Bosworth Battlefield: The Field Where a King Fell, and No One Can Agree Which Field It Was

Most haunted places come with a named ghost and a date you can check. Bosworth comes with neither — only a battle, a dead king, and a stretch of Leicestershire farmland that scholars still argue over.

22 August 1485: how it reportedly unfolded

Richard III took the throne in 1483, after his twelve-year-old nephew Edward V was declared illegitimate — likely at Richard's instigation. The boy and his younger brother were confined in the Tower of London and never seen in public again. Their fate remains a mystery. Add the executions without trial of Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, and Richard Grey, and the beheading of Lord Hastings, and you have a king who won himself no popularity at all. Ill rumours spread through England.

Across the Channel, Henry Tudor, a descendant of the greatly diminished House of Lancaster, seized on Richard's difficulties and laid claim to the throne. A first invasion attempt in 1483 foundered in a storm. The second landed unopposed on the south-west coast of Wales on 7 August 1485. Henry marched inland, gathering support as he made for London, and Richard's hurriedly mustered army intercepted him near Ambion Hill, south of Market Bosworth.

Richard had the larger force and split it into three "battles", assigning one to the Duke of Norfolk and another to the Earl of Northumberland. Henry kept most of his men together under the experienced Earl of Oxford. Norfolk's vanguard attacked and struggled, and some of his troops fled the field. Northumberland was signalled to come to his king's aid and did nothing. Lord Stanley and Sir William Stanley had brought a force to the battlefield and held back, deciding which side to support. When they saw Richard's knights separated from the main body of his army, Sir William led his men to Henry's aid. Richard was surrounded and killed — the last English monarch to fall in battle, and with him the Plantagenet dynasty.

Henry was crowned after the battle, and his marriage to Elizabeth of York, the de facto Yorkist heiress, united the warring houses. He also hired chroniclers to portray his reign favourably. From the 15th to the 18th centuries the story was told as a straightforward victory of good over evil, a version that reaches its most famous form as the climax of Shakespeare's Richard III. Worth remembering when you read the interpretation boards.

The ghosts nobody can name

This is where I have to be straight with you. No named apparition, no documented sighting and no traditional ghost tale has come down to us from this battlefield. Plenty of sites in our haunted places collection come with centuries of reported encounters; Bosworth simply does not, and I'm not going to invent one. What is certain is that men died here on 22 August 1485, among them a king of England.

There's a further complication for anyone hoping to stand on the precise spot. The site of the battle is disputed, because conclusive data is lacking, and memorials have been raised in more than one location. If anything of that day does linger, no one can say with certainty which field it lingers in. For my money, that uncertainty does more to the back of the neck than any white lady ever managed. You walk a landscape knowing something terrible happened within a mile or two of your boots, and that's as close as the record allows.

What it's like to visit now

Start at the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre, built in 1974. Go knowing that its site has been challenged by several scholars: in October 2009, a team of researchers who had been running geological surveys and archaeological digs in the area since 2003 suggested the fighting actually took place some two miles — about 3km — south-west of Ambion Hill. The centre is still the sensible place to begin, as long as you treat the marked spots as one interpretation rather than gospel.

Organised public ghost hunts are held at the venue. If the place after dark appeals to you, joining one of those is a far better idea than wandering open fields on your own at night. Book ahead, dress properly for a cold night in exposed country, and treat the ground for what it is: a place where a battle was fought and men died, as much as a visitor attraction. Our full Bosworth Battlefield guide has the background in more detail.

Where to stay the night

Everything useful sits within a short drive, so you can do the battlefield slowly and still eat somewhere decent.

• Royal Arms Hotel — 1.4 miles, the closest bed to the site and the easy choice after a late ghost hunt.
• Upton Barn Caravan and Camping site — 2.3 miles, for those who'd rather wake up under canvas in the same countryside the armies crossed.
• B&B at No. 3 — 2.3 miles, small and straightforward.
• The Old Exchange — 2.4 miles.

Go in August if you can, close to the anniversary, when the fields are high and the light holds late. Then walk out from the centre, stand still for a minute, and accept that you may well be looking at the wrong field.