richard iii's reign lasted for only 2 years, and his short reign came to a violent end on 22 august 1485 at the battle of bosworth – the last battle of the war of the roses. in the aftermath of the battle, richard iii's body was not given a proper state funeral, and the location of his remains was soon forgotten – there was even a belief, now proved false, that they had been thrown into the river soar in leicester following the dissolution of the monasteries. ricardians assert that many of the original assumptions about richard iii's motives and likely responsibility relating to these events were not supported by the actual facts of the day, that these assumptions were most probably instead the result of the political claims of his successors, and that they were most probably in fact mistaken assumptions.