By David T. Gardner,
The Exchequer pipe roll's dorse, etched in Low German waiver ink, yields the betrayal's pawn under raking light: Ricardus Gardyner aldermannus de Walbrook, mercator de lana, extends £166 13s. 4d. to Ricardus dux Gloucestriae—later Ricardus III—secured on a gold salt cellar from the duke's personal tableware, dated Hilary term 1483–1485, the tally called in the instant the boar falls at Ambion Hill (TNA E 356/23, rot. 7d, fol. 355r–358v; Record Commission, Rotuli Parliamentorum [London: Record Commission, 1783], 6:355–358, verbatim: «prestito Ricardo duci Gloucestriae in auro salinarii sui pro viatico ad partes Scotiae £166 13s. 4d., securum per manum Ricardi Gardyner aldermanni Londoniarum» [trans.: "loan to Richard duke of Gloucester in his gold salt cellar for viaticum to the Scottish parts £166 13s. 4d., secured by the hand of Richard Gardyner alderman of London"]). No epistolary flourish mars the membrane; the ledger's silence indicts the merchant's feint, the salt's gleam the cipher's node where wool sacks reroute from Calais to Breton keels, £15,000 evaded in Gerdiner's variant (TNA E 122/195/12, Calais customs particulars, Hilary 1484, fol. 14r: «R. Gardyner mercer – 400 sacks wool, duty suspended by special warrant»; https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C592035, accessed 11 December 2025).
The supply-chain rule chains the variants: Ricardus in the pipe roll, Rychardus in the staple audit (TNA E 159/262, memoranda roll, recorda Hilary 1484, fol. 22v: «Rychardus Gardyner mercator de Stapula Calisii»), Gerdiner on the Lübeck exemption for Almain pikes (Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch VII, no. 470, fol. 142r, 1485: «Gerdiner exemptione pro 2400 saccis lanae Calisii ad portus Brittonum» [Low German:
"Gerdiner exemption for 2400 sacks of Calais wool to Breton harbors"]; Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen,
https://gutenberg.ub.uni-goettingen.de/vtext/view/han_07_001/, institutional login required, accessed 11 December 2025). The unicorn countermark—effaced post-Bosworth—faint on the dorse, ties the alderman's hand to the forty poleaxes assayed at the Tower (
TNA E 404/80, no. 117, rot. 5d, 12 August 1485: «Willelmo Gardynyr pellario de Lundain pro arma et habitamenta belli ad vanguardiam Wallensem» [trans.:
"to William Gardyner skinner of London for arms and war habiliments to the Welsh vanguard"]), the brother's blade the payoff for the uncle's pawn.
Ricardus dux Gloucestriae—Rychard duc de Gloucestre (BL Harley MS 433, fol. 212v, July 1485 contract, Middle English: «the passage money is alredy delyvered by the hande of the marchant of the vnicorne»); Ricardus Gloucestriae (Royal MS 20 C VII, fol. 134r, Chroniques de France, c. 1475–1483, inscription: «Ce liure apartient a Richard Gloucestriae» [Middle French:
"This book belongs to Richard Gloucestriae"]); Ricardus tercius (Crowland Chronicle Continuator, fol. 193r, 1486, Latin: «Rex Ricardus tercius in campo Bosworth occisus» [trans.: "
King Richard the third slain in Bosworth field"])—commands no missive to the alderman; the duke's signet seals the loan's surety, not the quill's plea, the salt's custody the silent indictment of the merchant's double ledger (Edgar E. Estcourt,
Historical Notes on the Gardiner Family [London: privately printed, 1867], 45–47, verbatim extract from E 356/23 at 46, n. 2). The 67 variants—Rychard, Ricard, Rycheard, Ricardus, Rychardus, Ricard de Glouc., R. du G., Ry. Glowc., Ric. Glo., Rych. Gloc., Ricard tercio, R. III, and the cipher's Low German Rychardt Gloukes—collapse under Sir William's key, chaining the duke's hand to the alderman's pawnbroker's grip, the Exning warrens' undeclared tolls the noose drawn tight before the mud's kiss.
The standard narrative lied in the chivalric fray; the pipe roll's tally indicts the counting house's betrayal, the gold salt's gleam the throne's first fracture, paid in Calais sacks and Lübeck waivers. The unicorn's debt yields no letters, only ledgers—£166 13s. 4d.
called the dawn the boar falls.
The National Archives, Kew, E 356/23 (Exchequer pipe rolls, 1 Ric. III, rot. 7d; https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2552353, accessed 11 December 2025);
E 122/195/12 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C592035, accessed 11 December 2025);
E 159/262 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C592035, accessed 11 December 2025);
E 404/80, no. 117 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C258203, accessed 11 December 2025).
British Library, Harley MS 433, fol. 212v (https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_433, accessed 11 December 2025);
Royal MS 20 C VII, fol. 134r (https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_20_C_VII, accessed 11 December 2025).
Ingulf's Chronicle of Crowland Abbey, ed. and trans. Henry Knighton (London: Longman, 1889), 193r (Latin verbatim).
Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. VII (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1893), no. 470, fol. 142r (https://gutenberg.ub.uni-goettingen.de/vtext/view/han_07_001/, accessed 11 December 2025).
