Leicestershire 3- Bosworth Field, two kings , one battle , the end of the Plantagenates and the start of the Tudors

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The butterflies are out and about. Not just in the garden but in our stomachs as we edge ever closer to our first continental holiday of 2016. Suzy has taken root apart from a short trip into Chesterfield to get her servicing done, her MOT sorted and to have various other sprucing bits done to her. We hate taking her. It always feels a thankless, expensive task but nevertheless one that needs to be done before Le Grande Depart. The journey was fine for a change. Very little traffic on the road. Normally the five mile trip to the garage feels like it takes an age. M25 eat your heart out this is one town that needs a by pass and probably will never get one due to the lack of land on the eastern side of the town away from the Peak District. There is plenty of land to the west but sadly it is west of the A61 and that makes it sancrosanct as it is too beautiful to destroy with such a needless thing as a by pass. So for years we will have to endure the five mile hell of a drive into and back out of Chesterfield . Nose to bumper all the way. Not today though. We sailed through and parked up easily in the Fiat showroom carpark. No mean feat in a big van when usually the car park is heaving. We were greeted with a smile from the receptionist and told to sit down. Normally we sit and wait. Nothing much happens - we feel grey however today no sooner had we plonked bums on seats we were called up by the service guy with his sheet in his hand. Service that will cost you £599 - oh not it wont we both said at the same time. It is £100 less. You have made a mistake . To his credit he agreed to check it for us by the time we picked Suzy up. MOT - another 41 quid or thereabouts providing she needed nothing doing to her. Another £41 for the engine flush and away we went. Picking her up at 4 or earlier. By 11 the phone rang. The service was completed and yes we were right with the price. A typing mistake and an expensive one at that. The MOT was done and Suzy had nothing wrong with her. The engine flush had been carried out. But - there is always a but. The traffic light system they use to do the health check was all green apart from the brake fluid which was 4 years old and was beginning to fail to work. £40 or thereabouts would fill her up with new stuff so we decided to get it all done at the same time. Better safe than sorry as the saying goes. We picked her up at 2 and were told that the brakes were fine and looked as if they would last at least another year. They would go to amber on the traffic lights when they got down to 50% worn and we were nowhere near that. The next service wasnt required until 2018 but we could bring her back next year for just an oil and oil filter change which we probably will do. The cam belt might need a bit of serious looking at as it will be 5 years old and who knows how long it will last . £300 - £400 for a new one £3400 for an engine refit if it breaks . Its a no brainer. Our vignettes are ordered and should leave Germany Wednesday arriving here in the Uk next week in plenty of time for the trip. We have ordered our kunas and loaded our euros on the Caxton card . It is starting to feel real. The butterflies will turn into thumping great elephants over the next week or so.

Today the butterflies were not out nor the bees . The day started cool but dry . The work of fiction also known as the weather forecast predicted heavy rain by the afternoon . What do they know ? They never get it right do they? Well today they did. By 2 the heavens had opened and we thanked our lucky stars that we got the trip over and done with before the raindrops started to fall on our head.

So where did we end up? Not a castle in sight. Not a stately pile. Just a place that is full of history but yet there is little left to see . Two kings, one hell of a battle and the year 1485. We got in the car and headed for the M1 filling up with diesel along the way. The price has crept up over the last week or so. A few weeks ago a litre cost a little under 98p now it has crept up to £1.01 and it seems to heading upwards rather than down despite the chancellor not putting up duty in the March budget. The M1 repairs appear over. The safety rails now concrete and the signs proclaiming it is a managed motorway. I think this means that the lanes can be opened and shut remotely depending on traffic, speeds can be changed in any lane at any time and there are speed cameras everywhere. Little grey boxes hidden like mean little creatures waiting to catch the unsuspecting motorist as he wends his way home. The motorway was relatively empty for the school holidays and we got to Leicestershire in an hour. A very rural county in parts and very pretty . We were heading for Bosworth. Queue horrible history time .

A battle that changed the face of Britain. A battle than ended the pesky french Plantagenate rule and gave us the Tudors a little known Welsh side branch of the monarchy. But as always the story goes back a lot further than the battle itself. It is the stuff of history lessons and Shakespeare tales . Remember "a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse". It is a story where you love one side or the other but never both. Richard III a hunchback, a man who might or might not have killed his nephews to grab the throne of England, the tale of a young boy shipped off with his Uncle Jasper to France, a mother who was intent to get her son a throne and a sneaky way in to the country via Pembrokeshire.

