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These People Were The Real Power Behind The Throne

Khalid Elhassan July 13, 2023 32 min

A terrified Claudius pleads for mercy, as the Praetorians prepare to enthrone him. Imgur

The Betrayal That Ended a Dynasty

Power - The fall of King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth — The fall of King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. Pinterest

Thomas Stanley was stuck between the rock of loyalty, and the hard place of peace and tranquility at home. So he played both sides, and secretly contacted his stepson and King Richard’s rival, Henry Tudor, to explore defection. Richard found out, however, and seized Stanley’s son as a hostage for his father’s good behavior and insurance against treachery. He then ordered the Earl to join the Yorkist army with his contingent, which Stanley reluctantly did.

The rivals met at the Battle of Bosworth on August 22^nd, 1485, but Stanley was still undecided. So he kept his contingent to one side of field, and waited to see which side looked like a winner. A livid Richard III sent Stanley a message, in which he threatened to execute his son unless he immediately attacked the Lancastrians. The Earl coolly replied: “Sire, I have other sons“.

Thomas Stanley crowns Henry Tudor after the Battle of Bosworth. Murrey and Blue

Richard ordered Stanley’s son executed, but the order was not immediately carried out, and soon it was too late. As the afternoon wore on, Stanley made up his mind that Richard was losing, so he ordered an attack – against Richard and the Yorkist forces. That decisively tipped the scales in favor of Henry Tudor. Richard launched a desperate attack in a bid to reach and cut down his rival, only to get cut down himself.

After Richard’s death, Stanley found his fallen crown in some shrubs, and personally placed it on Henry Tudor’s head. The newly crowned Henry VII, Stanley’s stepson and new English monarch, ended the Plantagenet dynasty after centuries of rule, and replaced it with his own Tudor dynasty. As to Stanley, treachery paid well, and was generously rewarded for his betrayal of Richard.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.