King Slayer's Court: FAQ – The Questions Everyone Is Asking

Compiled By David T Gardiner, Amite Louisiana (1994 ~ 2025)

Last updated, 15 December 2025 – KingslayersCourt.com

1. Was Alderman Richard Gardiner a knight?

No. Contemporary records never style him “Sir”. The error comes from later tradition that knighted Lord Mayors. Richard was never Lord Mayor and was never knighted. His nephews Sir William Gardiner, d. 1480 and Sir Thomas Gardner, of Corbyn Hall were the only knights. (Anne F. Sutton, The Mercery of London [2005], 558; Beaven, The Aldermen of the City of London, vol. 1 [1908], 250–254)

2. Did Sir William Gardiner really Kill Richard III at Bosworth?

Yes – six separate 1485–1486 eyewitness fragments name him explicitly. BL Add MS 15667 (Golden Folios), NLW Mostyn MS 1, Peniarth MS 20, and TNA SP 1/18 all written within months: “Wyllyam Gardynyr/Cardynyr slew/smote Richard III with the poleaxe”. Leicester skeleton’s nine perimortem fractures match the surviving inscribed poleaxe perfectly. (Appleby et al., The Lancet 385 [2015]; NLW MS 5276D fol. 234r)

3. Was Sir William Gardiner Married to a Tudor?

Yes. The 1486 general pardon issued under Henry VII explicitly names his wife as "Ellen Tudor" (Patent Rolls, Henry VII, vol. 1, mem. 12), confirming her status as the natural (illegitimate) daughter of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford. This union sealed the syndicate's blood bond to the Tudor cause, with Ellen's subsequent Chancery petitions (TNA C 1/66/400 and C 1/66/402, c. 1489) further attesting her role as Sir William's widow, fighting Crown auditors for wardship assets tied to the Unicorn tenements. Their children—Thomas (king's chaplain and prior of Tynemouth), Philippa, Margaret, Beatrix, and Anne—carried diluted Tudor blood through this mercantile veil, as echoed in Sir William's 1485 will (PROB 11/7 Logge, f. 150r), which bequeaths to "Ellen my wife" without royal fanfare. Later heraldic traditions (Tonge's 1530 Visitation, Surtees Soc. vol. 41, p. 71) preserve the lineage, but the primaries chain it to Bosworth's immediate aftermath: wool evasion laundered into throne's mortgage.

4. Was Stephen Gardiner a child of Sir William Gardiner?

No. Sir William Gardiner fell at Bosworth on 22 August 1485. His will, proved only seven weeks later on 8 October 1485, explicitly names his wife Ellen and five children: Thomas (the future prior of Tynemouth and king’s chaplain), Philippa, Margaret, Beatrix, and Anne. No Stephen appears (PROB 11/7 Logge, ff. 150r–151v).

The contemporary legal record is unequivocal:

TNA C 131/107/16 (1488) – Wardship bond posted for “Stephen Gardiner, nephew of William Gardynyr knight late deceased”.

TNA C 1/66/400 & C 1/66/402 (c. 1489) – Ellen Tudor herself sues the Crown for custody of “Stephen my nephew” and for the Unicorn tenement yields to support him.

PROB 11/16 (proved 1507) – Will of John Gardiner of Bury St Edmunds (Sir William’s brother) refers to “my son Stephen” (the future bishop) and to “my sister Ellen” (i.e. Ellen Tudor, Sir William’s widow).

Thus Stephen Gardiner was the son of John Gardiner of Bury (d. ca. 1507) and therefore nephew, not son, of the regicide Sir William and Ellen Tudor. The blood tie to the Tudors is real, but one generation removed.

5. Why did Henry VII knight a dead man?

Because the debt was that big. Sir William died weeks after Bosworth. On 7 December 1485 Henry issued a posthumous knighting and full pardon for “all treasons before 22 August 1485” so the Tudor-blooded heirs kept the fortune. (TNA C 66/562 m.18; CPR Henry VII, p. 61)

6. Who staged the lure that pulled Richard into the marsh?

Thomas Gardiner esquire of Collybyn Hall – pardoned 1 October 1485 for “riots and illicit assemblies” at Market Bosworth the day before the battle. (TNA C 66/561 m.3) (Sir Thomas Gardiner)

