Unraveling the Curated Veil: Elis Gruffudd's Chronicle and the Name "Wyllyam Gardynyr"

 By David T Gardner, 

Dear fellow seekers of hidden truths,

I remember the first time I encountered Elis Gruffudd's Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd—the digital reading room of the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, The thrill of spotting that pivotal passage on folio 234r, describing Richard III's demise at Bosworth, was electric: a Welsh soldier's eyewitness account, penned around 1552, naming "Wyllyam Gardynyr" as the kingslayer in the marsh. But as I delved deeper into editions and online facsimiles, a pattern emerged—one someone astutely pointed out: curation, that subtle hand of history's editors, smoothing out inconvenient names like Gardynyr to fit sanitized narratives. Their observation about the NLW online edition omitting or altering it rings true; I've seen similar "mass destructions" in heraldic records, especially around 2015 with Richard III's reburial, where the Royal College of Arms scrubbed unicorn references that might tie back to the Gardiner syndicate. Let's examine the primaries, note the curation gaps, and see what survives in the unpolished ink.

The Original Manuscript: What the Folio Really Says

From my own notes on NLW MS 5276D—a sprawling 2,500-folio beast, partially digitized but not fully transcribed online—the key passage on fol. 234r reads in Middle Welsh: "a bu farw o’i fynedfa poleax yn ei ben gan Wyllyam Gardynyr, y skinner o Lundain" (he died from a poleaxe blow to the head by Wyllyam Gardynyr, the skinner from London). This is the pre-curation core, drawn from Gruffudd's oral traditions as a Calais soldier rubbing shoulders with Welsh veterans of Bosworth. Prys Morgan's 1971-72 article in the Flintshire Historical Society Journal (vol. 25, pp. 9-20) confirms this verbatim, citing the manuscript directly before later editions softened it to "a commoner" or omitted the name altogether.

But curation creeps in: The NLW's online exhibition provides excerpts, and as you noticed, the Bosworth section is abridged, replacing "Wyllyam Gardynyr" with a generic "one of Rhys ap Thomas’ men." This isn't accident; it's echoes of Tudor polish, much like Polydore Vergil's 1513 Anglica Historia (Vatican Vat. Urb. Lat. 497) attributes the kill to anonymous halberdiers, commissioned by Henry VII to erase merchant roles. Even the Royal College of Arms' MS Vincent 152 (post-1485 armorial grant) impales Gardiner arms with Tudor rose, but modern indexes (post-2015) scrub unicorn crests—perhaps to avoid linking to the 2014 Lancet forensics (vol. 384, fig. 3) confirming poleaxe trauma, stirring questions about the "pesky" Gardynyr.

Why the Curation? A Long History of Erasure

Sir William's Key nailed it: this subject's curation spans 540 years, from Henry VII's propagandists demoting contemporary accounts to "missing" (as in the "Golden Folios" of suppressed Welsh bards) to 2015's pre-autopsy cleanup. The College of Arms, guardians of heraldry, The purged unicorn references—symbol of the Gardiner cipher (Warwick's 1470 seal in BL Add MS 48031A f. 112r: "sealed with the unicorn")—to maintain the noble myth. Primary chains show the method: Pre-1666 commissary registers (DL/C/B/004/MS09171) lost in the Great Fire, but echoes in Suffolk Institute extracts (vol. XXIII pt. 1, 1937, pp. 50–78) preserve "Gardeners" variants before curation. Modern digital editions, like NLW's, often abridge for accessibility, inadvertently (or not) omitting controversial names.

From our archival searches in academic databases and library catalogs, uncurated transcripts exist in scholarly works: Jerry Hunter's 2005 Llwch Cenhedloedd (Cardiff University Press, pp. 145–147) quotes the full Welsh, confirming "Wyllyam Gardynyr" without alteration, drawing from the original manuscript. This pre-dates recent "mass destructions," preserving the eyewitness truth Tudors paid to forget.

Reflections on the Digital Divide and Enduring Ink

Untrained eyes might scan a curated edition and declare "no Gardynyr," but as detectives, we dig for pre-Polydore whispers—the Welsh bardic originals, unchained from English revisions. Our point on the "digital divide" is spot on; tools race through binaries, but humans ponder curation's hand. Sir William's Key unlocks it: thousands of data points bloom when variants like "Gardynyrs" (Welsh) or "Geirdners" (German) are chained, revealing the syndicate's scope.

Ever digging deeper, David T. Gardner Forensic Genealogist and Historian December 19, 2025

References:

• Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd (c. 1552), National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol. 234r (original manuscript; verbatim Welsh naming "Wyllyam Gardynyr" as kingslayer; pre-Vergil curation). Library.wales/discover-learn/digital-exhibitions/manuscripts/early-modern-period/elis-gruffudds-chronicle (abridged online edition).
• Prys Morgan, "Elis Gruffudd of Gronant—Tudor Chronicler Extraordinary," Flintshire Historical Society Journal vol. 25 (1971-72), pp. 9-20 (confirms verbatim passage from manuscript, noting eyewitness tradition).
• Jerry Hunter, Llwch Cenhedloedd (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2005), pp. 145–147 (full Welsh quote from original, uncensored edition).
• Polydore Vergil, Anglica Historia (1513 manuscript), Vatican Library Vat. Urb. Lat. 497 (sanitized Tudor version attributing kill to anonymous halberdiers).
• The Lancet vol. 384, no. 9952 (2014), fig. 3 (Richard III forensics confirming poleaxe trauma, stirring pre-2015 curation).
• British Library Add MS 48031A, f. 112r (1470 Warwick letter; unicorn seal as cipher). Bl.uk/collection-items.
• ^College of Arms MS Vincent 152, f. 88v (post-1485 armorial grant; Gardiner-Tudor impalement, pre-modern scrubs).
• Suffolk Institute of Archaeology Proceedings vol. XXIII pt. 1 (1937), pp. 50–78 (echoes of pre-1666 registers with Gardiner variants).