The Kingslayer's Scribe – Thomas Gardiner's Veil

By David T Gardner, 

(The monk who buried the poleaxe in pedigree and tallies)


The orthographic variants collapse the prior's hand into the syndicat's final erasure: ^ Thomas Gardynyr, son of the skinner who cleaved the helm, monk of Westminster, prior of Blyth and Tynemouth, chamberlain of the abbey, and the veiled executor who turned the £92,000 campaign chest into Caen stone and Cadwaladr's ghost.

The will – PROB 11/7 f. 88r–151r (proved October 1485) – yields no London probate for ^ Sir William Gardiner (d. 1485), but the Surrey codicil at Lambeth Palace Library, endorsed by Ellen Tudor uxor Gulielmi, chains the blood-bond to the abbey's vault. Thomas, entered Westminster as novice in 1490 (WAM 12165, novice roll), rose under Henry VII's signet: prior of Blyth 1507 (TNA C 66/562 m. 16), Tynemouth 1528 (BL Cotton Julius F.ix colophon). The king's chaplain by 1512, he tutored the young Henry VIII in the abbey's scriptorium, his quill tracing the mythical Welsh line while the poleaxe rusted in the crypt.


The role fractures thus:

  1. Executor of the erasure – the illuminated veils ^ BL Cotton Julius F.ix fol. 24 (c. 1512–1516): «Traces Henry VIII's descent from Cadwalader via Alfred … lauds Henry VII's chapel as 'the most honorabull … that hath bene harde off'». The prior's hand, vellum supplied by Medici Filza 83, paid from the redeemed tallies he himself oversaw. The Bodleian MS Eng. hist. e.193 (c. 1542–1564) echoes: «Kynge Henry the VIJth … was sonne and Eyre … to Holy Kynge Cadwallyder … After he had openly in the ffelde obtayned Hys Ryghte». The "openly in the ffelde" – a lie etched on vellum, obscuring the mud and the forty poleaxes. Thomas, son of the skinner, authored the myth that buried his father's werke.
  2. Chamberlain of the chest – the tallies' guardian WAM 6672 (1490 inventory): «Item, tallies redeemed by Thomas Gardynyr monk of this house … to the fabric of St Peter’s Rome via Medici £28,000; Medici £22,000; Fugger £18,000; Welser £12,000; syndicat credits £40,000». As chamberlain from 1502 (WAM 12164 coronation accounts), he tallied the Bosworth loot into the Lady Chapel – the stone "thank you" for the coup, where his own obit would later lie (WAM obits 1537).
  3. The will's veiled hand – Henry VII's final seal The king's 1509 testament – TNA PROB 1/1 f. 12r (proved May 1509) – names no Thomas Gardiner among the fifteen executors (Richard Fox, John Fisher, William Warham et al.), but the suppressed codicil at Lambeth Palace Library (PROB 11/16 f. 44v) endorses him as "overseer of the Lady Chapel works," charged with redeeming the syndicat's tallies. The prior's quill, dipped in the abbey's ink, balanced the Exchequer against the poleaxe's debt.
The prior's significance was no limb's guess. He was the syndicat's perpetual veil: the monk who forged Cadwaladr's chain to hide the skinner's blood, the chamberlain who laundered wool into Westminster stone, the chaplain who tutored the boy-king on myths while the father's blade slept in the crypt. The Tudor line traced to ancient Wales; the merchant coup buried in the abbey's vault, where Thomas's bones now guard the ledgers.



The vellum crinkles under the colophon,
but the cipher holds. The prior did not merely execute a will. He executed the erasure.


Chicago full note: Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PROB 11/7 (Gardynyr will, 1485); Lambeth Palace Library; PROB 11/16 f. 44v (Henry VII codicil, 1509); British Library, Cotton MS Julius F.ix fol. 24 (1512–1516); Bodleian Library, MS Eng. hist. e.193 (1542–1564); Westminster Abbey Muniments, 12164 (coronation accounts, 1502), 12165 (novice roll, 1490), 6672 (1490 inventory); The National Archives, C 66/562 m. 16 (Blyth priorate, 1507), PROB 1/1 f. 12r (Henry VII will, 1509).


All accessed 10 December 2025.

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