Battle of Stoke – 16 June 1487

Within two years of his victory at Bosworth, King Henry faced another army, this time led by King Richard’s nephew and probable heir, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. The intervening months had been punctuated with insurrections and rebellions against the fledgling Tudor regime but the alliance between Lincoln, Viscount Lovell the late king’s friend, and Irish malcontents, promoted a boy who came to be known as Lambert Simnel was to prove a very real threat. The rebels claimed he was Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of the executed Duke of Clarence, brother to kings Edward IV and Richard III. The young pretender was crowned as Edward VI in Dublin on 24 May 1487. On Monday 4 June, Lincoln, Lovell and Sir Thomas Fitzgerald with the boy-king and mercenary leader Martin Schwartz landed an army on Foulney Island in Lancashire and close to lands held by Sir Thomas Broughton, a staunch supporter. The army comprised of 2,000 Swiss and German mercenaries, funded by Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, and 4,000 Irish troops raised by the Earl of Kildare.

The rebels marched eastwards over the Pennines and in Yorkshire recruited the Scrope lords of Bolton and Masham to their cause. From Masham, the rebels sent word to York to receive their king and his army but the city, daily expecting the arrival of the Lancastrian Lord Clifford and the Earl of Northumberland, now  committed to the Tudor regime, refused them. Lincoln decided to by-pass York and travelled southwards through Boroughbridge to Bramham Moor. Clifford, determined to engage the rebels, left York and camped at Tadcaster but Lincoln attacked at twilight and bested Clifford who retreated back to York having lost his baggage train to the rebels.

Despite this limited success Lincoln’s position was not promising. His army had grown to about 8,000 but the speed of his march across England left little time for others to raise their forces and join him. To the north there was Northumberland and advancing from the midlands was the royalist army under King Henry. On 12 June the earl and Clifford left York to join up with the king and in a bid to draw them back to the city the Scrope lords led a force of cavalry, assaulted the city and proclaimed Simnel as King Edward at Bootham Bar. Although the mayor defended the city the rebel object was achieved as the earl and Clifford returned to York.

Lincoln’s route south is not known but he was joined at some point by Sir Edward Hastings and Robert Percy of Scotton with companies of men, and a further rendezvous was made, possibly at Castleford or Stainforth. The rebels now approached Doncaster and encountered part of the royalist vanguard under the command of the queen’s uncle, Lord Scales. What began as a skirmish became a rout as the royal cavalry were defeated and fled south through Sherwood forest to Nottingham. Lincoln continued his march south but his recruitment campaign now dried up and no fresh troops joined him. By 15 June he was searching for a suitable crossing of the river Trent and this was made at Fiskerton. That night the Yorkists made the crossing towards the village of East Stoke. They took up a position south of the village on a ridge in front of Burham Furlong and awaited the arrival of the royal host.

Meanwhile the king had taken the reverse route of King Richard almost two years earlier. He left Leicester on Monday 11 June and arrived in Nottingham the following day. On Friday 15 June he marched north-eastwards towards Newark and camped the night at Radcliffe, about nine miles from East Stoke. Early on the morning of the 16th the royal army were on the move and probably followed the course of the river Trent toward East Bridgford. Soon the scouts reported on the position of the rebels and at 9 a.m. the king was in the vicinity of Stoke.

The king’s deployment of his 12,000 strong army was to have Oxford commanding the vanguard, himself the central division and Lord Strange on the his other flank. It is uncertain how Lincoln arranged his army but it is possible that he formed them into just one division. There was a lack of battle-experience within the Yorkist command and the men were under-armed and many untrained but their position was a good one, being on high ground with the river protecting one flank and their rear. Oxford positioned himself opposite the rebels on the other side of the Fosse Way and gradually moved forward.

