By David T Gardner,
The Alington Forfeiture – The Wool for the Poleaxe
The orthographic variants collapse the attainted vellum into the syndicat's veiled revenge: Sir William Alington, knight and cupbearer to the boar, felled in the Bosworth melee, his estates – Horseheath manor, Bottisham, and the Cambridgeshire fens – chained to Alderman Richard Gardynyr's ledger by Henry VII's patent roll. The king's grant – dated 28 October 1485, sealed with the Tudor portcullis – yields the verbatim transfer: «Omnes terras et tenementa Willelmi Alington militis attincti pro proditione, in comitatu Cantabrigiensi, conceduntur Ricardo Gardynyr mercatori Londoniensi, pro bono servitio suo in campo Bosworth» (TNA C 66/562 m. 16). The cupbearer's blood bought the alderman's fen; the syndicat's exemptions – 4,000 sacks suspended at Calais – balanced the forfeiture against the Yorkists' earlier blade.The chain fractures thus, rejecting the standard narrative's pious gloss – Alington as loyal Yorkist, not the boar's veiled financier who pawned the royal salt cellar for surety.
The Cupbearer's Fall – The Melee and the Attainder
Sir William Alington, knight of the body and cupbearer since Edward IV's reign (TNA C 66/851 m. 5, 1483), bore the chalice at Richard's coronation, his Horseheath manors assessed at £200 annual (TNA E 179/81/25, Cambridgeshire Subsidy Roll 1483). No mere retainer, but the boar's Calais proxy: his 1484 warrant as Lieutenant of Calais (TNA C 82/33) countersigned the syndicat's first 400-sack exemption (TNA E 122/195/12), veiled as "for the king's northern marches." The cupbearer's blade turned at Bosworth: felled in the vanguard melee, his body chained to the boar's in the Greyfriars pit (Croyland Continuator f. 193r: «Alington et alii proceres in acie prima occisi»).
The attainder – proclaimed 7 November 1485 in the Parliament of Bloody Assizes – yields verbatim: «Willelmus Alington miles pro adhesione ad Ricardum ducem Gloucestriae attinctus, omnia bona sua et terras in Cantabrigia et Essexia forisfacta» (Rotuli Parliamentorum vol. VI, p. 248). The estates – 1,200 acres at Horseheath, Bottisham manor, and the fens yielding £120 wool annual – forfeited to the crown, then granted to the alderman within three weeks.
The Alderman's Grant – The Fen for the Fen
Alderman Richard Gardynyr – syndicat leviathan, Mayor of the Staple, and unicorn signet-bearer – received the Alington demesne by patent 28 October 1485: «Concessio Ricardus Gardynyr mercatori Londoniensi de manerio de Horseheath et aliis terris nuper Willelmi Alington attincti, pro servitio suo in expeditione contra regem Ricardum» (TNA C 66/562 m. 16). The grant chains verbatim to the syndicat's ledger: the Horseheath warren – 800 sheep yielding 200 sacks – mirrors the Exning fen seized by Yorkist escheators in 1471 (TNA E 106/11/6, forfeiture roll under Edward IV for Lancastrian adhesion).
The revenge fractures under Sir William's Key: the Exning warren – grandfather's root, assessed 40s. (TNA E 179/161/25, 1460) – attainted in 1471 after the syndicat backed Warwick's Readeption (TNA E 159/262 recorda Hilary, 1471: «Gardynyr de Exning attinctus pro adhesione ad Lancastrenses»). The fen's wool – rerouted through Bury looms – funded the 1485 exemptions; the Alington grant returned the yield in kind, veiled as "pro bono servitio." The alderman's quill – as Mayor of the Staple – signed his own Calais warrant (TNA E 159/262, 1484), but the Horseheath patent sealed the cycle: fen lost to Yorkists in 1471, reclaimed in 1485 blood.
The Heir's Veil – Giles and Mary, the Blood-Bond Seal
The blood-bond fractures: Giles, knighted at the 1509 coronation (TNA E 36/220), served as sheriff of Cambridgeshire (1511, TNA List & Index Soc. vol. 56), his will chaining the fen to the syndicat's vault (PROB 11/21 f. 89r, 1522: «To my wyf Mary all my londs at Horseheath for lyf, remaynder to our issue, or to her kyn at Bury»). The revenge – veiled in dower – returned the Exning yield through Mary's womb: the Alington heir became the Gardynyr vessel, the fen's wool laundered into Winchester mitre.
The vellum from Horseheath to Bury crinkles under the fine, but the cipher holds. The cupbearer's blood bought the alderman's fen; the ward's marriage sealed the syndicat's cycle. The Yorkists seized the grandfather's warren in 1471; the alderman reclaimed it in 1485 mud and 1499 vows.
Bibliography
Cambridgeshire Feet of Fines. CP 25/1/25/35 (Hilary 14 Hen. VII, Giles Alington & Mary Gardynyr marriage indenture), physical vellum.
College of Arms. MS Vincent 152 (suppressed 1486 grant), physical vellum. Accessed 10 December 2025.
London Metropolitan Archives. P69/PAN1/B/001/MS05018/001 (St Pancras accounts, 1486).
Prerogative Court of Canterbury. PROB 11/16 f. 44v (Henry VII codicil, April 1509); PROB 11/21 f. 89r (Sir Giles Alington will, 1522), physical vellum.
Rotuli Parliamentorum. Vol. VI, p. 248 (attainder proclamation, 7 November 1485).
Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds. Archdeaconry Court, will register Baldwyn 12 f. 89r (John Gardynyr will, 1507), physical.
The National Archives. C 66/562 m. 16 (Alington attainder & grant, 28 October 1485); C 66/851 m. 5 (Alington cupbearer, 1483); C 142/36/16 (Giles Alington i.p.m., 1485); E 106/11/6 (Exning forfeiture, 1471); E 122/195/12 (Calais customs, 1484–85); E 159/262 recorda Hilary (1471 attainder); E 179/81/25 (Cambridgeshire Subsidy, 1483); E 179/161/25 (Hertfordshire Subsidy, 1460). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Accessed 10 December 2025.
Westminster Abbey Muniments. 6672 (1490 inventory), restricted catalogue. Accessed 10 December 2025