Road to the throne

1457

Henry Tudor was born. He had a claim to the Lancastrian claim throne but others had a stronger claim.

1461

The Lancastrian Henry VI lost the throne to the Yorkist Edward IV. Henry Tudor was now watched by the Yorkists. 

1470

Henry VI became King again. Henry Tudor was freed but his own Lancastrian claim to the throne remained weak.

1471

Edward IV wins back the throne. Henry VI & his son were killed making Henry Tudor the most important Lancastrian. Henry escapes o Brittany for his own safety and lives there in exile.

April 1483

 Edward IV dies, Edward V and his brother disappear and Richard III seizes the throne. Henry remains in Brittany.

August 1483

The Buckingham rebellion - Henry attempts to land in England to lead the rebellion but the rebellion fails before he arrives.

1484

Richard III bribed the Duke of Brittany to hand over Henry Tudor. But Henry escapes to France at the last minute.

1485

 

Henry Tudor invades England with the support of the King of France. He fights and wins at Bosworth.

'Bosworth should not be seen as a new beginning nor as the beginning of the end. Henry VII's victory at the Battle of Bosworth did not show that Henry was supported by the nation. The actions of many nobles had merely shown how unacceptable Richard III was to them. The neutrality of both the Earl of Northumberland and Thomas, Lord Stanley had been very significant, but more decisive had been the intervention by Sir William Stanley on Henry's behalf.

The victory did not make Henry secure, he was aware that someone could overthrow him just as he had overthrown Richard. In fact,  Henry remained insecure for the entirety of his reign. The unlikely success of his claim only served to encourage others to plot against him. If the obscure noblemen who had in lived in exile for most of how life could gather a small band of diehards together and take the throne,why couldn't others? It is for this reason that we should not see the Battle as a major catalyst in English History. It did not cure the ills of the Wars of the Roses and in many senses just just protracted the problems that arose from having a monarch with contentious legitimacy to the throne.