Battle of Stoke Field

Overview

The Battle of Stoke Field, which took place at East Stoke, Nottinghamshire, on 16 June 1487, may be considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, since it was the last major engagement between contenders for the throne whose claims derived from descent from the houses of Lancaster and York. The Battle of Bosworth Field, two years previously, had established Henry VII on the throne, ending the last period of Yorkist rule and initiating that of the Tudors. The Battle of Stoke Field was the decisive engagement in an attempt by leading Ricardian Yorkists to unseat the King in favour of the pretender Lambert Simnel.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Stoke Field, fought at East Stoke, Nottinghamshire on 16 June 1487, is considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, as it was the final major engagement between contenders for the throne whose rival claims derived from descent from the houses of Lancaster and York. Two years earlier, the Battle of Bosworth Field had established Henry VII on the throne, ending Yorkist rule and initiating Tudor sovereignty. Stoke Field was the decisive engagement in a Ricardian Yorkist effort to unseat Henry VII in favor of the pretender Lambert Simnel. The Yorkist force of approximately 8,000, commanded by the Earl of Lincoln, Viscount Lovell, Sir Thomas FitzGerald, and the mercenary captain Martin Schwartz, was outnumbered by Henry VII's army of around 12,000. Casualties were substantial on both sides — roughly 3,000 for the Tudors and 4,000 for the Yorkists — indicating the intensity of the contest. The defeat extinguished the leading Ricardian challenge to Tudor rule and, by ending the last serious dynastic armed contest of the period, effectively closed the Wars of the Roses as a military conflict.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (11)