Canon fire

So today we went to the re-enactment of the Battle of Bosworth. This was one of the final battles in the War of the Roses. King Richard the III had come up against Henry Tudor. Richard had more troops, and also heavy artillery, so things seemed to be on his side. However the artillery was not very effective as there was a lot of close quarter fighting so they couldn't target the enemy without getting themselves. So this photo was one of several showing in the case a breech loading canon. Their rate of fire was not particularly impressive, but the bangs were!

There were also various rival factions that hadn't made up their mind which side they would be on, despite having various inducements such as their sons being held hostage.

Anyway - Richard was quite an inspirational leader apparently, and a little gung ho. This was his undoing, in that he lead a foot charge but got surrounded by some of the factions and was taken down, and chopped to bits apparently.

So Henry won the day, and went on to be Henry VII as he was declared king through his victory.

Thats probably enough history for one day!