Henry VII of England had led an expeditionary force of 12,000 troops across the Channel to Calais and began to besiege the French port of Boulogne on 18 October.
After several weeks the siege was broken off when Henry and the French monarch Charles VIII agreed to the Peace of Étaples.
[2] Henry had been in negotiations even before the campaign, and the move against Boulogne may have been intended to put further pressure on Charles.
The siege itself was largely unremarkable, save the fact that the knight Sir John Savage who had helped put Henry on the throne (commanding the left flank of his army at the Battle of Bosworth Field) was killed during its course.
[4] His actions created enough of a diversion to allow Sir John Riseley to escape and flee[5] on 'a most speedy horse'.