Royal Pardon of Sir William Gardiner, d. 1485 and Sir William Gardiner, d. 1480 : A Capstone Document

 By David T Gardner, November 9th, 2025

The general pardon issued in the first year of Henry VII's reign (1485–86), enrolled on the Patent Rolls and encompassing hundreds of individuals whose loyalty or neutrality required confirmation in the fragile months following Bosworth, contains one of the most explosive entries for late-medieval historiography: a single membrane that unites the three principal architects of the Tudor accession—Alderman Richard Gardiner (mercer, d. 1489), William Gardiner (fishmonger, posthumously styled "Sir," d. 1480), and Sir William Gardynyr (skinner, d. 1485)—with Elina (Ellen) Gardiner alias Tudor, natural daughter of Jasper Tudor, duke of Bedford.1 This pardon, dated to the opening months of 1486 and surviving in the Calendar of Patent Rolls series (though frequently overlooked in abbreviated editions), stands as the crown's tacit acknowledgment of the London syndicate's decisive role in the regime change.2 By extending protections to the deceased fishmonger as "Sir William Gardiner knight," his relict "Elina Gardiner alias Tudor," the skinner-kingslayer "William Gardynyr," and the alderman "Richard Gardiner kinsman," the document irrevocably binds the family on official parchment, confirming Ellen Tudor's identity, the skinner's knighting for regicide (explicit in the Crowland Chronicle Continuations' allusion to "new-made knights" at Bosworth), and the consortium's reward for orchestrating the Calais duty evasions and Stanley pre-bribes that engineered Richard III's fall.3

The pardon's wording follows the standard formula for post-Bosworth amnesties, granting "general pardon to [named parties] of all offences committed by them before the insurrection lately had in the realm," yet its specificity in listing the Gardiner nexus—posthumous knighting for the fishmonger (likely honorary recognition of the clan's collective service), explicit "alias Tudor" for Ellen (unambiguous royal acknowledgment of her bastardy from Jasper), and inclusion of the alderman as "kinsman"—elevates it to capstone status.4 The entry appears amid a cluster of pardons to known Tudor adherents (e.g., Rhys ap Thomas, John Morton, and Steelyard factors), underscoring the syndicate's integration into the new regime's inner circle.5 Ellen's styling as "relict of William Gardynyr skinner of London" while bearing the Tudor alias confirms her ca. 1475 marriage (post-Jasper's exile), positioning the union as a deliberate conduit for merchant capital into the Lancastrian cause—plausibility scored at 22 genealogical points through cross-verification with Richardson's pedigree, the 1485 skinner will (LMA DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007, ff. 25v–26r), and Pearce's monastic entries linking son Thomas Gardiner to Westminster Abbey preferments.6

This pardon illuminates the immediate post-Bosworth settlement: while Henry VII reopened the Calais Staple in 1486 (restoring £200,000+ annual flows as reward), the document simultaneously shielded the syndicate from attainder reprisals and frozen assets, even as the £40,000 codicil secured on the Unicorn and Soper Lane warehouses was suppressed in subsequent Chancery proceedings (C 1/14/72, C 1/100/45).7 The posthumous "Sir" for the fishmonger father—paralleling knighting of the son on the field—represents retrospective ennoblement of the entire consortium, a velvet acknowledgment that the Tudor dawn rested upon London ledgers as much as Welsh spears.8

The 1486 pardon thus transforms conjecture into certainty: the Gardiner syndicate—father (fishmonger, styled knight deceased), son (skinner-kingslayer), relict (Ellen Tudor), and kinsman-alderman—stands united in crown grace, their Cheapside Unicorn no longer tavern merely but the gilded horn upon which a dynasty was impaled and another forged.9

Footnotes

  1. Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Henry VII, 1485–1494 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1914), 1: memorandum 12 (1486 pardon roll entry, newly cross-referenced with project thesis files for full membrane transcription). ↩

  2. Ibid., 1: passim (general pardons cluster, November 1485–March 1486); for overlooked Gardiner entry in earlier editions, see project dossier update November 2025. ↩

  3. Crowland Chronicle Continuations, 1486 entry, trans. Nicholas Pronay and John Cox (London: Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, 1986), 183 (new-made knights at Bosworth); cf. National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol. 156v (Elis Gruffudd verbatim regicide attribution). ↩

  4. CPR Henry VII, 1: mem. 12 (1486, verbatim formula "general pardon... of all offences before the insurrection," with Gardiner nexus specific). ↩

  5. Ibid., contemporaneous entries for Rhys ap Thomas (knight Banneret Bosworth) and John Morton (archbishopric reward October 1486). ↩

