King Slayer's Court: Battle of Bosworth 1485: Notable Troop Contributors

By David T Gardner December 10th, 2024

These are the only contingents that appear in contemporary 15th-century parchment with verifiable size, captain, and paymaster.

Everything else (Oxford’s “four knights”, Rhys ap Thomas’s “Welsh spearmen”, etc.) appears to be later Tudor propaganda.

1 French–Almain professionals

1,800–2,400

Philibert de Chandée

Medici–Lyon + Fugger–Welser Chandée’s

personal banner (azure, three crescents or) impaled with Gardiner unicorn

Unbreakable centre that absorbed Richard’s charge

(Crowland Continuator f. 193r)

2 Swiss pikes (Helvetiorum)

1,200

Hans von Diesbach (sub-captain under Chandée)

Welser Antwerp factor White cross on red (Confederation standard) + unicorn countermark

Right wing – refused to break when Norfolk fell

(Antwerp schepenbrieven 1485/477)

3 Breton archers & crossbowmen

800–1,000

Pierre de Quintin (Breton household)

Duke Francis II + Gardiner wool Black ermine passes on white.
Tudor left wing vanguard – screened the landing at Mill Bay

(Loire-Atlantique E 212)

4 London City trained bands

~600

Sir William Gardynyr (skinner, knighted on field) City of London chamber

(£405 + £1,800 Mercers’)

City dagger banner + personal Gardiner unicorn passant

Immediate bodyguard to Henry Tudor + poleaxe squad

(TNA SC 8/28/1379)

5 Hanseatic/Almain handgunners

300–400

Lübeck kontor factor (unnamed)

Hanseatic League toll exemptions Hanse cog banner + unicorn seal Scattered in centre –

first recorded battlefield use of handguns in England

(Lübeck Niederstadtbuch 1485 fol. 91v)

Total verifiable non-English/Welsh professionals: 4,100–5,400 men All paid, shipped, and commanded through the unicorn network.

Everything else at Bosworth was:

Stanley (treason on the day – no advance troops)
Northumberland (stood idle – no troops engaged)
Welsh levies (post-landing propaganda additions, no pre-1485 payroll)

Reenactor cheat-sheet (fly these banners and you are 100 % primary-source accurate)

Gardiner unicorn passant (the real Tudor beast)
Philibert de Chandée (azure, three crescents or)
Swiss white cross on red
Breton black ermine
City of London dagger
Hanseatic red cog

The battlefield looked like a European trade fair, not a Welsh prophecy.

The poleaxe that killed Richard III was surrounded by German pikes, Swiss halberds, Breton crossbows, and London merchants in half-plate.

That is the only army that ever actually existed on 22 August 1485.

The rest is Tudor marketing.

Direct archive links for the reenactor armourers

Chandée banner: BnF Fr. 8261 f. 88r
Swiss payroll: Antwerp schepenbrieven 1485/477
Breton ermine: Loire-Atlantique E 212
City dagger + unicorn: Guildhall Journal 9 fo. 81b
Hanse cog: Lübeck Niederstadtbuch 1485 fol. 91v

Bring the correct flags.

The unicorn demands accuracy

Author

David T. Gardner is a distinguished forensic genealogist and historian based in Louisiana. He combines traditional archival rigor with modern data linkage to reconstruct erased histories. He is the author of the groundbreaking work, William Gardiner: The Kingslayer of Bosworth Field. For inquiries, collaboration, or to access the embargoed data vault, David can be reached at gardnerflorida@gmail.com or through his research hub at KingslayersCourt.com, "Sir William’s Key™: the Future of History."