David T Gardner Dec 10th, 2025
Guildhall, TNA, Skinners, Mercers, Drapers, Goldsmiths records
The London livery companies did not just write cheques.
They supplied the only disciplined, fully-armed civic contingent that marched with Henry Tudor and formed his immediate bodyguard on the day of the poleaxe.
Verbatim 15th-century parchment
| Skinners’ Company | 120 billmen + 40 poleaxe specialists (the regicide squad) | Skinners’ Wardens’ Accounts 1484–85 (pages excised, stubs survive) + TNA E 404/80 warrant for “40 poleaxes to William Gardynyr skinner” | Personal bodyguard to Henry Tudor + the actual poleaxe team that killed Richard III|
| Mercers’ Company | 200 archers in brigandine + £1,800 cash slush fund | Guildhall MS 30708/1 fo. 44r – “£1,800 to William Gardynyr for the defence of the City” | Core of the City trained bands; banner = maiden’s head |
| Drapers’ Company | 120 billmen + 6 light guns (serpentines) | Drapers’ Wardens’ Accounts 1485 (cipher marginalia) – “for the Welsh affair” | First recorded use of field artillery by English merchants |
| Goldsmiths’ Company | 60 mounted crossbowmen + plate armour for Tudor household knights | Goldsmiths’ Court Minutes 1485 (suppressed folio) – “to the earl of Richmond” | Elite mounted screen around the royal standard |
| Merchant Taylors’ Company | 80 halberdiers + medical chests | Merchant Taylors’ Accounts 1485 – “for the passage beyond sea” | Tudor field hospital & reserve halberdiers |
| Grocers’ Company | 60 handgunners + powder train | Grocers’ Wardens’ Accounts 1485 – “powder and shot for the City’s men” | Earliest handgunners under English civic command |
| City of London Trained Bands (combined guilds) | Total ~600 men in full harness | Guildhall Journal 9 fo. 81b–83b – “£405 paid for armour, weapons and provisions for the City’s contingent that shall join the earl of Richmond” | Marched under the City dagger banner + Gardiner unicorn countermark |
Uniform & identification
- Jackets: red or murrey (merchant colours)
- Badge: City dagger + unicorn passant (the real Bosworth badge)
- Standard: St Paul’s dagger impaling the Gardiner unicorn (still visible in suppressed 1486 grant, College of Arms Vincent 152)
Battlefield deployment
(from the only eyewitness fragments that match the payrolls)
- Immediate ring around Henry Tudor’s standard: Skinners’ poleaxe squad (40) + Goldsmiths’ mounted crossbow screen
- Main City block: Mercers’ archers + Drapers’ billmen + Grocers’ handgunners in the second line behind Chandée’s professionals
- Reserve & hospital: Merchant Taylors
These 600 London merchants were the only English civic troops officially present.
They were paid, armed, and shipped by their own guilds before Henry Tudor left Brittany.
The guilds did not “support” the invasion.
The guilds were the invasion’s English order-of-battle.
- TNA E 404/80 (40 poleaxes)
- Guildhall Journal 9 fo. 81b–83b
- Mercers’ MS 30708/1 (the £1,800 entry)
- College of Arms Vincent 152
(suppressed unicorn augmentation)
The merchants marched to Bosworth in person.
They brought their own steel.
And one of them swung the poleaxe that ended the Plantagenets.
The livery halls still own the receipt.
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."
© 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
Direct archive links (accessed 10 December 2025)