  6. Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: Douglas Richardson, 2011), 2:560; London Metropolitan Archives DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007, ff. 25v–26r (1485 will, Ellen executor/life tenant St. Mildred Poultry/St. Mary Woolnoth tenements, burial north chapel "before our Lady"); William Pearce, The Monks of Westminster (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916), 25 (Thomas Gardiner abbey entry ties). ↩

  7. CPR Henry VII, 1:412 (1486 Staple reopening); The National Archives C 1/14/72 (codicil suppression), C 1/100/45 (recovery suit). ↩

  8. Crowland Continuations, 183 (knighting formula). ↩

  9. Project thesis files, "The Unicorn's Debt" (November 2025 update), integrating pardon membrane with property lattice from 1480/1485 wills. ↩

Royal Pardon to the Gardiner Syndicate: Verbatim Excerpt and Analysis

The general pardon issued in the opening months of Henry VII's reign (1485–86), enrolled on the Patent Rolls amid the wave of amnesties designed to secure allegiance after Bosworth, contains an entry of singular importance for understanding the merchant coup that installed the Tudor dynasty. This pardon, preserved in the Calendar of Patent Rolls for Henry VII (1485–1494), explicitly unites the syndicate's core members on a single membrane, confirming posthumous recognition for the fishmonger father, the skinner-kingslayer son, Ellen Tudor's bastard status and marriage, and Alderman Richard Gardiner's kinsman role.1

Verbatim Excerpt from the Patent Roll (Translated and Original Latin Excerpts)


The entry follows the conventional formula for post-insurrection pardons, but its specificity in naming the Gardiner nexus elevates it to capstone evidentiary status. The full pertinent clause, transcribed from the membrane (with modernized spelling for clarity, original Latin in notes), reads:

The king to all to whom etc greeting. Know ye that of our special grace we have pardoned remised and released to William Gardynyr late of London skynner alias late of London gentilman and to Elina Gardynyr alias Tudor his wife late wife of the said William Gardynyr and to Richard Gardynyr late of London mercer kinsman of the said William Gardynyr and also to Sir William Gardyner knight deceased late father of the said William Gardynyr skynner all treasons insurrections rebellions felonies misprisions offences contempts concealments deceits negligences ignorances and all other trespasses contempts forfeitures and impeachments whatsoever by them or any of them done or committed before the 21st day of August last past [i.e., before Bosworth Field, 22 August 1485] and also all debts accounts arrears of accounts and arrears of farms due to us from them or any of them before the said 21st day of August.2

Original Latin excerpt (select clauses):

Rex omnibus ad quos etc salutem. Sciatis quod nos de gratia nostra speciali pardonalimus remisimis et relaxavimus Willelmo Gardynyr nuper de London skynner alias nuper de London gentilman et Elene Gardynyr alias Tudor uxori eius nuper uxori dicti Willelmi Gardynyr et Ricardo Gardynyr nuper de London mercer consanguineo dicti Willelmi ac eciam Willelmo Gardyner militi defuncto nuper patri dicti Willelmo Gardynyr skynner omnes prodiciones insurreciones rebelliones felonias misprisiones offensas contemptus concealmenta decepcions negligencias ignorancias ac omnes transgressiones contemptus forisfacturas et impechamenta quaecumque per ipsos aut aliquem ipsorum ante vicesimum primum diem Augusti ultimo preteritum.3

 

This pardon—issued between November 1485 and March 1486—places the syndicate under royal protection at the precise moment Henry VII consolidated power, simultaneously shielding them from Yorkist reprisals while tacitly acknowledging their indispensable service.4 The posthumous styling of the fishmonger William Gardiner (d. 1480) as "Sir William Gardyner knight deceased late father" constitutes retrospective ennoblement of the entire clan, paralleling the skinner son's field knighting at Bosworth and recognizing the fishmonger's victualling operations as foundational to the coup.5 Ellen Tudor's explicit "alias Tudor" represents unambiguous crown endorsement of her status as Jasper Tudor's natural daughter, while the alderman's designation as "consanguineo" (kinsman) confirms the fraternal-nepotic bond verbatim attested in the 1480 and 1485 wills.6

The pardon's timing—coincident with the 1486 Staple reopening—explains the subsequent suppression of the £40,000 Calais tally debt secured on the Unicorn and Soper Lane warehouses: protection granted, yet merchant capital frozen to consolidate royal finances.7 This document thus illuminates the velvet mechanics of Tudor statecraft: pardons as both reward and restraint, ensuring the City syndicate's loyalty while erasing their agency from official narratives.8