Lincoln opened the battle with crossbow fire, possibly hoping for early success before the remainder of the royal army caught up with the vanguard. The king, with his force, was still at Syerston, a good mile away. Oxford’s well-armed division retaliated by a hail of arrow-fire which had no difficulty in finding its mark and Lincoln was forced to leave the safety of the high ground to lead a charge. However, the experience of the mercenaries and the agility of the Irish, all racing down the slope towards the enemy, the latter no doubt having their own blood-curdling battle cries to complement the English rebels cry of A Warwick, a Warwick, produced a devastating effect as they ran headlong into Oxford’s van. For a while the battle hung in the balance but slowly Oxford made headway and, as the rebels retreated towards Bramham Furlong to re-group, he made a counter-attack which led to the decimation of the rebel army who suffered some 4,000 fatal casualties. Many were trapped and killed in the ravine, which became known as the red gutter, which ran down into the Trent. The poorly-clad Irish had stood little chance against the rain of arrows and the chronicler, Molinet, likened the victims to hedgehogs. The battle was probably over by noon. It was a bloody engagement with the total number of dead probably in the order of 6,000.

By the time the King arrived it was all over. Lincoln, Thomas Fitzgerald and Martin Schwartz were dead and Lovell and Sir Thomas Broughton missing. The boy-king was found and due to his age was spared punishment and given a job in the royal kitchens. King Henry was reported as being furious at Lincoln’s fate. The king had wanted to learn why the earl had risked a comfortable existence to support an obvious pretender but death had cheated him of this knowledge.

Shields of some of the participants

Link:

The Battlefield Trust Resource Centre Website

Contemporary Sources:

For a full list of documents and sources see Appendix in Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke by Michael Bennett, pp 121-138 which includes the relevant extracts.

The Popular Songs of Ireland edited by TC Croker, London 1839, pp 318-31.

Letters and Papers Illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, edited by James Gairdner, 2 vols, Rolls Series 1861-3.

Collectanea by J Leland, edited by T Hearne, Oxford 1774. Vol 4, pp 212-15. Herald’s Report.

Chroniques de Jean Molinet edited by G Doutrepont and O Jodogne, 3 vols, Brussels, 1935-7 (in French).

Rotuli Parliamentorum edited by J Strachey, 6 vols, London  1767-83. Vol 4, pp 397-8 (Act of Attainder).

York Civic Records edited by A Raine, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series 103, 1941.

Further Reading:

Stoke Field: the last Battle of the Wars of the Roses by David Baldwin. Pen and Sword, 2006

A Strange Accident of State: Henry VII and the Lambert Simnel Conspiracy by David Beeston. 1987. Account of the campaign and the battle, seeking to show its significance as a major battle.

Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke by Michael Bennett. 1987. Well-illustrated definitive account, tracing the origins of the Lambert Simnel conspiracy and the course of the campaign. Review in The Ricardian March 1988.

The Battle of East Stoke 1487 by MW Bishop. 1987. Well-illustrated booklet giving a concise account of the campaign and the battle, based on contemporary sources.

‘The Field of the Battle of Stoke’ by Richard Brooke. From Visits to Fields of Battle in England of the 15th Century. 1857. An account based on his personal examination of the battlefield in the 1850s. Review in The Ricardian March 1988.

‘The Battle of Stoke Field, 16th June 1487’ by AH Burne. From More Battlefields of England 1952. Modern account of the battle.

*A Pocket History of East Stoke by Frank AA Cotton. Newark & Sherwood District Council. 1987. Review in The Ricardian March 1988.

‘The Battle of Stoke Field 1487’ by Notts County Council 1987. Leaflet/poster giving a brief account of the battle and a guide to the battlefield.

The Battle of Stoke Field 1487 by David E Roberts 1987. Detailed account of the events leading up to the battle and the battle itself, well illustrated with photographs and maps. Review in The Ricardian March 1988.

‘The Battle of Stoke’. Programme of quincentenary celebrations, official leaflet and advance announcement from History Today.

The Secret Battle: Stoke Field 16 June 1487 by Alan Wilkinson. 1987. An attempt to make the battle better known by recreating the events of 1487, ascribing words and viewpoints to the principal characters. Review in The Ricardian March 1988.