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Losing the Battle of Bosworth Field

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100 Years War
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« on: November 02, 2009, 03:52:42 am »


Losing the Battle of Bosworth Field


It turns out Leicestershire county council have misplaced the famous battleground. Historical sites can be a slippery business

Charles Nevin




Richard III, at Bosworth Field. Picture: Bettmann/Corbis
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100 Years War
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« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2009, 03:53:35 am »

No, I sympathise. Some of you might wonder how it is that, according to the latest experts, Leicestershire county council seems to have got the site of the battle of Bosworth field in the wrong place; others will know that in the complicated and much overstretched world of local administration, mistakes can happen.

It's doubly bad luck, too, as what now seems not to be the site boasts the council's very shiny award-winning state-of-the-art interactive Battlefield Heritage Centre. And while the more sensitive might quibble with the nomenclature, I must say that on a visit in the summer I found it one of the finest heritage experiences I have experienced: top video, intelligent exposition of the 1485 clash in which Henry Tudor seized the Crown from Richard III, not an actor in doublet and dodgy beard to be seen.

It also makes clear that doubt and division over the exact spot is not new, owing to a vagueness in the contemporary record. You see, journalists do have their uses: this would not have arisen if our legendary accuracy had been brought to bear on a special Bosworth minute-by-minute commemorative pull-out section (complete with exclusive shot of crucial dead horse).
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100 Years War
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« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2009, 03:53:57 am »

There again, it does seem odd that absolutely no one thought to write it down properly. I suppose we could blame some clerke in the forerunner to Leicestershire county council, but I'm not so sure. We are, after all, dealing here with two of the tricksiest characters in British history. Is it entirely beyond the realms of possibility that this battle never took place, and that Richard ended his days quietly in a monastery on the Costa Brava? Yes, you say. I say: what about the Moon landing? Precisely. Moreover, Richard's body has never been satisfactorily located (although some say it's under a car park in Leicester).

Historians argue that not so much notice was taken of this sort of thing in those days, as battles and dead kings were always happening. (As it happens, the grave of another king, Henry I, is likewise said to be buried under a car park, in Reading. It was also believed for many years, but, sadly, no longer, that Boudicca lies buried under Platform 10 at King's Cross.)

Rather more up to date, I myself have spent time at the industrial estate that was once Heston Aerodrome, trying to locate the exact spot where we have watched Neville Chamberlain so many times holding up his piece of paper. With limited success, I'm afraid, although the manager of a Korean import/export company at one of the possible spots said he would have no objections to a plaque in the yard, as long as it didn't get in the way.
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100 Years War
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« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2009, 03:54:28 am »

But then I have quite a lot of history in this field, which further explains my sympathy for the Bosworth predicament. I have, for instance, also completely failed to find the site of any of the numerous battles which – according to Nennius, the 9th-century chronicler – King Arthur fought near Wigan. Or any trace of Sir Lancelot in nearby Ince, claimed by the 18th-century historian, John Whitaker, to be a corruption of "lin", meaning lake.

Some have claimed that Lancashire itself is a corruption of Lancelotshire, but my scholarly scruples hold me slightly in check there, even if it is my home county. And I had no luck in Ince at either the library – "It doesn't seem to ring any bells with anybody" – or the Post Office, although the lady behind the counter said "That would explain why they're always fighting round here."
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« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2009, 03:54:48 am »

So I find it hard to summon any resentment for my atmospheric trip round the fields near Bosworth, which have probably always been only fields. The stories and lessons they conjure, that's the thing. And, as you see, I have had worse disappointments, including the time I visited a field quite near the Wash with a man who swore blind that King John's treasure lay beneath it. All he had to do was get the financing in place and untold wealth would ensue. He didn't, it didn't; I've forgotten where the field was, and his name. Call me.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/28/battle-bosworth-field-location
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