The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 20.0538 Wednesday, 28 October 2009
From: Al Magary <
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Date: Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009 14:22:12 -0700
Subject: Battle of Bosworth
Battle of Bosworth: Dig Finally Pins Down Long Disputed Site
Guardian, October 28, 2009
By Martin Wainwright
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/28/battle-bosworth-dig-leicestershire
. Discovery of bullets and cannonballs moves defining skirmish of Wars
of the Roses to new field in Leicestershire
. Scale of find transforms 1485 battle that killed Richard III into
world landmark, say archaeologists
Five centuries of searching for one of Britain's most significant
battlefields has finally ended with the discovery of "extraordinary and
unexpected" pieces of artillery in a Leicestershire field.
The finds near Market Bosworth at last pin down the notoriously
"wandering site" of the battle that overthrew Richard III -- the last
English king to die at the head of an army -- and established the Tudor
dynasty and the modern state.
Surrounded by school parties still studying at least four wrong
locations, a bevy of archaeologists unveiled 22 primitive pistol bullets
and cannonballs, alongside soil surveys and data from metal detection
over 2.7 square miles.
The revelations arise from an overlooked trough of rolling countryside
two miles from the previously most widely accepted battlefield, below
Ambion Hill.
The scale of the ammunition haul transforms the battle of Bosworth's
significance from a national landmark (it is usually ranked with
Hastings, Naseby and the Battle of Britain) to international importance.
Glenn Foard, who led the ?1m three-year survey for the Battlefields
Trust, said: "We are seeing here the origins of firepower which led to
an empire spanning the globe. Now this needs to be explored on every
battlefield of the period in Europe."
Pictures of stalwart yeomen with bows and arrows have been instantly
outdated by the find, which shows how the battle, in 1485, was a change
from previous encounters in the Wars of the Roses.
[ . . . ]
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