21. An Opportunistic Betrayal That Changed History
As seen with the example of Hitler and the remilitarization of the Rhineland above, not all historic instances of people handling pressure well involve good people and good causes. Another example of the successful handling of pressure by a bad person – or at least an opportunistic one – is that of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby (1435 – 1504), at the Battle of Bosworth. During the course of a single afternoon, he pulled off one of history’s most momentous double-crosses.
Stanley was a powerful peer who ran his extensive landholdings in northwest England as if they were an independent realm. During the Wars of the Roses, which pitted the ruling Plantagenet Dynasty’s Lancastrian and Yorkist branches, the Earl of Derby was courted by both sides. When the Yorkist King Edward IV died in 1483, he named his brother Richard guardian and regent during the minority of Edward’s twelve-year-old son and successor, and his younger sibling. It did not turn out well for the young princes.