A gale prevented this planned landing from being successfully carried out, and in England a premature uprising in Kent forewarned Richard that Buckingham had changed sides.

Arrangements were made for Edward's coronation on the 22 June 1483; but, before the young king could be crowned, his father's marriage to his mother Elizabeth Woodville was declared invalid, making their children illegitimate and ineligible for the throne.

[2] Indeed, Davies has suggested that it was "only the subsequent parliamentary attainder that placed Buckingham at the centre of events", in order to blame a single disaffected magnate motivated by greed, rather than "the embarrassing truth" that those opposing Richard were actually "overwhelmingly Edwardian loyalists".

However his mother, Margaret Beaufort, had been twice remarried, first to Buckingham's uncle, and then to Thomas, Lord Stanley, one of Edward's principal officers, and continually promoted her son's rights.

[8] For his part, Buckingham raised a substantial force from his estates in Wales and the Marches, with a plan to join with Exeter and his brother Edward Courtenay.

Buckingham tried to escape in disguise, but was either turned in by Ralph Bannaster for the bounty Richard had put on his head, or was discovered in hiding with him.

It did, however, deepen the opinion of many towards Richard as king, and its effect over the next few months was to drive a number of leading figures into Henry Tudor's camp.

Five hundred Englishmen slipped through the King's net and found their way to Rennes, the capital of Brittany, where in desperation or fresh expectation they forged an alliance with the Earl of Richmond.

[12] The failure of Buckingham's revolt was clearly not the end of the plots against Richard, who could never again feel secure, and who also suffered the loss of his wife in March 1485 and eleven-year-old son in April 1484, putting the future of the Yorkist dynasty in doubt.

[13] Henry gained the support of the Woodvilles, in-laws of the late Edward IV, and sailed with a small French and Scottish force, landing in Mill Bay, Pembrokeshire, close to his birthplace on 7 August 1485.