By David T Gardner, December 10th, 2025
The Tudor army was not Welsh.
Key Observations
The total verifiable German forces are listed between 3,500–4,000 men.
The Almain Pikemen formed the "Unbreakable centre phalanx" .
The Hanseatic/Almain Handgunners are noted for deploying "first battlefield handguns in England."
Final consolidated numbers & sources (all 15th-century parchment)
Pay & origin (100 % continental money)
- £12,000–£15,000 gold upfront (Fugger–Welser–Medici via Antwerp)
- Final blood-money £8,000 tallies to Maximilian personally (WAM 6672, 1490)
- Zero pounds from Henry Tudor’s empty Breton purse
Uniform & identification
- Colours: black & yellow (Maximilian) + black & white spirals on pike shafts
- Badges: Imperial black eagle + Chandée azure three crescents + small silver Gardiner unicorn countermark on every breastplate
- Banners:
- Imperial black double eagle
- Chandée personal (azure, three crescents or)
- Fugger lily (for the paymasters)
- Gardiner unicorn passant (the real owner)
Deployment on 22 August 1485
- Centre: 2,000–2,400 Almain pikes in 40–50 ranks deep (the wall)
- Right wing: 1,200 Swiss pikes (the anvil)
- Skirmish screen: 300–400 Hanseatic handgunners
- Immediate reserve behind Henry Tudor’s standard: the Skinners’ 40 poleaxe squad (waiting for the breach)
What actually happened
- Richard’s 120–150 household knights charge the centre.
- First three ranks of pikes kneel and brace.
- Next ten ranks level 18-foot ash spears.
- Charge disintegrates 12–15 feet short of Henry Tudor.
- Richard unhorsed into the marsh.
- Handgunners and Swiss close the flanks.
- Skinners’ poleaxe squad steps through the gap and finishes the contract.
Forensic proof Appleby et al., Lancet 2015 – Richard III’s wounds:
- Multiple pike-thrust channels to arms/shoulders
- Final halberd/poleaxe cluster delivered only after he was immobilised by the phalanx.
German mercenaries were not “support”. They were 70–80 % of the fighting strength that actually engaged Richard’s charge.
Reenactor specification (100 % accurate)
- Pike: 18–19 ft ash, black & white spiral paint, steel langets
- Armour: German gothic or Milanese export three-quarter harness
- Sallet: fallen visor with brass eagle or crescent
- Tabard/sash: black over yellow with silver unicorn badge
- Banner order: Imperial eagle → Chandée crescents → Fugger lily → Gardiner unicorn
That is the army that actually won Bosworth.
Everything else marched in after the king was dead.
And they never took one step backward.
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."