The Village Coronation of King Henry VII

Much has been written about the demise of that unlucky monarch King Richard III at the  Battle of Bosworth Field .

For some thirty years before that fateful day of 22nd August 1485 there had been a long standing quarrel between the houses of York and Lancaster for the right to the throne. Commonly called the Wars of the Roses, the emblem of the Yorkists being a white rose and that of the Lancastrians being a red one, the feud culminated in the final battle of the Roses  just beyond the village of Stoke Golding between the King and The Earl of Richmond commonly known as Henry Tudor.

Henry Tudor had been living in Brittany and latterly in France having fled the kingdom to save his own skin.  On 31st July 1485 he sailed from Harfleur with two thousand men at arms, described as 'the scum of France'  to try and take the throne. He landed at Milford Haven and after marching across country through Shrewsbury and Lichfield he turned from his path to London when he heard that Richard was close,  to do battle outside this village.

Richard was no coward, and, as the battle was about to start he is said to have cried, "Bryng me my battaylaxe in my hand and set the crowne  of gold on my hed so hye, for by Hym that shope bothe se and land, Kynge of England this day will I dye, one foote away I will not fle, whill brethe wyll byde my brest within."

Richard is said to have fallen after his horse was cut from under him, resulting in the supposed cry of "My horse, my horse my kingdom for a horse."

It is said that the blood of the slain so  tinged the water of the nearby stream that for a long time the residents could not drink from it.

Recent  investigation indicates  that perhaps  the battlefield was much closer to the village than was previously thought. Indeed accounts of the battle tell of the villagers climbing to  the battlements  of the church to view the fight.

The window sills of the Church show grooves which legend has it were caused by the soldiers sharpening their swords on the eve of the battle.

On finding himself the master of the field, Henry's first act was to fall on his knees and give thanks for his great victory.

After the battle Richard's body was thrown naked across a horse and taken to Leicester where it was on public display for two days before being taken to Greyfriars for interment at the Church of St Mary in the city.

Henry and his followers rode into Stoke Golding, no doubt to the great consternation of the populace, who, having seen the engagement from afar and faintly heard the sounds of battle and victory, waited in fearful anticipation of  the arrival of their new King, Henry VII.

He and his army occupied the area of land subsquently named Crown Hill, or, as some narratives state, King Harry's Hill, which lies between the north side of Station Road and the canal and, from a  farmhouse nearby, a chair and table were brought for the rural Coronation. The table is said to have been preserved in Maxstoke Castle , Warwickshire.

Wherever Richard fell on the Battlefield, it is certain that his crown, which would have been merely a circlet of gold which fitted over his battle helmet, either fell from his head or was removed after his death.

This battered coronet was found,  in a hawthorn bush by Sir Reginald Bray, who hastened to Crown Hill in Stoke Golding, where the new Tudor sovereign and his army were gathering.A contemporary account of the scene recounts, "Then they removyd to a mountayne hyghe, and withe a voyce they cryed "Kynge Henry". The crowne of gold was delyveryd to the Lord Stanley, and unto Kynge Henry then went he, and delyveryd it, as to the most worthe to were the crowne and be theyr Kynge."

Then broke out a loud cheering which was taken  up by all who had assembled on Crown Hill, the shouts being taken up by Henry's men, until it reached those who had remained to pillage the  battlefield. Lord Stanley placed the battered circlet on his stepson's head and proclaimed him King. The field became known as Halloa Meadow in consequence of the cheering of the new Monarch.

There followed a thanksgiving for the victory where Henry addressed his troops and thanked them for the great service they had done and promised them adequate rewards. A Te Deum was then sung.

A field in the vicinity of the crowning was styled 'Le Gulden' (The Golden) shortly afterwards and some claim that the addition of the word Golding after the name of the village was derived from this great event.

No doubt the new King visited the Church of St Margaret of Antioch in the village of Stoke Golding, but no memorial perpetuates the event.

Pits were dug around Dadlington and Stoke Golding , the nearest villages to the battlefield, for the reception of the dead, as one thousand or so soldiers were killed in the battle.

Henry paused then, to reward some of his followers and to Knight those more senior of his supporters. He left the scene of carnage shortly afterwards and made his way to Coventry, which city had always been supportive of the Lancastrian cause  where he was entertained with his officers  by the Lord Mayor. King Henry and his entourage must have dined  well for preserved in Coventry's Leet book are details of the feast of celebration which shows that bread, claret, red wine and ale, twenty sheep and 2 oxen were provided at a cost of £23.15.11d.  The King was given a cup and £100 by the Mayor, Robert Onley,  and in return the worthy man was knighted.

In the wake of Bosworth Field another pestilence followed, not unlike that which had ravaged the country a hundred and fifty years before. ' The Sweating Sickness'  broke out in Henry's army as it marched from Bosworth Field to London and in a probably exaggerated account 'Not one in a hundred recovered'.

In 1999 the Charity of Thomas Barton decided to present to the village a permanent reminder of King Henry's Village Coronation and the founding of the Tudor dynasty.

With the aid of a Landmark grant from the County Council, the Trustees commissioned a village sign which has been erected on the corner of Hinckley Road and Wykin Lane.

Around the border on the top half of the sign are two hawthorn trees. These grow and meet in the top centre of the sign. Legend has it that during the Battle the dead King Richard's crown was knocked from his head. After the fighting had ceased it was found entwined in the branches of a hawthorn bush by Sir Reginald Bray who brought it to Crown Hill. Indeed Henry's tomb in Westminster Abbey shows the device of the crown and the hawthorn branches. The sign shows the crown tangled in the branches of  two hawthorns.

The root of the Battle stems from the Wars of the Roses. So, from the roots of  these  hawthorns   the emblems of the two protagonists, are shown  growing. The white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster.

They intertwine in the centre bottom of the sign with a red and white rose to symbolise the marriage of King Henry VII to Elizabeth of York,  the dead King's niece.

The broken banner of the dead King Richard with its emblem of the boar lies in the foreground, and in the middle ground is the tent of Henry on the gorse covered battlefield with Stoke Golding Church overlooking the scene.

The three shields shown are, left to right, that of William de Campania, responsible for much of the building of Stoke Golding Church, the Arms of King Henry VII and the family arms of Thomas Barton.

Centre stage is Henry, his fluttering standard showing the triumphant Welsh Red Dragon.  In full battle armour of the day, he kneels to accept the Crown of England from Sir William Stanley.

So began the Tudor dynasty, culminating in what was surely the greatest age in English history under Henry's grand-daughter Queen Elizabeth the First.