Site of the battle of 22 August 1485, closely connected with the Stanley family who then held the Lordship of Man.

Thomas Stanley, Lord Stanley, and his brother Sir William Stanley entered the campaign while Richard III and Henry Tudor contested the English crown. The Stanley forces remained separate during much of the battle rather than committing themselves immediately to either side.

When Richard attempted a direct attack on Henry Tudor, Sir William Stanley intervened with his troops. Richard was killed and Henry won the battle. Later Stanley family histories credited Thomas Stanley with placing the dead king's crown on Henry's head after the fighting.

Thomas Stanley was subsequently created Earl of Derby by Henry VII. The Lordship of Man remained with the Stanley family, and his descendants governed the Island for more than a century and a half.

Bosworth continued to matter within the family's own political memory. A seventeenth-century account of James Stanley, seventh Earl of Derby, records that opponents at Charles I's court invoked the action of his ancestor at Bosworth when casting doubt upon James's loyalty. The argument was that Lord Stanley had abandoned a reigning king when the crown itself was at stake.

The same family tradition remained visible at Lathom, where nineteenth-century editors noted older memories of the Stanleys' actions at Bosworth and Flodden.