This Was The Last English King To Die In Battle

Over the thousands of years of British history there have been a whole lot of wars. From the Crusades to the Hundred Years' War, conflict has been a common occurrence for this island nation. For many of those years, tradition would dictate that the ruling king would himself lead his armies into battle. How smart this tactic was can be up for debate, but nevertheless many English monarchs fought alongside their soldiers on the battlefield.

Logic of course would dictate that if one goes to war, the chances of death generally increase. This turned out to be true for kings, too. According to Military History Now, there were at least three English rulers who were killed during battle. Of the three, the last to die would actually become one of the great villains of British history instead of a hero, as one might think. His death would also spawn a 500-year-old mystery that modern science has solved.

According to History, The Wars of the Roses were a series of civil wars fought between the House of York and the House of Lancaster over a period of about 30 years. These two houses each believed they were the rightful rulers of the country, and after many bloody battles, political shenanigans, and lots of death, the wars finally ended. Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. This victory resulted in the birth of the Tudor dynasty of English monarchs.

According to The Guardian, Richard III died a pretty gruesome death at the hands of soldiers led by Henry Tudor. Richard reportedly sustained 11 wounds around the time of his death, with nine of them being directly to his skull; another, to his pelvis, would have been fatal, but was probably inflicted after his death and his armor removed.

Following his death, Richard was portrayed as an evil humpbacked man who killed his nephews to take the throne that didn't belong to him in the first place. Richard's remains also went missing for over five centuries before they were discovered underneath a parking lot in September of 2012, as CNN reported. Upon this discovery, it turns out that at least the part about his physical deformities was not entirely true. However, whether or not he committed regicide or that he was a horrible king is still up for debate. The one thing that is for sure is that he is the last English king — so far — to die in battle.