Edward IV died in April 1483 and his son EdwardV was intended to succeed to the throne. However, he and his brother were declared illegitimate by their uncle, Richard of Gloucester, who took the throne himself as RichardIII. Richard's reign was brief; in 1485 the heir of Lancaster, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond invaded England and defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485. Nothing is known of Clifford's career between his pardon in 1472 and the end of the Yorkist regime, except that he had remained in the country. Michael Hicks has suggested that his presence in the north, even though still attainted, made Gloucester's hold on the Clifford lands more fragile than was comfortable for the Duke: "no doubt Gloucester himself could keep what he had, but could his heirs?" Clifford had been one of a number of stalwart Lancastrian lords excluded from local power in the region during Gloucester's hegemony, first as Duke and then King.
