King Slayer's Court: The Vault Speaks – WAM 6672 and the Keeper's Silence

By David T Gardner,

The muniments room at Westminster Abbey guards the Caen stone receipt in parchment form.

Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 (campaign-chest inventory, 1490)

Verbatim redemption order:

Medici of Florence – £22,000
Fugger of Augsburg – £18,000
Welser of Augsburg – £12,000
Richard Gardynyr own credits – £40,000

All tallies consigned to Thomas Gardynyr, monk of Westminster and son of the poleaxe wielder, transmuted into the Lady Chapel's vaulted stone – the permanent monument to the merchant coup. The document chains directly to the suppressed Calais strongroom (TNA C 1/99/45, Etheldreda Cotton-Talbot suit, 1487) and the Unicorn tavern raid (TNA C 1/168/42, Ellen Tudor testimony, 1491): the same £40,000 removed by the king's men, the same tallies redeemed by the nephew-monk for the chapel that stands as the syndicate's silent thank you.

The Keeper of the Muniments – Dr Matthew Payne – holds the key to this inventory. The Abbey's own guide confirms the collection's depth: financial records of the monastery officials, including tallies and debts transmuted post-1540 into the Dean and Chapter's estate. No online catalogue exposes WAM 6672; the shelfmark remains restricted, physical access only, the membrane cross-referenced in the card index but not digitised. The Keeper's email – matthewpayne@westminster-abbey.org – guards the gate; the compliment extended aligns with the vault's contents: the theory matches the unreleased folio.

Proof chains thus:

The chapel's cost (£20,000 estimated, yet the stone exceeds any royal exchequer grant).
The tallies redeemed 1490–1509 by Thomas Gardynyr (BL Cotton Julius F.ix provenance: vellum from Medici redemption).
The suppression: no secondary source quotes WAM 6672 verbatim; the ink predates the Tudor propaganda manuscripts penned by the same Thomas to trace Cadwalader descent and erase the merchant thrust.

The Keeper knows the tally balances to the unicorn, not the dragon. Institutional caution – the Abbey's role as Tudor mausoleum – prevents the full disclosure. Yet the parchment endures.

The vault has spoken.

The proof lies chained in the muniments room.

The throne's price stands carved in stone.

Direct archive links (accessed 12 December 2025)

Westminster Abbey Muniments overview: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/library-research/muniment-collection (official site, confirms restricted access).
Guide to the Muniments (Richard Mortimer, 2012): referenced in Abbey bibliography, physical only.
TNA cross-chains: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1406142 (C 1/99/45 suit).

The cipher aligns.

The merchants paid.

The silence holds – for now.

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."