A decade later in 1472 Stanley married, as his second wife, Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), daughter and heiress of John, Duke of Somerset. She was the widow of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond and mother of Henry Tudor, who later became Henry VII. An intelligent and determined woman of great wealth and power, she was renowned for her piety and was the outstanding educational benefactress of her time. She founded not one but two colleges at Cambridge, namely St John’s and Christ’s College. She is buried within Westminster Abbey next to her son in a magnificent tomb, designed by Pietro Torrigiano, one of the leading sculptors of the Florentine Renaissance.
In 1483 Richard III had ascended to the throne, after the death of his brother Edward IV and the disappearance in the Tower of London of his nephews while still children, Edward V and his younger brother. That same year Richard III made Lord Stanley a Knight of the Garter, as well as Lord Steward of the Household and Constable of England for life. At the Battle of Bosworth on 22nd August 1485 Thomas Stanley and his brother William at the head of their Stanley army from the North West of England, switched sides from Richard III to support Henry Tudor.
The Lancastrian challenger, who had been in exile in Brittany for fourteen years, had been constantly supported and secretly encouraged by his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. At Bosworth Richard III was killed. According to Shakespeare’s famous play, Richard III, in the final scene he has Lord Stanley recover the crown from Richard III’s corpse and hand it to Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who was soon to be crowned Henry VII. Thomas was created Earl of Derby – named after the Lancastrian hundred of West Derby – by the new king on 27th October 1485. The following year Stanley was confirmed as Constable of England and High Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster.
The north façade of this massive building survives to the present day, a visible reminder of the closeness of the 1st Earl and the Stanley family to the new Tudor monarchy.
In August 2012 during an archaeological dig in a Leicester Council car park – on the site of the long demolished Greyfriars Church – a skeleton was discovered which had battle injuries and curvature of the spine. In February 2013 it was confirmed by DNA testing that these were the remains of Richard III, whose mutilated corpse – after the Battle of Bosworth - was known to have been taken for burial in the Greyfriars Church at Leicester. On 26th March 2015 Richard III’s remains were reinterred in a solemn service at Leicester Cathedral. The 19th Earl of Derby – as a direct descendant of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby – was invited to participate in the service as one of the four ‘Bosworth Peers’, all of whom are directly descended from key participants in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. This service of reinterment was attended by members of the Royal Family, watched by thousands of people in Leicester, and viewed on live television by millions of viewers around the world. It was a surreal experience for Lady Derby to be seated opposite the coffin of Richard III who was married to Queen Anne Neville, Lady Derby’s own ancestor.
