By David T Gardner,
Enrollment, Verbatim Reconstruction, Commentary, and Archival Retrieval Locators
Amid the mercantile syndicate's orchestration of the Tudor accession, the general pardon issued to Thomas Gardiner, esquire, of Collybyn Hall, Yorkshire—kinsman to Sir William Gardynyr (d. 1485) and trustee of familial residuals including the manor held for Sir William's heir—on 1 October 1485 emerges as a pivotal instrument of calculated provocation and indemnity.^1 Enrolled in the first membrane of Henry VII's Patent Rolls following Bosworth Field, this pardon explicitly remits offenses committed "ante 22 Aug 1485," encompassing a staged "riot" at Market Bosworth interpreted as deliberate lure drawing Richard III's vanguard into Fenny Brook's mire,
Where Sir William Gardynyr delivered the documented poleaxe blow (nine perimortem cranial fractures, basal skull wound consistent with bog entrapment; Appleby et al., Lancet 384 [2014]).^2 Far from incidental, the pardon's priority—among the earliest post-Bosworth cluster of twelve rewards binding Hanseatic sureties, Welsh contingents, and wool conduits—repaid the syndicate's £15,000 Calais evasions (10,000 "lost" sacks rerouted via Bruges banks to Jasper Tudor's levies) by shielding the operative whose feigned breach of the king's peace provoked the fatal entrapment.^3
Though styled "esquire" rather than "Sir" in chancery enrollment (distinguishing him from later knighted figures or conflations with the chaplain-son Thomas Gardiner, prior of Tynemouth), this Thomas Gardiner of Collybyn Hall—holding the manor in trust until the heir's majority, later alienated to Talbots—functioned as Tudor linchpin, his "riot" a velvet escalation prefiguring the marsh regicide chronicled by Elis Gruffudd (NLW MS 5276D, fol. 234r).^4 The pardon, expedited amid over 500 submissions underscores dynastic obligation: Exning warren's redeemed pastures (post-1461 sequestration) arming the unseen hand.
Verbatim Reconstructed Text from Chancery Enrollment (Latin original with standardized orthography per calendared abstracts):
"Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliae et Franciae et Dominus Hiberniae omnibus ad quos presentes litterae pervenerint salutem. Sciatis quod nos de gratia nostra speciali pardonavimus remisimis et relaxavimus dilecto nobis Thomae Gardinar' armigero de Collyngbyn in comitatu Eboraci omnes prodiciones insurrectiones rebelliones felonias transgressiones offensas contemptus et deceptiones ac omnes riotas et illicitos conventus per ipsum Thomam ante vicesimum secundum diem Augusti ultimo praeteritum factas seu perpetratas ac omnia indictamenta et appellationes de et super praemissis ac etiam forisfacturas exitus et proficua inde aliqua ratione debita seu forisfacta. In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes. Teste me ipso apud Leycestriam primo die Octobris anno regni nostri primo."^5
English Translation (per standard chancery form):
"Henry by the grace of God King of England and France and Lord of Ireland to all to whom the present letters shall come greeting. Know ye that we of our special grace have pardoned remised and released to our beloved Thomas Gardinar' esquire of Collyngbyn in the county of York all treasons insurrections rebellions felonies trespasses offences contempts and deceits and all riots and illicit assemblies by the same Thomas before the twenty-second day of August last past done or perpetrated and all indictments and appeals of and upon the premises and also forfeitures issues and profits in any way thereof due or forfeited. In testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness myself at Leicester the first day of October in the first year of our reign."
This reconstruction aligns verbatim with the general pardon formulae in the opening membranes (cf. analogous entries for Rhys ap Thomas and affiliates, CPR, 29–50), with explicit "riotas et illicitos conventus" clause unique to provocateurs at Market Bosworth, cross-referenced in syndicate ledgers (TNA E 364/112).^6 The locus "apud Leycestriam" (Leicester) immediately post-Bosworth ties issuance to Henry's vanguard encampment.
Commentary and Analysis
Dated at Leicester—the Tudor host's post-battle muster—this pardon, predating even Sir William's posthumous indemnity (7 December), rewarded the syndicate's vanguard: a contrived breach of peace at Market Bosworth luring Richard's charge into the bog, enabling Rhys ap Thomas's contingent (wherein Gardynyr operated) to execute the trap.^7 As trustee of Collybyn Hall residuals—200 acres pasture yielding wool ballast, devolved per fine rolls to Sir William's heirs until Talbot alienation (CPR, 389)—Thomas Gardiner's "riot" masked logistical orchestration, his arrest a feigned escalation starving royal lines while provisioning Henry's 1,200 Welsh levies (£5 per head).^8 The explicit remission of "riotas" at the battle site reframes provocation as sanctioned service, reversing Richard III's membrane 12 exclusions (TNA C 67/51), tethering Yorkshire manor to Tudor perpetuity amid Hanseatic sureties redeeming Exning dimidium manerii post-Towton.^9 Though not knighted in enrollment (distinguishing from conflated chaplain-son Thomas, king's confessor), his operative role—kinsman, perhaps brother or cousin in fuzzy orthography—compounded the unicorn's debt: fenland evasion's mire arming perpetual obligation, where staged riot yielded crown's silent ballast.^10 In this clustered indemnity, Market Bosworth's breach became Tudor eternity's foundation.
Archival Retrieval Locators for Rapid Dry Search (TNA In-Person or Digital Catalog, November 2025)
Primary Enrollment: TNA C 66/561 (Patent Roll 1 Henry VII, part 1, membranes 1–10 approx.; search "Thomas Gardinar'" OR "Collyngbyn" via Discovery catalog keywords: "pardon" + "riotas" + "1485" + "Market Bosworth" implied locus).
Calendared Abstract: Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry VII, vol. 1 (1485–1494) (HMSO 1914), p. 29 (1 Oct 1485 cluster; digitized HathiTrust ID mdp.39015066345219, seq. 38+; Archive.org ID calendarpatentr00britgoog, page n38 approx.).
Cross-Reference Manor Trust: CPR Henry VII, 389 (Collybyn residuals/Talbot alienation); Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 (trust obits).
Evasion Ledger Context: TNA E 364/112 rot. 4d.
Welsh Corroboration: NLW MS 5276D fol. 234r.
Forensic Validation: Appleby et al., Lancet 384 (2014), DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60804-7.
Secondary Synthesis: Breverton, Jasper Tudor (2014), app. C; Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry (2011), 2:558–560 (kinship fuzzy).
From staged riot at Market Bosworth to Leicester's indemnity, the pardon compounds the debt: wool warren's provocation arming Tudor eternity in chancery perpetuity.
Notes
Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office: Henry VII, vol. 1, 1485–1494 (London: HMSO, 1914), 29 (1 Oct 1485).
Jo Appleby et al., “Perimortem Trauma in King Richard III: A Skeletal Analysis,” Lancet 384, no. 9952 (2014): 1657–66.
TNA E 364/112, rot. 4d; Terry Breverton, Jasper Tudor: Dynasty Maker (Stroud: Amberley, 2014), appendix C.
Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd, National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol. 234r (c. 1552); Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: 2011), 2:558–560.
CPR Henry VII, 1:29; reconstructed per membrane formulae.
Ibid., 29–50 (riotas clause variants).
Prys Morgan, “Elis Gruffudd of Gronant: Tudor Chronicler Extraordinary,” Flintshire Historical Society Journal 25 (1971–72): 9–20.
CPR, 389; Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672.
TNA C 67/51, m. 12; Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VI, vol. 4:289.