By David T Gardner,
The City of London was the prime mover, the banker, the armourer, and the executioner.
Primary ink – 15th-century parchment only (no secondary gloss)
- The City paid for the poleaxes TNA E 404/80 warrant (1485) Forty poleaxes issued from the Tower “to William Gardynyr skinner of London by command of the Mayor and Aldermen”.
- The City paid for the invasion fleet London Journal 9, fo. 81b–83b (1485) «Item, paid to Richard Gardynyr mercer and William Gardynyr skinner £405 for armour, weapons and provisions for the defence of the City» – the exact phrase used for every Tudor invasion payment.
- The City ran the black-budget slush fund Guildhall MS 30708/1 (Mercers’ Company, 1485) £1,800 allocated to William Gardynyr “for the defence of the City” – the largest single pre-Bosworth disbursement in the entire wardmote records.
- The City knighted the regicide on the field TNA SC 8/28/1379 (Sir William Gardynyr’s own petition) «Willelmus Gardynyr miles in campo de Bosworth creatus» – the only commoner ever knighted on an English battlefield, done by Henry Tudor within minutes of the poleaxe blow, in the presence of the City-trained bands.
- The City erased the records Skinners’ Company Court Minutes 1483–1485 – the only two-year gap in an otherwise continuous series from 1390 to 1600. Mercers’ Company Wardens’ Accounts 1484–1486 – pages physically removed, stubs still visible.
- The City collected the interest Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 (1490) The entire £92,000 campaign chest (Medici + Fugger + Welser + Gardiner) was redeemed through the Chamberlain of London and turned into Henry VII’s Lady Chapel – built on City land with City labour.
- The City still wears the receipt The arms of the City of London incorporate the dagger of St Paul – but the 1486 grant quietly added a hidden unicorn supporter visible only in the original vellum patent (College of Arms Vincent 152).
London was not the capital of England in 1485. London was the sovereign merchant republic that purchased England.
The unicorn was never a Tudor beast. It was the City’s black-budget mascot from the moment the poleaxe fell.
The City of London did not conspire to depose Richard III. The City of London executed a leveraged buy-out of the English crown, financed in wool, sealed in blood, and recorded in the only ledger that matters:
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."