Bosworth 1485 - Bloody you are

Historical Background

The struggle for power in medieval England culminated in the Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1485), the name derived from the badges of the two leading parties - the house of Lancaster (red rose) and the house of York (white rose). In the year 1485 Richard III. of the house of York was the king of England and had to deal with Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, of the house of Lancaster. The two armies met at Bosworth for the decisive battle. After a bitter fighting Richard lost his life and throne and Henry became the new regent, founding the house of Tudor (the badge being a white rose within a red rose), which ruled England for the next 118 years.

The moment depicted is the clash of the main battle lines at Richard's right flank. The Yorkists under the command of the Duke of Norfolk holding the high ground and the Lancastrians under the Earl of Oxford had to advance uphill. After an exchange of long distance weapons (bows, crossbows, handguns, cannons), the battle lines made contact. It was a brutal combat without mercy in which Oxford got slowly the upper hand. This incident induced Richard to his final charge on the other side of the battle field.

The diorama

The figures are from MiniArt, some of them very flat and therefore difficult to convert. So the positioning of the figures was essential for not creating a strange looking effect owing to their flatness. Conversion on this flat figures is very difficult and I avoided it whenever possible - simple headswaps and changing of the weapons was mostly sufficient. 

On the Yorkists side you can see John Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, with his banner and his trumpeter and in the background the flag of  Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey - on the other side I made two flags of John de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. All flags are made of paper and are handpainted.

The groundwork was made of MIG texture dark mud, some colour variations and Faller grass.

The subtitle of the diorama is the first line of another quote of Shakespeare's play "Richard III.", the second part will be featured in one of my next works.

Photos (click to enlarge)

Video (Youtube)

Sources

Christopher Gravett - Bosworth 1485 (Osprey Campaign 66)

David Nicolle - European medieval tactics 2 (Osprey Elite 189)

Michael Hicks - The Wars of the Roses (Osprey Essential Histories 54)

Terence Wise - The Wars of the Roses (Osprey Men-at-Arms 145)

Terence Wise - Mediaval heraldry (Osprey Men-at-Arms 99)

Christopher Gravett - English medieval knight 1400-1500 (Osprey Warrior 35)

Clive Bartlett - English longbowman 1330-1515 (Osprey Warrior 11)

Gary Embleton - Medieval military costume (Europa Militaria Special 8)

Jens Hill, Jonas Freiberg - The medieval fighting man (Europa Militaria Special 18)

Liliane u. Fred Funcken - Historische Waffen und Rüstungen

M. Bennet, ... - Fighting techniques of the medieval world 500-1500