Atlas of Battles

battle, major, medieval

Battle of Stoke Field

Battle of Stoke Field was a battle fought on 16 June 1487 at East Stoke, in what is now United Kingdom. It was part of the Wars of the Roses, which ran from 1455 to 1487. The recorded result: Tudor victory; End of the Wars of the Roses. Recorded strength: 12,000 against 8,000.

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Henry Marriott Paget - The last stand of Schwarz and his Germans in the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487
Henry Marriott Paget - The last stand of Schwarz and his Germans in the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Fought16 June 1487
WhereEast Stoke, United Kingdom53.035N, 0.888W
OutcomeTudor victory; End of the Wars of the Roses
Belligerents20px House of Tudor (Lancastrian) (Yorkist)against20px House of York (Ricardian Yorkist)
Casualties and losses300–3,000and4,000
Battlefield todayBattle of Stoke (Field) battlefieldHistoric England entry 1000036, 269 ha
Part ofWars of the Roses1455 to 1487

Where it sits in the Wars of the Roses

First Battle of St Albans, 1455Battle of Blore Heath, 1459Battle of Ludford Bridge, 1459Battle of Sandwich (1460), 1459Battle of Northampton, 1460Battle of Worksop, 1460Battle of Wakefield, 1460Battle of Mortimer's Cross, 1461Second Battle of St Albans, 1461Battle of Ferrybridge, 1461Battle of Towton, 1461Battle of Tuthill, 1461Battle of Piltown, 1462Battle of Hedgeley Moor, 1464Battle of Hexham, 1464Battle of Edgcote, 1469Battle of Losecoat Field, 1470Battle of Barnet, 1471Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471Siege of London (1471), 1471Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485Battle of Stoke Field, 148714551487Battle of Stoke Field, 1487
22 placed engagements of the Wars of the Roses in time order; taller ticks are more widely documented. Each tick is a link.

Record

Date16 June 1487
PlaceEast Stoke, United Kingdom
53.035N, 0.888W
KindBattle, medieval
Strength12,0008,000
Casualties and losses300–3,0004,000
Commanders
  • Henry VII of England
  • John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
  • Jasper Tudor
  • George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury
  • George Stanley, 9th Baron Strange
  • Edward Woodville, Lord Scales
  • John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln
  • Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell
  • Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh
  • Martin Schwartz (mercenary)
Battle of Stoke FieldBattle of Stoke Field5 km53.035N, 0.888W
The recorded site, with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. The dashed outline is the registered battlefield area (Historic England). Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

The ground today

Relief of the ground around the site of Battle of Stoke Field
Relief within about 10.0 km of the site, contours every 10 m. Copernicus DEM GLO-30, ESA.
Satellite view of the site of Battle of Stoke Field today
The same ground from Sentinel-2 on 2025-07-12. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2025.

The recorded site stands at about 39 m; within 10.0 km the ground runs from 0 to 79 m, 79 m of relief, gently rolling country and today it is 56% cropland, 28% grassland, 10% tree cover.

cropland: 56%grassland: 28%tree cover: 10%built-up: 4%water: 2%cropland 56%grassland 28%tree cover 10%built-up 4%water 2%
west to east, 10.0 km10 to 56 mnorth to south, 10.0 km0 to 41 m
Elevation from the Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (ESA, Airbus); land cover from ESA WorldCover 2021 (CC BY 4.0), within about 5 km of the recorded site. Computed, not recorded.

Nearest engagements

In the same war

Elsewhere in 1487

Historic England registers this as the Battle of Stoke (Field) battlefield (entry 1000036), 269 hectares, under the Open Government Licence.

Battle of Stoke Field is one of 720 engagements of the 15th century in the atlas and one of 695 in present-day United Kingdom.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q1495481, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Battle of Stoke Field, revision 1370274765, read 2026-11-14, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Battlefield boundary and area from Historic England (Open Government Licence). Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.