34 



brother of Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Stafford, slain at the first battle 

 of St. Alban's, and also brother of John Stafford, Earl of Wiltshire) : 

 and her third husband was Thomas, Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of 

 Derby. The Countess of Richmond had only one child, viz., Henry, 

 Earl of Pdchmond, afterwards King Henry VII., by her marriage with 

 Edmund, Earl of Eichmond ; and she had not any children either by 

 her second or third husband, as if, to use the words of Sandford, in his 

 'Genealogical History,' p. 319, 'she had been designed to be the 

 mother of a king onely.' She lived to see her son Henry VII. and 

 her grandson Heniy VIII. successively kings, and died in the first year 

 of the reign of the latter, on the 3rd of July, 1509, and was buried in 

 Westminster Abbey. 



The fatal error which Richard committed was, previously to the 

 battle, in entrusting the levying of forces to Lord Stanley, when he 

 could not confidently trust him. Richard imagined that, by retaining 

 in his custody George, Lord Strange, the son of Lord Stanley, by way 

 of hostage, he had sufficient security for his fidelity ; but the result 

 shewed how frail and deceptive such a security really was. 



Richard on the 16th of August led his army from Nottingham to 

 Leicester, which town he entered with great pomp. On the 17th he 

 marched from it, expecting to meet his rival at Hincldey. That night 

 he passed at Emsthorpe, where his officers slept in the church. On 

 the ] 8th he removed to Stepleton, where he pitched his camp on the 

 ground called Bradshaws, and remained until Sunday, the 21st, when 

 both ai'mies came in sight of each other. In the evening Richard 

 removed with his forces to Ambien Hill.* 



On the 22nd the battle took place. 



Mr. Hutton states that " the king continued in battalia near the top 

 of the hill, unwilling to lose his advantageous ground, while Henry 

 unfurled his banners, sounded the march of death, and advanced from 

 the meadows below ; "^ also that Richmond " slowly marched up the 

 ascent where the wood now stands, the morass formed by Iviug Richard's 

 well being on his right, and the sun, not on his back or his right hand, 

 but between both, the king's troops looking on with their bows bent."* 

 That account with respect to the position of the sun when the battle 

 commenced differs in a slight degree from the accounts of the old 

 historians, who state that when Henry left the marsh on his right he 

 had the sun at his back, and that it was in the face of his enemies.* 



' Button's "Boiworth Field" (additiouRl particulars), pp. 196, 197. Baker, in his 

 "Chronicles," calls the hill " Aune Beam ;" and, considering the age when he nrote, t)ie 

 •pelling is not so very much amiss. This is now called Ambien Hill, and alio Amyon Hill. 



' Ibid., p. 94. 



• Hutton's " Boiworth Field," p 97. * Hall, Hclinshed, Grafton, Baker, Speed, Stow. 



