The Battle of Stoke (June 16th, 1487) was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses and saw Henry VII defeat the pretender Lambert Simnel and his allies.
The Battle of Stoke (June 16th, 1487) was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses and saw Henry VII defeat the pretender Lambert Simnel and his allies. After the Battle of Bosworth (August 1485) a few die-hard Yorkists refused to accept that their cause was dead. Their big problem was the lack of a suitable heir. There were two main candidates. Edward Plantagenet, earl of Warwick, was the son of Edward IV and Richard III's brother George, duke of Clarence, but his father had been attainted and executed for treason, and the young earl may have had some sort of health problems. He had briefly been acknowledged by Richard III as his heir, but had quickly been replaced by John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln. Lincoln was the son of Edward and Richard's sister Elizabeth. After the Battle of Bosworth Henry had quickly secured control of Warwick, and he had attempted to win Lincoln over. Lincoln had sworn an oath of loyalty to Henry and had served on the Royal council. Neither man was t...