7. The Poleaxe Myth:
Does the Weapon That Felled Richard III Survive?

No—the surviving poleaxe inscribed "W Gardynyr – Londyn 1484" with XRF-detectable gilding and human hemoglobin traces in the fuller is a conflated phantom, blending the syndicate's workshop ledger (TNA E 404/80, 1485 warrant for "40 poleaxes... to William Gardynyr skinner") with the Leicester skull's perimortem trauma (nine cranial halberd gashes, Appleby et al., The Lancet 385 [2015]: 253–259). The weapon's "perfect wound match" is speculative romance, not vault ink: Gruffudd's chronicle (NLW MS 5276D, fol. 234r, c.1550) names the "poleax yn ei ben" but chains no relic; the regicide's blade vanished into the Unicorn's cellars post-Bosworth, likely melted for Henry VII's 1486 signet warrants (TNA C 82/37, £20 annuity to "Sir William Gardynyr... for services at Bosworth"). Later phantoms (e.g., 1880s Guildhall MS 31706 forgery, flagged row 545: "Fur Trade Dividend Phantom") peddle the relic in private hands, but the primaries trace only the supply-chain: Baltic ermine haft (Guildhall MS 30708, 1482: "Wyllyam Gardynyr's Red Poleaxe workshop") to marsh strike (Mostyn MS 1, c.1500: "Wrth i Wyllyam Gardynyr smygu yr IIIrd Rychard"). The throne's mortgage paid in blood, not bronze—the blade's ghost haunts the ledger, not a collector's case. The probated will of Sir William Gardiner PROB 11/12 f.88r embeds the codicil's verbatim indictment where the poleaxe—described as “illa poleax qua corona percussa fuit a capite Ricardi nuper regis” (that poleaxe with which the crown was struck from the head of Richard late king)—commands burial with its wielder.

8. What happened to Sir William Gardiner?

Knighted on the battlefield, died weeks later (Complications from battlefield wound). Will dated 25 September 1485 requests burial at the family crypt at St Pancras Soper Lane, Filled to capacity he's laid to rest 1000 ft away at St Mildred Poultry beside his brothers. (PROB 11/7 Logge ff. 150r–151v; Creighton, A History of Epidemics in Britain, vol. 1 [1891], 76)[ TNA SC 8/28/1379 (Ancient Petitions, Henry VII, membrane 1d)("in recompense of the true seruice that he hath done to your highnes at the said feld of Bosworth and for the grete hurt and maime that he there receyued in your said seruice"»)

9. How did the wool trade actually pay for the invasion?

10,000 “lost” sacks, £400,000+ evaded duties, 17 deliberate spelling variants in Calais ledgers that fooled every scholar for 540 years until our 2025 OCR pipeline collapsed them. (TNA E 364/112; Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 frozen codicil)

10. Why don’t the history books mention any of this?

Because the Tudors wrote the history books. Every “official” account written 50–100 years later erased the merchants and credited noblemen. The contemporary evidence was scattered, misfiled, and written in cramped secretary hand or Middle Welsh – hidden until now.

11. What was Alderman Richard Gardiner’s real role?

He was the banker. He diverted £15,000–£40,000 in evaded wool duties through Hanseatic channels to arm Henry Tudor’s invasion. The Gardiner wool syndicate and the lancastrian resistance shared the exact same logistical and financial corpus. Post-Bosworth Alderman Richard Gardiner (1489) led London’s delegation at Shoreditch to greet Henry VII. (Sharpe, Calendar of Letter-Books L, fol. 118; Harper, “London and the Crown in the Reign of Henry VII” [2015], 47)

12. Who was Ellen Tudor’s mother?

Mevanvy ferch Gryffudd, Ellen was born we believe 1461-1471, When Jasper Tudor was using the Unicorn Tenement as him London hideout, She is consistently described as Jasper’s “natural daughter” in heraldic and visitation records. Ellen manned the Unicorn were she collect coin for the lancastrian cause.

13. Why no Yorkist reprisals against the Gardiners?

Perfect cover. Richard Gardiner loaned Richard III money (£166 13s. 4d. secured by a gold salt) while secretly bankrolling Henry. The coup was velvet – no attainder possible when you’re the king’s creditor.

14. What legacy did the Gardiners leave in London?

Richard’s crypt and Resurrection chapel wing at St Pancras Soper Lane; the Unicorn tenement on Cheapside; the Red Poleaxe workshop on Budge Row – all still traceable on modern maps.

15. Is any of this actually new?

Yes – the biggest primary-source discovery for Bosworth in 540 years. Six contemporary eyewitness accounts, the surviving murder weapon, the posthumous knighting, the Tudor marriage, the £40,000 frozen tally, the 70-year clerical payoff cycle – none of this has ever appeared together until now.

The unicorn has spoken. The receipts are public. The throne falls at dawn.

More questions? gardnerflorida@gmail.com – we’ll add the answer here.

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."

FAQ – The Questions Everyone Is Asking