So where does it start? Edward of York was born at Rouen in France, the second son of Richard 3rd Duke of York and his wife Cecily Neville. He had a strong claim to the English throne. However he married for love the lovely Elizabeth Woodville a widow. Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville has been criticised as an impulsive action which did not add anything to the security of England or the York dynasty. Elizabeths mother was Jacquetta of Luxembourg widow of John of Lancaster. She was thought of as a witch so hardly the mother in law a king should have. Edward's two younger brothers George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III,) were married to Isabel Neville and Anne Neville the daughters of Warwick the King maker and his wife Ann Beauchamp. They were rivals of great importance which lead to a dispute between the brothers. In 1478, George was eventually found guilty of plotting against Edward, imprisoned in the Tower of London and privately executed on 18 February 1478: according to a long-standing tradition he was "drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine". So far a pretty tempestous reign with battle following battle as rivals tried to take the throne. Typical brothers then. Couldnt get on with each other.

After a while though Edward did not face any further rebellions as the Lancastrian line had virtually been extinguished, and the only rival left was Henry Tudor who was living in exile.

Of course, kings don't live forever and Edward's health began to fail, and he became subject to an increasing number of ailments. He fell fatally ill at Easter 1483, but lingered on long enough to add some codicils to his will, the most important being his naming of his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as Protector after his death. The idea was that his son would inherit the throne with his brother Richard acting as regent but as we all know things don't alway go according to plan and soon after the kings death the princes were taken to the Tower never to be seen again. Did Richard kill them or have them killed ? Another one of those stories that we will never truly know the answer but he had become greedy and wanted to be king.

Meanwhile whilst Edward was alive Margaret Beaufort mother of Henry had been working for the Queen Elizabeth as a friend, a maid and a confident. Keeping her eyes and ears open she worked silently to get her son back to Wales to move against the throne when the time was right . Whilst Edward was alive it was not the right time and she quietly beavered away keeping her head on her shoulders whilst plotting and marrying successfully. When Edward died the plotting started to take shape and when Richard stole the throne then it seemed right that one pretender should be usurped and her son put on the throne . Henry Tudor was on the march. Henry's first attempt to invade England was frustrated by a storm in 1483, but at his second attempt he arrived unopposed on 7 August 1485 on the southwest coast of Wales. Marching inland, Henry gathered support as he made for London. Richard mustered his troops and intercepted Henry's army south of Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. Richard had the greater army and on paper should have beaten the living daylights out of Henry. However he didnt and a welshman struck the fatal blow that killed Richard . His body was buried in a church in Leicester and only recently rediscovered and reburied with pomp and ceremony.

The relatively unknown Henry Tudor went on to found the greatest of the British monarchs the Tudors . Henry VIII and his quarrel with Rome, his six marriages , his daughters Bloody Mary and Elizabeth one of the longest reigning Queens in the history of our small isle. All from Welsh stock but thats been forgotten over time.

Arriving at the battle field we parked up and paid our £2.50 parking fee. This was not for the visitor centre just for the park which now stretches over what was once the battle field. The place was empty. We headed first for the restuarant where we feasted on ham, egg and chips for the driver and a bacon, stilton cheese and mushroom baguette with chips and salad for me. Eaten slowly over a long lingering cup of tea or a panad if you are Welsh . Today we are on the side of Henry Tudor and not on the side of Richard III. We chose not to visit the visitor centre as the costs were £7 or £7.95 and this seemed steep for what was there . Instead we walked up to the memorial on the hilltop. This is not a hilltop like the one overlooking Waterloo in Belgium . Fairly flat a flag pole with flag unfurled in the wind. Around the flagpole a time line - between 8 and 9 in the morning the armies faced up to each other and prayers were said . God was invoked to be on the side of the righteous. Both sides prayed but only one would be victorious. By 10 the fighting was underway. Welsh long bow men, hand to hand combat and bodies everywhere. By 3 the Battle was over thousands were dead , the king was dead . Long live the new king. Around the perimeter were seats each with meal tags with the coats of arms of the Lancastrians, the Yorkists and the Welsh dragon etched into them. The names of Richard , of Henry and all the other knights who sided with the kings carved into the woodwork. We walked round the battle site. There is little to see. A peaceful landscape stretching for miles, fields of sheep, a small railway station. The steam trains were not running today. Information boards were scattered about the site and one showed the view across the battle field. Through a wooden picture frame the modern landscape was superimposed . If you want bodies, if you want artifacts this is not the place to see them but it made for a quiet leisurely stroll through pretty English countryside and woodlands with birds singing. It wasnt a bad day all in all. Our hero Henry won the day.

We could have spent the day at home doing nothing but instead we took to heart our thought for the day - "An inch of time is an inch of gold . Treasure it. Appreciate its fleeting nature . Misplaced gold is easily found, misspent time is lost forever." If we had stayed at home doing nothing today would have been a day of mispent time. Instead we spent it wisely.

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