#they probably expected an edward iv x henry vi situation

[richmond-rex]

The focus on who fought or failed to fight for Richard, and in particular on the contribution of the Stanleys, obscures a simple truth about Bosworth, and perhaps about Richard III. It was one that the Tudor historian Polydore Vergil recognized. ‘The report is that Richard could have saved himself by flight’. He could have left the battlefield as others had done before (including the father he venerated), to fight another day. He would have lost Bosworth, and survived. Edward IV had been more bereft of support than Richard ever was, both after Edgecote and at the Readeption, yet had managed to return.

David Horspool, Richard III: A Ruler and His Reputation