Dickon Whitewood, Stoke Field 1487 (Osprey, 2025)
There is a common misconception that the Battle of Bosworth, in 1485, ended the Wars of the Roses. After all, at Bosworth, the armies of a king and his usurper met in combat to decide the throne for the final time, right? Except it wasn’t. Henry Tudor defeated Richard III and seized the throne. But the issue was far from settled, and it would take another battle, at Stoke Field in 1487 to finally close the book on the Wars of the Roses. In this new book in Osprey Publishing’s Campaign series, Dickon Whitewood tells that story.
Whitewood explains why things were not quite settled after Bosworth and support for Henry was not guaranteed. Early in his reign, Henry faced down two misfiring rebellions, then came the curious case of the ‘imposter’ Lambert Simnel that initially led to some confusion followed by a purge of Henry’s enemies that did little to settle matters. Whitewood leaves his narrative to discuss the opposing commanders. Here, Whitewood retells the story of Henry’s upbringing and rise to power, and he offers brief biographies of Henry’s commanders. John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, led the rebel army. He was aided by, among others Thomas Fitzgerald of Laccagh and the Swiss mercenary captain Martin Schwarz. The armies they commanded are Whitewood’s next stop. He examines the problems of recruitment, with Henry recruiting in the usual monarchical fashion, while the rebels had some feudal support but had to raise mercenary forces to supplement their army. The thorny historical problem of numbers at the battle also receives Whitewood’s attention. The plans of the opposing sides and their strategic pre-battle manoeuvring comes next. This was a campaign with only one destination for both commanders, the throne of England, while the path to get there was as complex as most other Wars of the Roses campaigns. That journey ran via Stoke Field, near Nottingham.
To set up his narrative of the battle, Whitewood surveys the battlefield, which, for once, we know where it was. There is some confusion, Whitewood notes, over the rebel battlefield command structure and deployment. It would appear, though, that all the factors were stacked against them. The battle began without most of the Royal army present when the outnumbered vanguard, under Oxford, almost immediately closed to contact. The rebels advanced under a hail of arrows, and the two sides clashed in ferocious combat. The Royalists held then counter-attacked, killing many of the rebel commanders and ultimately scattering their army. Henry’s hold on the crown was all but assured. Whitewood notes the rewards and punishments that followed Henry’s victory and some subsequent plots against him that came to nothing. Whitewood concludes with a short section on the battlefield today.
This book is an excellent introduction to the Battle of Stoke Field. Whitewood walks us through the main issues in play and how they came about, not the easiest feat when it comes to the often complicated Wars of the Roses. We also get a good sense of the commanders and their armies before Whitewood embarks on his narrative of the battle, which he tells succinctly and clearly. He is helped by Osprey’s usual impeccable graphic artwork, both in illustrations and maps. Readers of late medieval military history and the Wars of the Roses will enjoy Whitewood’s efforts.
