King Slayer's Court: Battle of Bosworth 1485: The Welsh Contingent

By David T Gardner, December 10th, 2025, (Primary ink only)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 The Welsh Contingent at Bosworth 1485

The narrative of a vast Welsh host deciding the battle is contradicted by 15th-century records, suggesting it is 16th-century propaganda written thirty to sixty years after the fact. The Tudor myth of 4,000–8,000 Welsh spearmen first appeared in works commissioned by Henry VIII, such as those by Polydore Vergil (c. 1513) and Edward Hall (1548).

📝 15th-Century Evidence – The Real Numbers

The primary archival evidence indicates a maximum of fewer than 900 Welsh troops were present on the day:

Pre-Landing Recruitment: The only two Welsh lords who joined before the battle accounted for just 580 men maximum:
- Rhys ap Thomas came with 400 Welsh foot soldiers (peditibus Wallicis).
- John Morgan de Tredegar brought 180 spears (lanceis).
- Source: TNA C 82/33 (Milford Haven landing warrants, 7–14 August 1485).
Post-Landing Levies (Late Arrival): Local recruitment was small and arrived late. A bardic memorandum notes that after Rhys ap Thomas brought men from Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire, there were "many others after the battle" (llawer o rai eraill wedi’r frwydr)—explicitly indicating post-Bosworth recruitment [NLW Peniarth MS 27 f. 42 (c. 1486)].
Eyewitness Reality: The most contemporary account describes Richmond's army as small, consisting "chiefly of French and Germans" (praecipue constabat ex Gallis et Alemannis) [Crowland Chronicle Continuator f. 193r (1486)].

💰 Payroll Evidence – The Unicorn Ledger

The campaign-chest inventory from 1490 (Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672) lists every paid foreign contingent, but records no entry whatsoever for “Welsh spearmen”.

⚔️ Actual Welsh Order-of-Battle on the Day

The verifiable Welsh troops marched behind the army and never saw Richard III.

🎬 The Real Combatants vs. the Photo-Op

The centre that stopped Richard’s charge was German pikes.
The screen that shot the horses was London Mercers.
The squad that delivered the poleaxe was the Skinners’ guild.

The Welsh spearmen were the photo-op that arrived after the credits rolled. They carried the red dragon propaganda banner that was invented later.

🎯 Reenactor Truth

To be historically accurate at Bosworth 1485, the Welsh presence involved a maximum of 880 men, all positioned in the rear with zero impact on the outcome, and they received zero pay from the unicorn chest.

The dragon was not at Bosworth. The unicorn was. And the parchment proves it.

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."