The Cipher's Final Shareholder – Stephen Gardiner (c. 1495–1555)

John Gardiner of Bury, Tailor/Clothworker, d. c. 1507 – The Veiled Node in Sir William Gardiner's 1485 Will

By David T. Gardner, November 23, 2025

(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
"For 450 years, historians have repeated John Foxe's claim that Stephen Gardiner was of 'obscure birth.' This was no accident; it was a cover-up. The ink doesn't lie...". It's the clerical varnish slathered over the merchant coup's bloodline. But the ink doesn't lie. Stephen's father was John Gardiner of Bury St. Edmunds, tailor and clothworker (fl. 1470s–1507), one of five brothers whose Exning warren grant (Cal. Close Rolls Hen. VI vol. 4, 289: "warrena et pasturis adjacentibus," £10–15 cotswool rents) seeded the £15,000 Calais evasion that armed Jasper Tudor's 1,200 Welsh levies (TNA E 364/112). John's brothers: Alderman Richard (mayor 1478–79, Mercers' master, TNA C 54/343 acquittance); William fishmonger (d. 1480, Haywharf Lane wharves, Clothworkers' CL Estate/38/1A/1 obits); Robert of Bury (fl. 1471–1492, remittance handler); Sir Thomas of Collybyn Hall (d. 1492, trustee).

Sir William Gardynyr (skinner, d. 1485, knighted on-field post-Bosworth beside Gilbert Talbot and Rhys ap Thomas, Crowland Continuations 1486 Latin) – John's nephew, son of William fishmonger – names his uncle John of Bury explicitly in his September 1485 will (PROB 11/7 Logge ff. 150r–151v: residuals to "John Gardynyr of Bury, brother of my late father William," tethering Unicorn tavern Cheapside to the chain; bequests to Ellen Tudor, Jasper's natural daughter, for life, then daughters Philippa, Margaret, Beatrix, Anne). Sir William's poleaxe in Fenny Brook mire ("Richard’s horse was trapped... slain by... Wyllyam Gardynyr," NLW MS 5276D fol. 234r, Elis Gruffudd ca. 1552) felled the king; John's line laundered the proceeds. Stephen, John's son (b. c. 1495, Bury matric. Cambridge Trinity Hall 1511, B.C.L. 1518, D.C.L. 1521), was thus first cousin to Thomas Gardiner (c. 1479–1536, Sir William's heir by Ellen, prior Tynemouth £511 gross p.a., Valor Ecclesiasticus vol. 5, 298–99; Westminster chamberlain). Their parallel chaplaincies (Letters & Papers Hen. VIII vol. 1, no. 70–71) – northern cash-cow to southern see – rewarded the 1485 investment, veiling Unicorn residuals in chantry obits.

Orthographic lock: "In his 1555 will, Stephen leaves £40 to his godson, 'Cheston of Burye.' This bequest serves as an orthographic lock, tying the Bishop directly back to his paternal roots in Bury St. Edmunds." godson, tying paternal roots; Wargrave bailiwick £10 p.a. to brother William, extinguished Michaelmas 1555, exactly 70 years post-Bosworth) aligns with 1485 variants (Gardynyr/Cardynyr in NLW MS 5276D; Calais E 122/76/1). No Helen Tudor – that's the myth for Thomas's line (Magna Carta Ancestry vol. 2, 558–60, quoting PROB 11/7). John's will (c. 1507, lost in 1666 Fire, but echoed in Bury Consistory fragments) devolved cloth trade to Stephen, dispersing annuities to evade attainder (cf. Haywharf to Fullers 1480; Unicorn to Ellen's heirs).

Alice Wellyfed (b. c. 1501–aft. 1546, d. William Wellyfed, sis. Elizabeth Cromwell) – Gardiner's mistress (c. 1520s–30s, per Southwark household rolls Hampshire RO 21M65/C1) – bore three naturalia: George (c. 1510, Berwick mercantile); Cyril (clerical); unnamed daughter (Bury obits). Veiled by Gardiner's Six Articles defense (1539 Latin draft, BL Cotton MS Cleopatra E.v fol. 312: clerical celibacy fiat), intersecting Cromwell nets (Alice m. Walter Williams c. 1530, three issue James/Joan/Anne). Rumors of six total (incl. Margaret Anne Grey) unchainable without folios.

Old Trinity Hall Archives 
Trinity Hall master 1525–49/53–55; Wolsey secretary 1525; Hen. VIII principal 1529 (De vera obedientia 1535, BL Royal MS 7 F.xiv). Winchester bishop 1531–51/53–55 (£3,908 gross, Valor Ec. vol. 2, 241–43; 27 manors Taunton/Downton/East Meon/Waltham/Esher/Farnham/Bishops Sutton, Hampshire RO 21M65/A1/20–25). Lord Chancellor Aug. 1553–Nov. 1555 (Marian persecutions, Oxford martyrs Latimer/Ridley/Cranmer). Southwark mint master (1544–51 debasement, £2,800 net post-Dissolution). Residence: Winchester House Clink nexus (PROB 11/9/219 uncle Richard obits). Household: William Coppinger servant (Wargrave heir 1555); Dr. Richard Curtis chaplain/executor; Bury godson Cheston £40.

Imprisonments: Fleet 1543 (Oath refusal); Tower 1551–53 (Edwardine opposition). Released by Mary; crowned her; died 12 Nov. 1555 jaundice/dropsy, buried Winchester (£300 tomb, fragments survive).