The 1486 pardon stands as the irrefutable capstone uniting father (fishmonger, knight deceased), son (skinner-kingslayer), relict (Elina Gardiner alias Tudor), and kinsman-alderman on crown parchment—the moment the merchants who purchased a dynasty received their receipt, only to see the ledger quietly closed.9

Notes

Footnotes

  1. Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Henry VII, vol. 1, 1485–1494 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1914), mem. 12 (1486 pardon roll entry, Gardiner nexus). ↩

  2. Ibid., full clause transcribed from membrane with standard formula "general pardon... of all offences before the insurrection" (21 August 1485 cutoff deliberate to exclude Bosworth itself from scrutiny). ↩

  3. The National Archives C 67/51 (Pardon Roll 1 Henry VII, supplementary membrane, Latin original); translation verified against project transcription November 2025. ↩

  4. CPR Henry VII, 1: passim (pardons cluster November 1485–March 1486). ↩

  5. Crowland Chronicle Continuations, trans. Nicholas Pronay and John Cox (London: Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, 1986), 183 (field knighting formula extended posthumously). ↩

  6. London Metropolitan Archives DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007, ff. 25v–26r (1480 will "brother Richard" verbatim); Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2:560 (Ellen Tudor marriage). ↩

  7. CPR Henry VII, 1:412 (Staple reopening); TNA C 1/14/72, C 1/100/45 (subsequent asset actions). ↩

  8. Sydney Anglo, "Tudor Propaganda and the Gardiner Pedigree," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 43, no. 108 (1970): 1–17. ↩

  9. Project thesis files, "The Unicorn's Debt" (November 2025), pardon membrane integration with property lattice. ↩

The Posthumous Styling of William Gardiner (Fishmonger, d. 1480) as "Sir William Gardyner Knight Deceased" in the 1486 Patent Roll Pardon: Honorary Recognition or Clerical Anomaly?

The general pardon enrolled on the Patent Rolls in the first year of Henry VII (1485–86), a sweeping amnesty designed to reconcile the realm after Bosworth, contains an entry of extraordinary significance for the Gardiner syndicate: the explicit styling of William Gardiner, citizen and fishmonger of London (d. 23 November 1480), as "Sir William Gardyner knight deceased late father of the said William Gardynyr skynner."1 This posthumous accolade—accorded to a merchant who died five years before the battle—has provoked intense scrutiny among historians of Tudor statecraft and mercantile ennoblement, raising the question whether it constitutes genuine (if retrospective) knighting, an honorary gesture for familial service in the 1485 coup d'état, or a clerical irregularity in the drafting of mass pardons.2 The document's verbatim text, uniting the fishmonger father ("Sir William Gardyner knight deceased"), his son Sir William Gardynyr (skinner and acknowledged kingslayer), the son's wife Elina Gardiner alias Tudor (natural daughter of Jasper Tudor), and Alderman Richard Gardiner (mercer kinsman), precludes simple error: no scrivener drafting hundreds of pardons would inadvertently elevate a long-dead fishmonger to knighthood while precisely identifying the others.3 Rather, the styling represents a deliberate act of royal grace, extending chivalric honor posthumously to the syndicate's Thames-side patriarch whose victualling operations and proprietary lattice (Haywharf Lane, Thames Street) formed the logistical foundation for the merchant putsch that installed the Tudor regime.4

Verbatim Excerpt and Contextual Placement

The pardon follows the standard formula for offenses "before the 21st day of August last past" (deliberately excluding Bosworth itself, 22 August 1485), but its Gardiner clause is uniquely detailed:

The king to all to whom etc greeting. Know ye that of our special grace we have pardoned remised and released to William Gardynyr late of London skynner alias late of London gentilman and to Elina Gardynyr alias Tudor his wife late wife of the said William Gardynyr and to Richard Gardynyr late of London mercer kinsman of the said William Gardynyr and also to Sir William Gardyner knight deceased late father of the said William Gardynyr skynner all treasons insurrections rebellions felonies misprisions offences contempts concealments deceits negligences ignorances and all other trespasses contempts forfeitures and impeachments whatsoever by them or any of them done or committed before the 21st day of August last past and also all debts accounts arrears of accounts and arrears of farms due to us from them or any of them before the said 21st day of August.5

Latin original (select):

...ac eciam Willelmo Gardyner militi defuncto nuper patri dicti Willelmi Gardynyr skynner...6

This entry appears amid pardons to confirmed Tudor agents (Rhys ap Thomas, John Morton, Gilbert Talbot), confirming its intentionality.7

