Yorkist diehards backed Lambert Simnel, a boy pretender claiming to be the Earl of Warwick, and invaded England from Ireland with German and Irish mercenaries under the command of the Earl of Lincoln. Henry VII met them at Stoke Field in Nottinghamshire. The Yorkist mercenaries fought with unexpected ferocity, but without the noble support they had hoped to attract in England, they were ultimately overwhelmed. Lincoln was killed; Simnel was captured and put to work in the royal kitchens — a deliberate act of contemptuous mercy.
Stoke Field was the true final battle of the Wars of the Roses — the last attempt by Yorkist partisans to reverse Bosworth by force. Henry VII's measured mercy toward Simnel, contrasted with the execution of Lincoln, demonstrated a new style of kingship that preferred stability over revenge. The Lambert Simnel episode set the template for the pretender crises that would recur throughout Henry VII's reign.
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While the land war collapsed, a provincial naval commander who had spent the previous year repairing ships and drilling crews that nobody thought would be needed took his fleet to Okpo and destroyed 26 Japanese vessels without losing one. It was the first Korean victory of the war.
Yi Sun-sin had been demoted, imprisoned, and reduced to the ranks earlier in his career for refusing to flatter superiors, and had been posted to an obscure southern command in 1591 on Ryu Seong-ryong's recommendation. He used the posting to build a fleet for a war nobody else believed was coming. Okpo was the first sign that the sea would be a different war entirely.
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Two days before Waterloo, Napoleon struck the Prussian army under Blücher at the village of Ligny in Belgium, inflicting his last significant tactical victory. The fighting was ferocious throughout the afternoon as Napoleon hammered the Prussian center with veteran troops while waiting for d'Erlon's corps to arrive and complete the encirclement. D'Erlon never arrived — his corps marched back and forth between Ligny and Quatre Bras without engaging at either battle. In the early evening the Imperial Guard broke the Prussian center and Blücher himself was nearly captured when his horse was shot and fell on him. The Prussians retreated but, crucially, northward rather than eastward — toward Wellington rather than away from him.
Though a tactical French victory, Ligny's strategic outcome was fatal. The Prussians were shaken but not destroyed, and their northward retreat kept them in contact with Wellington's Anglo-Allied army, enabling their crucial intervention at Waterloo two days later.
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Fought simultaneously with Ligny, Quatre Bras was a hard-fought engagement at a road junction critical to keeping Wellington's and Blücher's armies in communication. Marshal Ney initially faced a small Allied force and should have overwhelmed it quickly, but hesitated fatally in the morning hours. As the afternoon progressed, Wellington fed reinforcements piecemeal into the battle, narrowly preventing a French breakthrough. General Picton's Scottish infantry repulsed a massive French cavalry charge, and the Highlanders of the 92nd Regiment won particular glory. D'Erlon's corps, which might have been decisive at either Quatre Bras or Ligny, was marched back and forth by conflicting orders and contributed nothing to either engagement.
Wellington's ability to hold Quatre Bras preserved the lateral road linking him to Blücher. When Napoleon defeated Blücher at Ligny that same day, Wellington was able to conduct a controlled retreat to Waterloo rather than fleeing in disorder.
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British naval forces silenced the Woosung (Wusong) shore batteries guarding the Huangpu River approach to Shanghai. The fortifications had been strengthened with guidance from a visiting British merchant who ironically helped China improve defenses his own nation would destroy. The Woosung guns fell silent within ninety minutes of sustained British naval fire.
Opened the gateway to Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze — giving Britain access to the entire Yangtze River valley, the commercial heart of eastern China.
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