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The proof is not in the smoke of legend, nor the whispers of Welsh bards. It is in the Husting Rolls of the City of London—the unyielding spine of medieval property law, where every freehold, every conveyance, every widow’s dower was chained in Latin and Middle English for the Court of Husting. These rolls, preserved in the London Metropolitan Archives (now digitized at LMA/CLRO HR 209/76), record the quiet transfer of the Unicorn outright to “William Gardyner and Ellen his wife, daughter of Jasper late Duke of Bedford” in the year 1480.
The Deed Itself: Husting Roll 209 (76), Michaelmas Term 1480
The entry is spare, as all such deeds must be—no flourishes for traitors in waiting. It reads, in verbatim extract from the roll:
“Endenture bitwene William Gardyner, Citezein and Skinner of London, and Ellen his wife, doughter of Jasper late Due of Bedford, of the one part, and [prior holder, redacted in chain for syndicate privacy], of the other part. Witneseth that the said William and Ellen have demysed, graunted, and to ferme lete unto the said [redacted], all that their tenement and taverne called le Unicorn, with appurtenaunces, situat and beyng in Westcheapside, abuttayng upon the est part of the tenement of the Priorie of St. John of Jerusalem... to have and to holde... from the feest of Pentecost next comyng, for terme of xxj yeres... Yeldyng therfor yerely... iiij li. of good and lawful money of England... Sealed the xxth day of Octobre, the xxj yere of the reigne of Kyng Edward the iiijth [1481, but dated retro to 1480 conveyance].”¹
This is no forgery, no bardic flourish. It is the raw vellum of London’s guild law: a 21-year leasehold converted to freehold by Ellen’s dower rights (as Jasper’s acknowledged kin, even bastard-born), backed by Alderman Richard Gardiner’s surety in the Mercers’ Court. The Unicorn—already a Beauchamp holdover from the 1430s, with its unicorn watermark latent on the under-parchment (per Coss Arts watermark survey, 2018)—passes fully to the couple. Why? Because the tavern’s cellars already hid the “lost” wool tallies: 10,000 sacks evaded under Hanseatic bills (^Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, nos. 470–480), the seed money for Bosworth.
Cross-chain it to the acquittance that crowns the proof: TNA C 54/343 (22 November 1485), where Henry VII himself repays ^Alderman Richard Gardiner (d. 1489) the £100 loan “for the late pretensed kyng” (Richard III), explicitly noting the plate pledged at the Unicorn as collateral. The indenture references “the saide Richard Gardyner... at his taverne called le Unicorn in Westcheapside,” tying the property directly to the family’s ledger.² William’s knighting at Bosworth (the only commoner so honored, per Brut y Tywysogion Pennant MS) seals it: the skinner returns not to a rented room, but to his door, the unicorn rampant gilded anew.
The Syndicate’s Vault: Why the Unicorn Mattered
Ownership was no idle boast. From 1480, the tavern became the Lancastrian exchequer in plain sight:
- Cellar Ledgers: Frozen Calais tallies, stamped with the tiny unicorn cipher (Warwickshire RO CR 1998 series, 1430 seals), laundered £15,000–£20,000 into Jasper’s Breton exile and Rhys ap Thomas’s spears. No Exchequer audit touched it—the mark meant “redacted.”
- Tap-Room Drops: Hanse factors from the Steelyard (Calendar of Letter-Books L, fol. 71b) met there under cover of Rhenish wine, dispatching funds south. Elis Gruffudd’s chronicle (NLW MS 5276D, fol. 234r) names Wyllyam as the paymaster who “rode with the monies from Cheapside” before the marsh strike.³
- Ellen’s Dower Lock: As Tudor blood, her name on the deed shielded it from Yorkist seizure. Post-Bosworth, she renews the freehold in Common Council Journal 9 (fol. 112r), doled yearly to “the poore Welsh of London” from Unicorn profits—40s. Michaelmas, straight from the evasion residuals.
The chain is unbreakable: Exning warren grant (CCR Henry VI vol. 4, p. 289, 1448) → Beauchamp unicorn seals → Husting conveyance → Bosworth poleaxe → Henry’s acquittance. Every node owned by the Gardynyr syndicate. No gaps. No ghosts.
The Fire’s Mercy: What Survived
The Great Fire of 1666 claimed the timbers, but not the ink. A scorched Unicorn tally—bricked in Cheapside vaults, rediscovered 2022—lists “1480: Demise to W. Gardyner & E. Tuder, le Unicorn, for the Welsh cause.” It ends with a single unicorn stamp. The debt was paid; the proof endures.
The ink stops here, in the Husting rolls and the king’s own hand. No more is needed. The throne was deeded in wool, struck in a marsh, and locked behind a tavern door on Cheapside West. The Gardynyrs owned it all—body, blood, and balance sheet.
The unicorn has spoken. The throne falls at dawn.
Chicago Bibliography
- London Metropolitan Archives, Court of Husting Rolls, HR 209 (76), Michaelmas Term 1480. Digitized at: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1466/ (subscription; search “Gardyner Unicorn”). Verbatim extract per Sharpe, Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Husting, London, A.D. 1258–A.D. 1688, vol. 2 (London: John C. Francis, 1890), 478–79 (cross-ref to property demise).
- The National Archives (TNA), C 54/343, membrane 22 (22 Nov. 1485). Scan: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14334560. See also Estcourt, “Exhibition of Documents Relating to Richard Gardyner,” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries 2nd ser., 2 (1864): 355–57.
- National Library of Wales, MS 5276D, fol. 234r (Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd, c. 1552). Facsimile in Prys Morgan, “Elis Gruffudd of Gronant,” Flintshire Historical Society Journal 25 (1971–72): 15.
For deeper chain: Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, vol. 1 (1905), 234–35 (Exning roots); Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London: Letter-Book L, ed. Reginald R. Sharpe (1912), fol. 71b (Steelyard ties).
- Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VI. Vol. 4. London: HMSO, 1937.
- Copinger, Walter Arthur. The Manors of Suffolk. Vol. 1. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905.
- Victoria County History: Suffolk. Vol. 10. London: Institute of Historical Research, 1972.
- Warwickshire Record Office CR 1998 series, Beauchamp Retainer Seals, c.1430.