🥀♛🥀On 22 August 1485, Richard met the outnumbered forces of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard rode a white courser. The size of Richard's army has been estimated at 8,000, Henry's at 5,000, but exact numbers are not known. The traditional view of the king's famous cries of "Treason!" before falling was that during the battle Richard was abandoned by Sir William Stanley and Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland. However, the role of Northumberland is unclear; his position was with the reserve behind the king's line and he could not easily have moved forward without a general royal advance, which did not take place. Despite his apparent affiliation with Richard, Baron Stanley's wife, Lady Margaret Beaufort, was Henry Tudor's mother. Switching sides by the Stanleys severely depleted the strength of Richard's army and affected the outcome of the battle. Perhaps in realisation of its implications, Richard led an impromptu cavalry charge deep into the enemy ranks in an attempt to end the battle quickly by striking at Henry Tudor himself.
Accounts note that King Richard fought bravely and ably during this manoeuvre, unhorsing Sir John Cheyne, a well-known jousting champion, killing Henry's standard bearer Sir William Brandon and coming within a sword's length of Henry Tudor before being surrounded by Sir William Stanley's men and killed. The Burgundian chronicler Jean Molinet says that a Welshman struck the death-blow with a halberd while Richard's horse was stuck in the marshy ground. It was said that the blows were so violent that the king's helmet was driven into his skull. King Richard III was the last English king to be killed in battle.
Polydore Vergil, Henry Tudor's official historian, recorded that "KᏆNᏩ ᎡᏆᏟᎻᎪᎡᎠ, ᎪᏞᎾNᎬ, ᏔᎪᏚ KᏆᏞᏞᎬᎠ FᏆᏩᎻᎢᏆNᏩ ᎷᎪNFᏌᏞᏞY ᏆN ᎢᎻᎬ ᎢᎻᏆᏟKᎬᏚᎢ ᏢᎡᎬᏚᏚ ᎾF ᎻᏆᏚ ᎬNᎬᎷᏆᎬᏚ".⚔🛡