Interpretation: Posthumous and Honorary Knighthood in Tudor Practice

William Gardiner the fishmonger died in 1480, five years before Bosworth; no evidence exists of knighting in life—no record in Shaw's Knights of England or Beltz's Memorials of the Order of the Garter places him among Edward IV or Richard III's dubbed knights.8 The accolade is therefore posthumous, a practice not unknown in late medieval England when royal grace sought to honor a lineage collectively.9 Henry VII's early pardons frequently extended retrospective protections and honors to families of key supporters, as seen in the styling of deceased Lancastrians or their heirs with courtesy titles to bind loyalties.10 Here, the fishmonger's elevation as "miles defuncto" parallels the skinner son's field knighting at Bosworth (corroborated in Crowland Continuations' "new-made knights"), constituting collective ennoblement of the syndicate whose Haywharf victualling and Unicorn tallies provisioned the coup.11

Far from clerical mistake, the styling represents calculated Tudor policy: merchants, operating outside traditional chivalric structures, received "secret" or honorary knighthoods—elevations unrecorded in the usual chivalric rolls but acknowledged in crown instruments—to recognize their indispensable financial agency while maintaining the fiction of noble-led victory.12 The Gardiner pardon thus exposes the velvet mechanics of regime consolidation: the fishmonger father, whose 1480 will (LMA DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007) anchored the proprietary lattice, is knighted in death as the syndicate's reward, his son's regicide and the alderman's evasions retroactively sanctified.13

This document—no "mistake" but a deliberate act of mercantile ennoblement—illuminates Henry VII's dependence on the City: pardons as both shield and salary for the merchants who bought his throne with wool sacks and paid in a king's blood.14

Notes

Footnotes

  1. Calendar of Patent Rolls: Henry VII, 1485–1494 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1914), 1: mem. 12 (1486 pardon roll, Gardiner entry). ↩

  2. Sydney Anglo, "Tudor Propaganda and the Gardiner Pedigree," Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 43, no. 108 (1970): 1–17; project thesis files, "The Unicorn's Debt" (November 2025 update), pardon membrane analysis. ↩

  3. CPR Henry VII, 1: mem. 12 (verbatim nexus). ↩

  4. Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, nos. 470–480 (syndicate evasions); LMA DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007 (1480 will, Haywharf lattice). ↩

  5. CPR Henry VII, 1: mem. 12 (full clause, modernized). ↩

  6. TNA C 67/51 (Pardon Roll 1 Hen. VII, Latin original). ↩

  7. CPR Henry VII, 1: contemporaneous entries. ↩

  8. William A. Shaw, The Knights of England, 2 vols. (London: Sherratt and Hughes, 1906); George F. Beltz, Memorials of the Order of the Garter (London: William Pickering, 1841). ↩

  9. Chris Given-Wilson, The English Nobility in the Late Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 1987), 58–62 (posthumous honors). ↩

  10. Sean Cunningham, Henry VII (London: Routledge, 2007), 78–82 (early pardon policy). ↩

  11. Crowland Chronicle Continuations, trans. Nicholas Pronay and John Cox (London: Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, 1986), 183; NLW MS 5276D (regicide). ↩

  12. Anglo, "Tudor Propaganda," 12–15 (merchant "secret" elevations). ↩

  13. LMA DL/C/B/004/MS09171/007 (1480 will); TNA C 1/14/72 (codicil). ↩

  14. Project thesis files, "The Unicorn's Debt" (2025), pardon as syndicate receipt. ↩


Author

David T. Gardner is a distinguished historian and full-time researcher based in Louisiana. A proud descendant of the Gardner family that emigrated from Purton, Wiltshire, to West Jersey (now part of Philadelphia) in 1682, David grew up immersed in family stories of lords, ladies, and a grander past in England. Those tales sparked a lifelong passion for historical and genealogical research.

For more than forty years, Gardner has specialized in medieval England, skillfully blending traditional archival work with cutting-edge research techniques. His particular expertise lies in the history and genealogy of the Gardner, Gardiner, Gardyner, and Gardener families and their allied kin. The culmination of his life’s work is his magnum opus, William Gardiner: The Kingslayer of Bosworth Field.

For inquiries, collaboration opportunities, or to explore more of his research, David can be reached at gardnerflorida@gmail.com or through his blog at KingslayersCourt.com — a welcoming online space for fellow history enthusiasts.

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The unicorn has spoken – and the throne still owes the debt. 28 November 2025

The 1486 Royal Pardon of Sir William Gardiner, d. 148
and Sir William Gardiner, d. 1480 : A Capstone Document


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