Stoke Field

The Battle of Stoke, the last and most neglected armed clash of the Wars of the Roses, is one of history's great might-have-beens. The forces of the first Tudor king Henry VII confronted the rebel army of the pretender Lambert Simnel and his commander the Earl of Lincoln. Henry's victory over the Yorkists was decisive — it confirmed the crown to the House of Tudor for more than a century. David Baldwin's fascinating and meticulously researched study of the battle gives a keen insight into the opposing armies, their commanders, and the bloody dynastic politics of the period.