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Showing posts from January, 2021

A battle of Bosworth

  Market Bosworth is a small town in Leicestershire (1846 population 1135) (1), chiefly known for its proximity to the Bosworth battlefield on which King Richard 111 lost the battle, and his life, in 1485. The local newspaper was excited to report another fight there in 1849, under the headline “A Battle of Bosworth” (2)                       (2) In March 1849, Charles Skelton, a grazier, was charged with “violently assaulting” Thomas Holyland, a butcher, in Market Bosworth. The accusations included “threat to murder” and “wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm”. The newspaper report made a point of stressing that Thomas Holyland was a much older and frailer man than Charles Skelton – Thomas was in fact about 59 years old at the time, whereas censuses suggest that Charles would have been in his mid-40s. Apparently, Thomas Holyland was known in the town as “Truck”, and the altercation started with Charles Skelton calling out, “Truck, I’ll truck you!” Thomas made