Henry did not receive strong backing in England when he challenged Richard, so Richard could not be said to be unlucky in this respect. Henry received most of his backing from the French forces after Richard had ruined any relationship with them after trying to deal with the Bretons. Richard had tried to make a deal in which he gave 1000 archers to the Bretons if they handed over Henry Tudor who was in exile in Brittany. Henry heard of the plan and fled to France, and was kept under the protection of the French Protectorate Anne of Beaujou, who was sister to the young King Charles VIII. Richard was very unlucky to not have captured Henry Tudor, and this could be said to be a turning point of Henrys campaign against Richard III. Henry now received French backing, and Anne of Beaujou treated Henry as a French prince. When he finally returned to Britain to launch an attack on Richard III, he had gathered much support from the French. Henry landed with about 2,000 French mercenaries and a handful of Lancastrian lords and knights. Henry showed a clear mind when he chose to land in Wales rather than England, where he had much support. Possibly if Henry had chosen to land in England instead, Richard would have been far luckier. Henry gathered reinforcements as he marched through Wales, then through Shrewsbury, Stafford and Atherstone. Richard was at Nottingham, and moved from there to Leicester on 19th August, and by 21st August the two armies were facing each other about two and a half miles south of Market Bosworth. Richard's army was just under 12,000 strong, but 4,000 of his troops were commanded by the Stanley brothers, whose loyalty was suspect. Henry had only 5,000 troops. During the battle Both the Stanleys changed allegiance to Henry, swinging the numerical advantage to his favour. This change of favour from supporting Richard, to supporting Henry was due to Richard III’s lack of control of the powerful lords of the north, and through his poor error of judgement. Richard tried to ensure the Stanleys support by kidnapping one of Lord Stanley’s sons, Lord Strange, and threatening to kill him if the Stanleys did not back Richard at Bosworth. This seemed only to annoy the Stanleys more, and because the family ties were not exactly strong in this day and age, the Stanleys still chose to appose Richard. This could be because the Stanleys had realised that the captors of Lord Strange, were hardly likely to kill Lord Strange, if they realised Henry, and therefore the Stanleys were victorious. After winning the battle Stanley would not take kindly to being told by the captors that they had just killed his son. So by swinging the battle, Stanley did the opposite to what Richard had planned, he saved his sons life, and won the battle for Henry Tudor.
The battle was fought on and around Ambion Hill, close to Sutton Cheney, and lasted only two hours. Richard had the better position, on the hill top, but made a huge error to lose this position and attack down the hill, rather than setup a strong defensive stance, and hold off any attacks from the smaller army.
Polydore Vergil, English History (c.1530): “Richard, because he expected victory, received Henry with great courage... Henry's army... were now almost out of hope of victory, when William Stanley with three thousand men came to the rescue... Richard's army fled, and King Richard alone was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies.”
Richard III had not fought in any battles before this time, he was far too rash at Bosworth and lost his life because of this. When he charged at Henry Tudors standard bearer, he did so out of anger, not out of strategic plan. Richard was cut down, and this triggered the other forces who supported Richard to flee.
