Skirmish at Newark
Who Fought
History & Significance
The Battle of Stoke Field, which took place at East Stoke, Nottinghamshire, on 16 June 1487, may be considered the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, since it was the last major engagement between contenders for the throne whose claims derived from descent from the houses of Lancaster and York. The Battle of Bosworth Field, two years previously, had established Henry VII on the throne, ending the last period of Yorkist rule and initiating that of the Tudors. The Battle of Stoke Field was the decisive engagement in an attempt by leading Ricardian Yorkists to unseat the King in favour of the pretender Lambert Simnel.
Though it is often portrayed as almost a footnote to the major battles between York and Lancaster, it may have been slightly larger than Bosworth, with much heavier casualties, possibly because of the terrain which forced the two sides into close, attritional combat. In the end, though, Henry's victory was crushing. Almost all the leading Yorkists were killed in the battle.
Henry VII of England held the throne for the new royal line (the House of Tudor), and had tried to gain the acceptance of the Yorkist faction by his marriage to their senior heiress, Elizabeth of York, but his hold on power was not entirely secure. The chief male-line claimant of the York dynasty was the queen's first cousin, Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of George, Duke of Clarence. This boy was kept confined in the Tower of London.
An impostor claiming to be Edward (usually identified as Edward, Earl of Warwick, but may have initially begun by claiming to be one of the princes in the tower), whose name was Lambert Simnel, came to the attention of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, through the agency of a priest called Richard Symonds. Lincoln, although apparently reconciled with the Tudor king, had a claim on the throne; the last Plantagenet, Richard III of England, had named Lincoln, his nephew, as the royal heir. Although he probably had no doubt about Simnel's true identity, Lincoln saw an opportunity for revenge and reparation.
Lincoln fled the English court on 19 March 1487 and went to the court of Mechelen (Malines) and his aunt, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. Margaret provided financial and military support in the form of 2,000 German and Swiss mercenaries, under the commander Martin Schwartz. Lincoln was joined by a number of rebel English lords at Mechelen, in particular Richard III's loyal supporter, Lord Lovell, Sir Richard Harleston, the former governor of Jersey and Thomas David, a captain of the English garrison at Calais. The Yorkists decided to sail to Ireland, where the Yorkist cause was popular, to gather more supporters.
The ground they fought on
The site of Skirmish at Newark lies on Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Triassic. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything a full report reveals about Skirmish at Newark
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- Battle of Stoke Field · Wikipedia
- The Battle of Stoke Field · Richard III Society
- The Battlefields Hub: The Stoke Campaign, Visiting the battlefield walk · Battlefields Trust