The Atherstone hypothesis

In 2002 Jones, elaborating a conjecture by Starkey, has argued that the battle was fought near Atherstone, more than four miles away from the traditional site. After detailed consideration of the evidence presented by Jones, we have concluded that his interpretation is wrong in certain key respects.

Though Foss has present a range of data which Jones has failed to counter, of these one key fact demolishes the case for Atherstone. Jones argues that the naming of the battle derives from where the dead were buried not where the action was fought. He suggests that the dead, or at least a substantial number of them, were carried back with the army on its march to Leicester and buried at the first suitable location. This cannot be correct because the battle was described as the 'Field of Redesmore' in the report to the Council of the City of York on the 23rd August, by someone probably present with Richard’s army at the battle. The bodies will not have been buried until long after this person, or his informant, left the field, perhaps even flying for his life. Redemore is therefore the most immediate record of the battle and gives us a location that cannot be disputed. It clearly relates to the action itself, not the naming of the battle, and Foss has proven that Redemore lay, in part, within the township of Dadlington, in the heart of the traditional site of the battlefield.

 

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