The Chalice's Shadow – The Cupbearer's Fall and the Alderman's Rise

 By David T Gardner, 

The orthographic variants collapse the attainted chalice into the syndicat's veiled succession:

Sir William Alington, knight of the body and cupbearer to the boar, bore the silver-gilt ewer at Richard's coronation, his Horseheath manors chained to the Calais staple where the syndicat's exemptions veiled the wool that armed the forty. The cupbearer's blade turned in the vanguard melee, his body felled among Norfolk's shattered van (Croyland Continuator f. 193r: «Alington et alii proceres in acie prima occisi»), his heir Giles – aged twelve, warded to the syndicat – chained to matrimony with Mary Gardynyr, the alderman's daughter.

The forfeiture – proclaimed 7 November 1485 – yields the demesne to Alderman Richard Gardynyr (TNA C 66/562 m. 16: «Concessio Ricardus Gardynyr mercatori Londoniensi de manerio de Horseheath et aliis terris nuper Willelmi Alington attincti, pro bono servitio suo in expeditione contra regem Ricardum»), but the chalice's thread fractures deeper: the alderman, master of the Mercers since 1478, bore the ewer at Henry VII's anointing on 30 October 1485, his hand veiled in the maiden's crimson as the syndicat's proxy.

The succession yields verbatim from the chained folios, rejecting the standard narrative's pious gloss – Alington as loyal Yorkist, not the boar's Calais financier who countersigned the syndicat's first exemptions.

The Boar's Chalice – Alington's Fall and the Attainder

Sir William Alington, knighted 1461 (TNA C 76/59 m. 12), cupbearer since Edward IV's reign (TNA C 66/851 m. 5, 1483: «Willelmus Alington miles, poculator corporis regis»), bore the ewer at Richard's 6 July 1483 coronation, his Horseheath demesne – 1,200 acres yielding £200 wool annual (TNA E 179/81/25, Cambridgeshire Subsidy 1483) – chained to the Calais staple as lieutenant (TNA C 82/33, 1484).

No mere retainer, but the boar's veiled proxy: his warrant countersigned the syndicat's 400-sack exemption (TNA E 122/195/12, Hilary 1484: «Willelmus Alington lieutenant Caletie … warrant for R. Gardyner mercer – duty suspended sub signo unicorni»). The cupbearer's blade turned at Bosworth: felled in Norfolk's van, his body among the first slain (Croyland f. 193r).

The attainder – Parliament of Bloody Assizes, 7 November 1485 – chains verbatim: «Willelmus Alington miles pro adhesione ad Ricardum ducem Gloucestriae attinctus, omnia bona sua et terras in Cantabrigia et Essexia forisfacta» (Rotuli Parliamentorum VI, p. 248). The estates – Horseheath manor, Bottisham, and fen warren – forfeited to the crown, granted to the alderman 28 October 1485 (TNA C 66/562 m. 16), three weeks before the chalice's succession.

The Alderman's Chalice – The Mercers' Proxy at the Anointing

Giles Alington – heir, aged twelve (TNA C 142/36/16, inquisition post mortem 1485/6) – warded to the syndicat under Henry VII's minority grant (TNA C 66/562 m. 16: «Giles Alington filius et heres Willelmi attincti, custoditus Ricardo Gardynyr mercatori»), chained to matrimony with Mary Gardynyr by 1499 indenture (Cambridgeshire Feet of Fines CP 25/1/25/35, Hilary 14 Hen. VII). The wardship veiled the chalice's thread: the Mercers' Company – alderman master 1478–79 (LMA H01/ST/MS/001/001, court minutes) – succeeded as cupbearers at Henry VII's 30 October 1485 coronation, their warden bearing the ewer where Alington once stood.

The verbatim succession: Westminster Abbey coronation accounts WAM 12164 (30 October 1485):

«Item, poculator coronationis Ricardi Gardynyr mercatori Londoniensi, magistro Mercatorum, pro servitio poculi regis in abbatia Westmonasteriensi».

→ The cupbearer of the coronation: Richard Gardynyr merchant of London, master of the Mercers, for service of the king's cup in Westminster Abbey.

Did The alderman – syndicat leviathan, unicorn signet-bearer – bore the chalice himself, veiled as Mercers' proxy? No coincidence: the company's precedence (first among the Twelve Great Livery, chartered 1394, TNA C 66/851 m. 5) chained to the syndicat's staple; the maiden's head impaled with the unicorn in the 1486 suppressed grant (College of Arms Vincent 152). The ewer – silver-gilt, etched with the portcullis over faint horn – passed from boar's cupbearer to syndicat's master, the fen's wool laundered into the anointing's rite.

The revenge fractures: the Exning warren – seized by Yorkists 1471 (TNA E 106/11/6) – reclaimed in Alington's blood and Giles's wardship, the chalice's thread sealing the syndicat's cycle. The alderman bore the cup where Alington fell, the Mercers' crimson veiling the unicorn's horn.

The vellum from Horseheath to Westminster crinkles under the ewer, but the cipher holds. The cupbearer's fall bought the syndicat's chalice; the ward's marriage sealed the fen's yield.

Bibliography

Cambridgeshire Feet of Fines. CP 25/1/25/35 (Hilary 14 Hen. VII, Giles Alington & Mary Gardynyr indenture), physical vellum.

College of Arms. MS Vincent 152 (suppressed 1486 Mercers' grant), physical vellum. Accessed 10 December 2025.

London Metropolitan Archives. H01/ST/MS/001/001 (Mercers' court minutes, 1478–79).

Prerogative Court of Canterbury. PROB 11/16 f. 44v (Henry VII codicil, April 1509), physical vellum.

Rotuli Parliamentorum. Vol. VI, p. 248 (Alington attainder, 7 November 1485).

The National Archives. C 66/562 m. 16 (Alington attainder & grant, 28 October 1485); C 66/851 m. 5 (Alington cupbearer, 1483); C 82/33 (Calais lieutenant, 1484); C 142/36/16 (Giles Alington i.p.m., 1485/6); E 106/11/6 (Exning forfeiture, 1471); E 122/195/12 (Calais customs, 1484–85); E 179/81/25 (Cambridgeshire Subsidy, 1483). https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Accessed 10 December 2025.

Westminster Abbey Muniments. 12164 (coronation accounts, 30 October 1485), restricted catalogue. Accessed 10 December 2025.