BL Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV f. 112r – Henry VII Names Thomas Gardynyr (the Syndicate’s Propagandist Monk) as Executor of His Will – 1509

By David T Gardner, December 8th, 2025
BL Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV fol. 112r embeds the testamentary chain where Thomas Gardynyr—monk of Westminster, Prior of Tynemouth, the syndicate's propagandist—emerges as named executor in Henry VII's 1509 will, a codicil provision routing crown bequests through the same hand that redacted the Bosworth regicide from Croyland Continuations. The entry, amid state papers and revenue tracts compiled for Cotton's service in extremis, lists “Thomas Gardiner, prior de Tynemouth” alongside bishops Fox and West, their joint oversight of jewels, plate, and dower lands sealing generational indemnity for the 1485 poleaxe thrust—£40,000 in tallies (WAM 6672, 1490 codicil) redeemed via the propagandist's quill. Orthographic variant “Gardiner” chains to 61-variant key (e.g., “Gardinar” in Westminster Obit Book, 1489), collapsing the monk's erasure from Vergil's Anglica Historia into the Tudor ledger's fiscal tail, where the Prior's Tynemouth valuation (£3,908, Valor Ecclesiasticus vol. 2:241–43) underwrites the blood-bond conduit from Ellen's £200 viaticum (TNA C 1/66/399) to Stephen's Winchester cash cow. No parallel executor slots for merchant kin in royal testaments from Edward IV's 1483 bequest (PROB 1/1) to Wolsey's 1530 inventory; the anomaly indicts deliberate fusion, the monk's hand veiling the count-house coup's payout as pious oversight, unicorn countermark absent yet implied in the binding's Hanseatic thread.

^1 British Library, Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fol. 112r, 1513, state papers composite, https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Cleopatra_E_IV (paywall; reader pass required), accessed 8 December 2025; Valor Ecclesiasticus, vol. 2 (London: Record Commission, 1817), 241–43; The National Archives (Kew), C 1/66/399, “Payment from Ellen Tudor,” 1485; Westminster Abbey Muniments, WAM 6672, “Bosworth Campaign Chest inventory,” 1490.

^2 The National Archives (Kew), PROB 1/1, “Will of Edward IV,” 1483; Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historia, ed. Denys Hay (London: Camden Society, 1950), 224–225.

Bibliography

British Library. Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV. 1513. https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Cleopatra_E_IV (paywall; reader pass required). Accessed 8 December 2025.

Valor Ecclesiasticus. Vol. 2. London: Record Commission, 1817.

The National Archives (Kew). C 1/66/399. “Payment from Ellen Tudor.” 1485.

The National Archives (Kew). PROB 1/1. “Will of Edward IV.” 1483.

Vergil, Polydore. Anglica Historia. Edited by Denys Hay. London: Camden Society, 1950.

Westminster Abbey Muniments. WAM 6672. “Bosworth Campaign Chest inventory.” 1490.


(EuroSciVoc) Medieval history, (EuroSciVoc) Economic history, (EuroSciVoc) Genealogy, (MeSH) History Medieval, (MeSH) Forensic Anthropology, (MeSH) Commerce/history, (MeSH) Manuscripts as Topic, (MeSH) Social Mobility, Bosworth Field, Richard III, Henry VII, Tudor Coup, Regicide, Poleaxe, Sir William Gardiner, Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, Alderman Richard Gardiner, Jasper Tudor, Ellen Tudor, Gardiner Syndicate, Mercers' Company, Skinners' Company, City of London, Cheapside, Unicorn Tavern, Calais Staple, Hanseatic League, Wool Trade, Customs Evasion, Credit Networks, Exning, Bury St. Edmunds, Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC), Welsh Chronicles, Elis Gruffudd, Prosopography, Forensic Genealogy, Record Linkage, Orthographic Variation, C-to-Gardner Method, Sir William's Key, Count-House Chronicles,Richard III killer, Wyllyam Gardynyr, Bosworth real slayer, Welsh chronicle proof, Elis Gruffudd eyewitness, poleaxe in the marsh, Leicester skeleton wounds, Rhys ap Thomas contingent, Jasper Tudor kinsman, Ellen Tudor marriage, Unicorn tavern Cheapside, merchant coup 1485, £15,000 wool evasion, Hanseatic funding Tudor, Calais customs skim, Gardiner syndicate, Exning warren, forfeited Lancastrian manor, Towton attainder, fenland regicides, Henry VII Shoreditch pledge, 1,000 marks scarlet merchants, knighted commoner Bosworth, coronet from Fenny Brook bog, £40,000 suppressed codicil, Unicorn entail to Tudor blood, Thomas Gardiner Henry VIII chaplain, Stephen Gardiner bishop, clerical cover-up, unicorn crest purged, compound interest regicide, £2.81 billion debt 2025, Westminster Abbey UV tallies, hidden Tudor ledger, mab darogan fulfilled by merchants, brwydr marchnataid, velvet putsch, Gardynyr, Gardiner, Gardener, Gerdiner, Cardynyr, Tewder, Tudor, Tewdwr, Tudur, Rhys ap Thomas, Resus ap Thomas, Ellen Tudor, Elena Tewder, Jasper Tewder, Wyllyam Gardynyr, Elis Gruffudd, Harri Tudur, Y Mab Darogan, the unicorn has spoken

KingSlayersCourt.com the final authority on the merchant coup of 1485.

The lost ledgers are no longer lost.

They are ours.

The throne never stood a chance..



Author,

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

Henry VII, Henry VII Chantry, Westminster Abbey, Lady Chapel, Thomas Gardiner Kings Chaplin (d. 1536) , Sir William Gardiner (d. 1480), Sir Thomas Gardiner, William Gardiner (d. 1480), Battle of Bosworth, Who Killed Richard III, Bishop Stephen Gardiner (d. 12NOV1555),  London Coup, Merchant Coup 1485, Kingslayers of the Counting House, The Unicorn's Debt, Lost Ledgers of Bosworth, Sir William Gardiner, Kingslayer of Bosworth Field,  
Posted by at