brought to Henry, who was proclaimed king at the top of Crown Hill, near the village of Stoke Golding. According to Vergil, Henry's official historian, Lord Stanley found the circlet. Historians Stanley Chrimes and Sydney Anglo dismiss the legend of the circlet's finding in a [[Crataegus|hawthorn bush]]; none of the contemporary sources reported such an event.{{sfn|Chrimes|1999|p=49}} Ross, however, does not ignore the legend. He argues that the hawthorn bush would not be part of Henry's coat of arms if it did not have a strong relationship to his ascendance.{{sfn|Ross|1999|p=52}} Baldwin points out that a hawthorn bush motif was already used by the House of Lancaster, and Henry merely added the crown.{{sfn|Baldwin|2015|p=79}}

In Vergil's chronicle, 100 of Henry's men, compared to 1,000 of Richard's, died in this battle—a ratio Chrimes believes to be an exaggeration.{{sfn|Chrimes|1999|p=49}} The bodies of the fallen were brought to St James Church at Dadlington for burial.{{sfn|Battlefields Trust|2004|loc=[http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/warsoftheroses/battlepageview.asp?pageid=392 "Battlefield Monuments"]}} However, Henry denied any immediate rest for Richard; instead the last Yorkist king's corpse was stripped naked and strapped across a horse. His body was brought to Leicester and openly exhibited to prove that he was dead. Early accounts suggest that this was in the major Lancastrian collegiate foundation, the [[Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke]].{{sfn|Carson|Ashdown-Hill|Johnson|Johnson|2014|p={{page needed|date=April 2024}}}} After two days, the corpse was interred in a plain tomb,{{sfn|Ross|1999|pp=225–226}} within the church of the [[Greyfriars, Leicester|Greyfriars]].{{sfn|Baldwin|1986|p=21}} The church was demolished following the friary's [[Dissolution of the monasteries|dissolution]] in 1538, and the location of Richard's tomb was long uncertain.{{sfn|Baldwin|1986|pp=23–24}}

[[File:Het lijk van Richard III, koning van Engeland, gevonden op het slagveld van Bosworth, 1485, RP-T-1898-A-4040.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|right|[[Richard III]]'s corpse found on the battlefield. Image by [[Charles Rochussen]]]]
On 12 September 2012, archaeologists announced [[Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England|the discovery of a buried skeleton]] with spinal abnormalities and head injuries under a car park in Leicester, and their suspicions that it was Richard III.<ref name="BBCLeicester">{{cite web |title=Richard III dig: 'Strong chance' bones belong to king |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-19561018 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=12 September 2012 |access-date=13 September 2012}}</ref> On 4 February 2013, it was announced that DNA testing had convinced [[Leicester University]] scientists and researchers "beyond reasonable doubt" that the remains were those of King Richard.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |author-link=Maev Kennedy |date=4 February 2013 |title=Richard III: DNA confirms twisted bones belong to king |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/feb/04/richard-iii-dna-bones-king |access-date=19 July 2018 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> On 26 March 2015, these remains were ceremonially buried in [[Leicester Cathedral]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Ward |first=Victoria |title=Reburial of Richard III – As it happened |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/11495617/Reburial-of-Richard-III-As-it-happened.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150326134345/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/archaeology/11495617/Reburial-of-Richard-III-As-it-happened.html |archive-date=2015-03-26 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |date=26 March 2015 |access-date=19 July 2018 |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> Richard's tomb was unveiled on the following day.<ref>{{cite news |title=Richard III tomb goes on display |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-32085532 |publisher=BBC News |date=27 March 2015 |access-date=19 July 2018}}</ref>

Henry dismissed the mercenaries in his force, retaining only a small core of local soldiers to form a "[[Yeomen of the Guard|Yeomen of his Garde]]",{{sfn|Mackie|1983|p=58}} and proceeded to establish his rule of England. Parliament reversed his attainder and recorded Richard's kingship as illegal, although the Yorkist king's reign remained officially in the annals of England history. The proclamation of Edward IV's children as illegitimate was also reversed, restoring Elizabeth's status to a royal princess.{{sfn|Baker|2003|pp=58–59}} The marriage of Elizabeth, the heiress to the House of York, to Henry, the master of the House of Lancaster, marked the end of the feud between the two houses and the start of the [[Tudor dynasty]]. The royal matrimony, however, was delayed until Henry was crowned king and had established his claim on the throne firmly enough to preclude that of Elizabeth and her kin.{{sfn|Laynesmith|2005|p=81}} Henry further convinced Parliament to backdate his reign to the day before the battle,{{sfn|Adams|2002|p=20}} enabling him retrospectively to declare as traitors those who had fought against him at Bosworth Field.{{sfn|Baker|2003|p=59}} Northumberland, who had remained inactive during the battle, was imprisoned but later released and reinstated to pacify the north in Henry's name.{{sfn|Carpenter|2002|p=222}} Henry proved prepared to accept those who submitted to him regardless of their former allegiances.{{sfn|Carpenter|2002|pp=224–225}}

Of his supporters, Henry rewarded the Stanleys the most generously.{{sfn|Chrimes|1999|p=54}} Aside from making William his chamberlain, he bestowed the earldom of Derby upon Lord Stanley along with grants and offices in other estates.{{sfn|Carpenter|2002|p=223}} Henry rewarded Oxford by restoring to him the lands and titles confiscated by the Yorkists and appointing him as [[Constable of the Tower]] and admiral of England, Ireland, and [[Aquitaine]]. For his kin, Henry created Jasper Tudor the [[Duke of Bedford]].{{sfn|Chrimes|1999|pp=54–55}} He returned to his mother the lands and grants stripped from her by Richard, and proved to be a filial son, granting her a place of honour in the palace and faithfully attending to her throughout his reign. Parliament's declaration of Margaret as ''[[femme sole]]'' effectively empowered her; she no longer needed to manage her estates through Stanley.{{sfn|Jones|Underwood|1993|pp=98–99}} Elton points out that despite his initial largesse, Henry's supporters at Bosworth would enjoy his special favour for only the short term; in later years, he would instead promote those who best served his interests.{{sfn|Elton|2003|pp=78–80}}

Like the kings before him, Henry faced dissenters. The first open revolt occurred two years after Bosworth Field; [[Lambert Simnel]] claimed to be [[Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick]], who was Edward IV's nephew. The Earl of Lincoln backed him for the throne and led rebel forces in the name of the House of York.{{sfn|Carpenter|2002|p=222}} The rebel army fended off several attacks by Northumberland's forces, before engaging Henry's army at the [[Battle of Stoke Field]] on 16 June 1487.{{sfn|Carpenter|2002|p=223}} Oxford and Bedford led Henry's men,{{sfn|Mackie|1983|p=73}} including several former supporters of Richard III.{{sfn|Horrox|1991|p=318}} Henry won this battle easily, but other malcontents and conspiracies would follow.{{sfn|Pugh|1992|pp=52–56}} A rebellion in 1489 started with Northumberland's murder; military historian Michael C. C. Adams says that the author of a note, which was left next to Northumberland's body, blamed the earl for Richard's death.{{sfn|Adams|2002|p=20}}