Travels Through History: Leicester

The book Travels Through History: Leicester, Lichfield, Lincoln, and Loughborough is available at a discount price between 29th July and 5th August 2026.

The forces of the future Henry VII defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22nd August 1485, ending the Wars of the Roses in favour of the House of Lancaster. The exact place where the battle occurred was in dispute for years as Ambion Hill near the visitor’s centre in Sutton Cheney close to Market Bosworth has yielded no artefacts associated with a battle. It appeared the battle had to be there, despite evidence to the contrary, as that’s where the visitor centre was located.

Between 2005 and 2009, historians conducted an in-depth search of another area just over a mile away from Ambion Hill. At this location near the hamlet of Dadlington, the searchers found cannonballs, broken swords, and buckles – more than enough evidence of a battle having taken place. In 2010, historians announced the Battle of Bosworth took place at a different location than previously thought. If you were to ask the locals, they would say they always knew this, as there was evidence of swords being sharpened on stones in the churchyard, stones older than the date of the battle.

After the battle, Richard III’s body was taken to Leicester where the Grey Friars, a Franciscan Holy order, buried the king in their friary church. Although the local story was that a mob had thrown Richard III’s bones into the River Soar at the time of the Reformation, in recent times, several researchers believed the body had remained in the Greyfriars area of Leicester. After further research, they determined a more precise location for his whereabouts: the north end of a city council car park at Greyfriars, the offices of its Social Services department. In August 2012, Leicester City Council, the University of Leicester, and the Richard III Society began a search at this location to find King Richard III and the Grey Friars Church. Five months after the dig began, the University of Leicester confirmed a skeleton unearthed by archaeologists was Richard III.

The Richard III Centre is opposite Leicester Cathedral where Richard III was buried in March 2015 – perhaps 300 yards from where he’d lain for 527 years – and it seems fitting to visit the Cathedral after the visitor centre. On the ground floor of the Centre there’s a short video presentation of the life of Richard until he became King in 1483 and an exhibition describes the events leading up to and including the Battle of Bosworth. There are details of the day of the battle, who betrayed whom, and what Richard’s role was in the battle.

The two displays I found most interesting were close together. One was a discussion about the merits of Richard’s reign, even though he had little time to make a difference. There was only one Parliament during Richard’s time as king, but this passed fifteen public statutes showing his progressive attitude and this was the first time they published parliamentary statutes in English, so the ordinary people could read them and would know their rights.

The first public statute outlawed a practice by which land sellers might conceal from buyers that part of the land had already been sold. The second statute ended a practice instituted in his elder brother Edward IV’s reign (1461 – 1470, 1471 – 1483) of demanding arbitrary taxes, known as “benevolences”. Although Richard demanded loans from certain of his subjects, the statute safeguarded the repayment of these loans, in contrast to the non-returnable benevolences of his brother.

The third statute introduced the first system of bail which protected people suspected of felony from imprisonment before trial. The fourth statute clarified who should be called for jury service. From then on, jurors were to be men of wealth to reduce the chances of corruption and intimidation. Another statute standardised the weights system, protecting people from being sold underweight measures.