John Howard was slain at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485 along with his friend and patron King Richard. Howard was the commander of the vanguard, and his son, the Earl of Surrey, his lieutenant. Howard was killed when a Lancastrian arrow struck him in the face after the face guard had been torn off his helmet during an earlier altercation with the Earl of Oxford. He was slain before King Richard, which had a demoralising effect on the king. Shakespeare relates how, the night before, someone had left John Howard a note attached to his tent warning him that King Richard, his "master," was going to be double-crossed (which he was):