СОЦИАЛЬНЫЙ СОСТАВ АКТИВНЫХ УЧАСТНИКОВ БИТВЫ ПРИ СТОУК-ФИЛДЕ 16 ИЮНЯ 1487 ГОДА

Abstract

The battle of Stoke Field is often proclaimed to be the finish of the Wars of the Roses in England. It was less than two years after the overthrow of Richard III Plantagenet by Henry VII Tudor. His victory was not so much the result of military superiority as the consequence of a policy of intrigue and betrayal, and it explains the preservation of a significant number of hidden adherents of the overthrown dynasty around the new monarch. Their unification around the Yorkist pretender to the throne led to the last major battle in more than thirty years of struggle for the English throne. Prosopographic analysis allows the author to assess the degree of participation of various social groups in military activities and the impact of the Wars of the Roses on society. Written sources provide an opportunity to partially recover the named composition of the participants in the battle. The author identified 170 people. Most of them are Lancastrians (134 people). The largest social group (89 people) was of gentry (knights and squires). They served as middle and junior officers and formed the basis of both armies. They depended on the outcome of the battle. The battle of Stoke Field was a typical battle of the Wars of the Roses. The most active participants were representatives of the nobility and gentry, and their reasons for participation were personal ties among the nobility. The defeat of the Yorkists did not mean the end of sociopolitical turbulence (which gives some historians a reason to extend the Wars of the Roses to the late 15th century and even to the early 16th century), but subsequent hostilities were social rebellions rather than the episodes of "Game of Thrones".