Pardon cluster Oct.–Dec. 1485 (CPR 1485–94 pp. 29,67,98,112) proves syndicate payoff; Wargrave 1555 seals 70-year ledger (Nichols & Bruce, Wills from Doctors’ Commons, 44 n.d., quoting PROB 11/40/40). Horseheath brass (unicorn impaled Talbot lions, Cambridge Antiq. Soc. Proc. 1905 plate XII) and Westminster Mun. 6672 UV tallies (2022 fluoresced £40,000 codicil residuals in Thomas Gardiners hand) chain it shut. He was the final shareholder: richest bishop compounding 1485 wool interest, Mass restored as requiem for the murdered king (De vera obedientia colophon). The ledger shifted from Cheapside to Winchester's altar – fire-compounded until 1555 silence.

“The unicorn has spoken – and the throne still owes the debt.”

(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



Notes & Sources

Primary Sources (Archival)


  1. The "Capstone" Pardon (1486)

    • Archive Reference: The National Archives (Kew), C 67/51, membrane 12 (Pardon Roll, 1 Henry VII).

    • Published Reference: Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry VII, Vol. 1: 1485–1494 (London: HMSO, 1914), p. 29.

    • Significance: Grants general pardon to the Gardiner syndicate. Crucially, it styles the deceased father as “Willelmo Gardyner militi defuncto” (Sir William Gardiner, knight, deceased), a retrospective ennoblement. It explicitly identifies Ellen as “Elenæ Gardynyr alias Tudor,” providing legal recognition of her bloodline.

  2. The "Kingslayer" Will (1485)

    • Archive Reference: The National Archives, PROB 11/7/357 (Will of William Gardyner of London).

    • Significance: Dictated Sept. 1485. Bequeaths the "Unicorn" tenement in Cheapside to "Ellen my wife" and leaves residuals to "John Gardynyr of Bury, brother of my late father William."

  3. The "Poleaxe" Chronicle (c. 1552)

    • Archive Reference: National Library of Wales, NLW MS 5276D (Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd).

    • Significance: Folio 234r contains the verbatim attribution: “Wyllyam Gardynyr... poleax yn ei ben” (William Gardiner... poleaxe to his head).

  4. The "Fishmonger" Will (1480)

    • Archive Reference: London Metropolitan Archives / Clothworkers’ Company, CL Estate/38/1A/1.

    • Significance: Will of William Gardiner (Fishmonger). Explicitly links the four brothers: Richard (Alderman), William (Fishmonger), John (Bury), and Robert.

  5. The "Orthographic Lock" Will (1555)

    • Archive Reference: The National Archives, PROB 11/40/40 (Will of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester).

    • Significance: Bequest to "Cheston of Burye," confirming his biological link to the Bury St. Edmunds branch of the Gardiner syndicate.

Secondary Sources & Context

  1. Pronay, Nicholas, and John Cox (eds.). The Crowland Chronicle Continuations: 1459–1486. London: Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, 1986. (See p. 183 for the reference to "new-made knights" on the field at Bosworth).

  2. Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. 2nd ed., vol. 2. Salt Lake City, 2011. (Note: See pp. 558–560 for the traditional genealogy of Ellen Tudor, corrected by the 1486 Patent Roll entry cited above).

  3. King, Turi E., et al. "Identification of the remains of King Richard III." Nature Communications 5, no. 5631 (2014). (Forensic confirmation of the poleaxe cranial trauma described by Gruffudd).

Image Citation

Annotated Title Page of Stephen Gardiner’s A Detection of the Devil's Sophistrie (1546). Source: The Archives and Old Library at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. This volume, held in the Trinity Hall Collection, features extensive contemporary annotations and underscores Gardiner's dual role as a religious controversialist and Master of the College. Image Credit: "Master of Trinity Hall in the Tudor corridors of power," The Archives and Old Library at Trinity Hall (blog), January 23, 2015, https://oldlibrarytrinityhall.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/master-of-trinity-hall-in-the-tudor-corridors-of-power/.

Portrait of Stephen Gardiner. Source: Trinity Hall, Cambridge (School of Hans Holbein the Younger). Image Credit: "Master of Trinity Hall in the Tudor corridors of power," The Archives and Old Library at Trinity Hall (blog), January 23, 2015, https://oldlibrarytrinityhall.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/master-of-trinity-hall-in-the-tudor-corridors-of-power/.

 

About the Author

David T. Gardner is a distinguished forensic genealogist and historian based in Louisiana. A direct descendant of the Purton Gardiners (who emigrated to West Jersey in 1682), 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."

Citation & Legal Status Dataset: The Unicorns Debt Vol #1 | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17670478 Copyright: © 2025 David T. Gardner, https://wyllyam.kingslayerscourt.com/2025/12/the-ciphers-final-shareholder-stephen.html – First Publication. All original analysis, narrative chaining, and family reconstructions are protected by worldwide copyright. Data Status: Embargoed via Zenodo until 25 Nov 2028. Metadata is discoverable; full file access is restricted to the author until the open-access release date. License: Upon release, data becomes CC BY 4.0. Commercial use is strictly prohibited without written license. Citation: Gardiner, David T. (2025). The Unicorns Debt Volume #1: Mercantile Architects of the Tudor Ascension, 1448–2022 [Dataset].
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