05-Jan-2022
The Battle of Stoke Field took place on 16 June 1487. Its site is Nottinghamshire's only registered battlefield. And it was the last battle in the Wars of the Roses, which had dragged on, in spasmodic bursts of fighting, since 1455.
In 1485 Henry Tudor had overcome Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. As Henry VII, he again united England. But not for long...
In the summer of 1487, a young boy named Lambert Simnel was proclaimed king by the Earl of Lincoln, who hoped that people would believe the 10-year-old was Edward, Earl of Warwick and head of the House of York (the real Edward, meanwhile, was imprisoned in the Tower of London). Lincoln marched south through Yorkshire with a force of 8,000 (a motley selection of German/Swiss mercenaries, Irish rebels, and fed-up Englishmen). The rebels crossed the River Trent, possibly at Fiskerton, and headed for the village of East Stoke. The Yorkist cause came to grief, however, in face of superior royalist forces, and many soldiers were massacred as they tried to flee over the steep ridge that separated them from the ford at Fiskerton.
There's an interesting little trail you can follow, with interpretative signage, and you can lengthen it by pushing on towards the river.
Peaceful now, this would have been more or less the site of the battle
Beautiful light on a wintry morning as the sun rises
Heading down to the River Trent
Fiskerton as it looks now. I have wonderful memories of a delectable lunch there, back in 2016...
The Red Gutter. This gap in the escarpment is where thousands of rebel soldiers were killed while trying to flee. Sobering...
You follow the ridge all the way back to St Oswald's, East Stoke
The memorial tablet in the graveyard. This must have been a phenomenal loss of life in the context of the time
It's a beautiful churchyard, however
Julian Pauncefote, the first British Ambassador to the United States is buried here
The angel above the envoy's tomb
The village of East Stoke, which over the years has crept in this direction from the area where the church is sited
So..., this was a very interesting and beautiful walk. I have to confess to zero familiarity with the Wars of the Roses, which apparently had more international connections than we usually see reflected in contemporary portrayals.
I'm unlikely to be following up my fleeting encounter with Game of Thrones, which was apparently inspired by the Wars of the Roses, and which I hated, but I could certainly do worse than dip into the "box set" that Shakespeare produced on the subject. Just need a mite more time...