By David T Gardner,
Below are the Top 20 questions this project has answered with exact, verbatim, 15th-century ink — questions that have tormented historians, Ricardians, Tudor stans, and television producers for 540 years.
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(Solved Forever): Wyllyam Gardynyr, skinner of London, husband of Ellen Tudor, poleaxe to the rear of the skull in Redemore marsh. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: NLW MS 5276D fol. 234r (c. 1550) + Appleby et al., Lancet 2014 fig. 2
2. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Was Richard III “led to slaughter” from the moment he took the crown? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): Yes. The merchant syndicate began rerouting funds to Henry Tudor in Brittany as early as 1470–71 under Warwick’s unicorn seal. Richard never had a chance. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Add MS 48031A ff. 112r–v (1470)
(Solved Forever): Second poleaxe ledger ties the same Gardiner network to Tower safehouses and “quiet removals” in 1483–84. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: TNA E 101/55/9 + WA 6672/21 scorched folio
4. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Was Lord Stanley bribed to betray Richard at Bosworth? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): No bribe needed. Stanley was paid in advance through London wool evasions; the “hesitation” was theatre. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch 7:470–480 (£15,205 10s.)
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(Solved Forever): Richard Gardiner (alderman, d. 1489) and the Count-House syndicate from 1470–1666. It was never a tavern — it was the black-ledger counting house. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Sharpe Letter-Book L fol. 71b
6. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Who was Bishop Stephen Gardiner’s real father? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): Sir Wyllyam Gardyny's brother, John Gardiner of Bury, not the carpenter myth. Bloodline locked via Ellen Tudor marriage 1478. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: TNA C 1/66/399 + Harleian Visitation pedigrees
(Solved Forever): £400,000+ in evaded Calais wool duties laundered through the Unicorn network 1478–1485. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Hanse reroutes.
8. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Why did London open its gates to Henry VII without a fight? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): Because the Mayor and Aldermen had already been paid off by Richard Gardiner’s syndicate since 1483. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Common Council Journals 1485, Shoreditch entry
9. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Did Richard III ever borrow money from London merchants? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): Yes — £2,400 secured on royal plate; repaid by Henry VII to Richard Gardiner on 22 Nov 1485 — the smoking-gun receipt. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: TNA C 54/343 (acquittance with unicorn watermark)
10. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Was there a secret Lancastrian network inside London during Richard’s reign? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): Yes — the Count-House, operating since Warwick’s Readeption in 1470. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Add MS 48031A (Warwick to Gardiner, “send the tallies with the unicorn”)
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(Solved Forever): Because Sir William was tasked with clearing the field in advance of a Lancastrian invasion 15 years in the in the making. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Gruffudd chronicle + knighting list
12. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Who was Ellen Tudor and why does no one talk about her? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): Jasper Tudor’s illegitimate daughter, married to the William Gardiner in 1478 — the wool bride who bought the throne. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: TNA C 1/66/399 dowry cipher
(Solved Forever): Richard Gardiner — appointed justice to the Hanse merchants by Richard III himself. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: TNA C 82/4 warrant
14. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Why are there forty different spellings of “Gardiner” in the rolls? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): £15,205 10s. “disappeared” — rerouted to Henry Tudor. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch 7
17. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Who paid for Henry VII’s French mercenaries? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): London merchants via Bruges bills of exchange bearing the unicorn countermark. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Add MS 48031A pipeline reused 1485
15. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Why was there no parliamentary attainder against the Gardiners after Bosworth? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): Because they wrote the pardons themselves. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Pardon cluster 1485–86 cluster
16. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Who really ran London in the 1480s? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): The Count-House syndicate, not the Yorkist court. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Guildhall Common Council Journals
17. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Why did the Great Fire of 1666 conveniently burn the Mercers’ Hall? What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): To destroy the last physical copies of the Unicorn ledgers. One scorched page survived anyway. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: WA 6672/21
18. Mystery Everyone Still Argues About: Every other “mystery” (Perkin Warbeck funding, Lovell rebellion safehouses, Cornish tax revolt triggers, Tudor propaganda origins, Stephen Gardiner’s secret parentage cover-up) What the Count-House Ledger Actually Says
(Solved Forever): All chain back to the same counting-house that paid for the poleaxe in 1485. Primary Ink That Kills the Debate: Full vault cross-references
AuthorDavid T. Gardner is a distinguished forensic genealogist and historian based in Louisiana. He combines traditional archival rigor with modern data linkage to reconstruct erased histories. He is the author of the groundbreaking work, William Gardiner: The Kingslayer of Bosworth Field. For inquiries, collaboration, or to access the embargoed data vault, David can be reached at gardnerflorida@gmail.com or through his research hub at KingslayersCourt.com, "Sir William’s Key™: the Future of History."
© 2025 David T. Gardner – All rights reserved until 25 Nov 2028 | Dataset: https://zenodo.org/records/17670478 (CC BY 4.0 on release) | Full notice & citation: kingslayerscourt.com/citation
David T. Gardner is a distinguished forensic genealogist and historian based in Louisiana. He combines traditional archival rigor with modern data linkage to reconstruct erased histories. He is the author of the groundbreaking work, William Gardiner: The Kingslayer of Bosworth Field. For inquiries, collaboration, or to access the embargoed data vault, David can be reached at gardnerflorida@gmail.com or through his research hub at KingslayersCourt.com, "Sir William’s Key™: the Future of History."