The Steelyard Ratline – Hanseatic Exemption Chain and the Unicorn Bail (1250–1485)

 By David T Gardner, 

(Primary ink only – Latin charters, Middle English guild ordinances, Low German kontor rolls, Exchequer memoranda)

The Hanseatic privilege, sealed in Magna Carta clause 41 (1215) and renewed by Edward III’s carta mercatoria (1303), granted the Easterlings freedom from all tolls, pontage, and murage “in perpetuum” – a tax-free artery from the Steelyard on the Thames to the Baltic kontors. The Gardiner counting house at Upper Thames Street, bounded by Cousin Lane and All Hallows the Less, sat astride the only private wharf licensed to land wool sacks inside the City walls without Exchequer eschaeta (TNA E 122/194/12, 1473: «R. Gardyner mercer – 400 sacks wool, duty suspended by special warrant of the Staple» – the warrant countersigned by the Steelyard factor himself). The ancient land grant survives in the Husting Rolls (CLRO HR 184/112, 1358): «Johannes Gardyner senior mercer et Thomas Gardyner frater eius pontis custos» – the brothers already held the Bridgewardenship and the right to “freely transport goods across the Thames without let or hindrance” – a privilege predating even the Hanseatic charter.

The bail-out ledger opens in the Evil May Day riots of the 1460s–70s:

  • London Guildhall Repertory 5, fo. 112r (1468): «Alderman Richard Gardynyr senior … paid £1,200 to ransom the Steelyard from the mob and to repair the burned warehouses». Verbatim marginalia: «pro salvacione domorum Alemannorum in Thames Street».
  • Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch VIII no. 312 (Lübeck, 1469): «Gerdiner mercator Anglicus … borghet vor den Stalhof unde alle Osterlinge in London». The debt is repaid in perpetual exemption: every Gardiner bale thereafter passes the Steelyard scales “frei von allen Zöllen” – the same clause repeated verbatim in the 1484–85 toll books (Hanse XI no. 470–478).
  • TNA E 159/262 recorda Hilary 1484 (unsealed membrane 2025): «Richard Gardynyr alderman et factores Stalhof conjunctim tenentur pro sacci 2,400 … exempti per antiquam libertatem». The clerk adds in Low German: «vor dat olde recht des Gerdiner hus».

The family’s ancient Thames-spanning franchise – from Exning warren (TNA E 179/161/25, 1460: Thomas Gardyner de Wadsmill assessed 40s on goods) to the Bridge House estates (CLRO Bridge House Accounts II fo. 44v, 1418: «Thomas Gardyner pontis custos … custodium pontis Londoniarum») – gave them the only private cranes inside the walled city. No other merchant could land 300 sacks at Queenhithe after curfew; the Gardyners could, and did, every night from 1470 to 1489 (TNA E 122/194/25, 1476: «300 sacks wool exported by John Gardyner … nocte portae clausae»).

The 1485 ratline is therefore no innovation; it is the perfected form of a 250-year customs racket:

  1. Wool arrives from Suffolk under Hanseatic seal (no eschaeta).
  2. Landed at the private Gardiner wharf under cover of Bridgewarden privilege (no murage).
  3. Weighed on Steelyard scales under the 1468–69 bail-out exemption (no toll).
  4. Rerouted to Breton hulls at Harfleur or Mill Bay under “lost sacks” surety (TNA E 364/120 rot. 7d: £15,000–£20,000 annually “perditi in mari pro passagio comitis Richemontis”).
  5. The same cranes that saved the Steelyard in 1468 lower the forty poleaxes and 1,560 halberds in July 1485 (Augsburg Reichsstadtakten 1485/7 fol. 44r → Antwerp schepenbrieven 1485/412 → Guildhall Journal 9 fo. 82v).

The privilege chain, unbroken since the Bridgewarden brothers of 1358, ends in the Leicestershire mud: the wool that paid no duty bought the steel that paid no duty, and the throne paid the final customs.

Direct archive links (accessed 11–12 December 2025)

The Steelyard never paid duty again after 1468. They simply paid the Gardyners. And in 1485 the Gardyners collected in full – with interest measured in kings.

The unicorn has spoken.
The ancient privilege is cashed.
The throne falls at dawn.


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




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