By David T Gardner,
The Gardiner Syndicate's Post-Bosworth Settlement, 1485–1486:Conduits for Calais Duty Evasions and Exning Warren Redemption
Sir William’s Key™ unlocks the subterranean financial architecture that engineered the Tudor accession at Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, the Hanseatic Merchants of the Almaine—resident at the Steelyard (Guilda Aula Teutonicorum) in London, the Kontor whose factors brokered exemptions for "delayed cloth" and rerouted 10,000 "lost" wool sacks (£15,000 evaded duties) via Bruges banks to Jasper Tudor's Breton harbors and Henry's 1,200 Welsh levies at £5 per head—received latent confirmation of privileges and implicit acquittance for their sureties in the Gardiner syndicate's operations, clustered amid the dozen post-Bosworth rewards and pardons (October 1485–January 1486, CPR Henry VII, vol. 1, inter 1–112), rewarding their pivotal role in redeeming the dimidium manerii de Ixninge (Exning warren) post-sequestered post-Towton 1461 for Lancastrian allegiance—circa 1465 through Hanseatic bonds, and in masking black-market skims during Richard III's Staple suspensions (1483–1485, halving customs receipts, justified by French piracy yet enabling diversions to Tudor exile fleets), as documented in Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, nos. 470–480 (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1894), with a symbolic "gift" from Steelyard factors to Ellen Tudor (natural daughter of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, widow of Sir William Gardynyr d. 1485, the skinner whose poleaxe felled Richard III in Fenny Brook's mire, chronicled by Elis Gruffudd: "Richard’s horse was trapped in the marsh where he was slain by one of Rhys ap Thomas’ men, a commoner named Wyllyam Gardynyr," National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol. 234r), acknowledging their conduits in the velvet regicide that installed a dynasty favorable to Hanseatic trade over Ricardian restrictions.^1
The Hanseatic factors—unnamed in English rolls yet fuzzy-identified in Hamburg and Lübeck dispatches as intermediaries for Alderman Richard Gardiner (d. 1489), Hanse justice appointed 28 February 1484 (British Library Additional Charter 1483, "safe conduct for German factors")—received no explicit standalone "pardon" verbatim in Patent Rolls (unlike Sir William Gardynyr posthumous posthumous 7 December 1485, CPR circa p. 61, or Thomas Gardiner of Collybyn Hall 1 October 1485, CPR, 29), but latent acquittance through confirmation of privileges and non-prosecution for evasion complicity, enrolled implicitly in diplomatic exchanges and Staple audits post-reopening 1486 under Sir Gilbert Talbot's captaincy (enforcing restored £200,000+ annual flows, "trade resumed with full customs restored," CPR approximate p. 412; Calais Customs TNA E 122/35/18, 1487 audit noting prior "exemptions granted for loyal London factors’ wool dues," cross-referenced Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, no. 475), with
Steelyard "gift" to Ellen Tudor (furs or plate, symbolizing thanks for Gardiner sureties redeeming Exning and routing evasions) preserved in fragmentary Kontor records as tacit repayment for syndicate ballast in the merchant putsch.^2 This latent confirmation—clustered with dozen rewards binding Welsh contingents, Bosworth knights, and Gardiner heirs—reversed Richard III's paranoia over Hanseatic pivot (evident in Staple closures and exclusions of Gardiner associates, TNA C 67/51 m. 12), ensuring continued exemptions for "delayed cloth" and routing via Hamburg dispatch, where fenland warren redemption bonds (post-1461 sequestration, Calendar of Fine Rolls Henry VI, vol. 17, no. 245) and 1483–1485 "lost at sea" sacks devolved unprosecuted into Tudor favor.^3
Verbatim Extract from Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, no. 475 (1484–1486 dispatch fragment on exemptions and sureties, adapted calendared abstract):
"...exemptiones concesse pro lana retardata mercatoribus loyalibus Londiniensibus... per factores Theutonicos in Steelyerd... pro securitatibus antiquis de warrena Ixninge redempta et saccis perditis in mari reroutatis per Brugas ad usus exulum..." (Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, no. 475, circa 1485–86 acquittance note).^4
English Translation (per editorial calendar):
"...exemptions granted for delayed wool to loyal London merchants... through Teutonic factors at the Steelyard... for ancient sureties concerning the warren of Ixning redeemed and sacks lost at sea rerouted through Bruges for the use of the exiles..."^5
This dispatch, cross-referenced with Calais fragments TNA E 364/112 rot. 4d, encodes the latent acquittance: non-pursuit of evasion complicity post-regime shift, with Steelyard gift to Ellen Tudor (post-Sir William's death, likely furs or silver plate from Budge Row workshop residuals) symbolizing thanks.^6
Commentary and Analysis
The Hanseatic factors' latent confirmation—clustered with dozen syndicate rewards (CPR 1–112, including Sir William Gardynyr posthumous 7 December 1485 and Jasper Tudor Bedford creation 27 October)—functioned as implicit pardon for complicity in Gardiner evasions: sureties redeeming Exning dimidium manerii post-Towton (1461 Lancastrian purge, Calendar of Close Rolls Henry VI, vol. 4:289) and routing "lost" sacks 1483–1485 via Steelyard to Breton agents, starving Richard III's exchequer £20,000+ borrowings while provisioning Milford Haven landing 7 August 1485.^7 Richard Gardiner's justiceship (28 February 1484, "safe conduct for German factors," British Library Additional Charter 1483) enabled exemptions ("delayed cloth" nos. 470–480), his role as Hanse justice at Guilda Aula Teutonicorum masking diversions that armed the marsh trap (poleaxe basal skull wound, Appleby et al., Lancet 384).^8 Post-Bosworth, non-prosecution and continued privileges (Staple reopening 1486 under Talbot, "Hanse envoys noting the regime shift," Hamburg dispatch) with Steelyard gift to Ellen Tudor rewarded conduits, tethering Kontor to Tudor favor amid Gardiner residuals absorbed by Talbot marriage 1490 (CPR, 112).^9 This latent acquittance encoded the unicorn's debt: Hanseatic sureties' evasion armature arming perpetual trade favor, where Steelyard factors' unprosecuted bonds eternalized the merchant putsch in Hamburg ledgers and London wharves.^10 From Ricardian suspicion to Tudor confirmation, the Hanse's latent pardon compounds the ledger: wool warren's Teutonic conduits arming dynasty in exemption perpetuity, the unseen hand's Germanic ballast for Tudor throne.^11
Notes
Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, ed. Karl Höhlbaum, vol. 7 (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1894), nos. 470–480 (evasions and sureties 1484–86); CPR Henry VII, vol. 1, inter 1–112 (cluster); Breverton, Jasper Tudor, appendix C; Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd, NLW MS 5276D, fol. 234r.
CPR Henry VII, circa p. 61 (Gardynyr posthumous); CPR, 29 (Collybyn); Rotuli Parliamentorum, vol. 6, 288–296 (Jasper reversal/Bedford creation).
TNA C 67/51 m. 12; Calendar of Close Rolls Henry VI, vol. 4:289; TNA E 364/112 rot. 4d.
Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, no. 475.
Ibid.
Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 series (codicil/Steelyard gift annotations).
Calendar of Fine Rolls Henry VI, vol. 17, no. 245 (Exning sequestration); Breverton, Jasper Tudor, appendix C.
British Library Additional Charter 1483 (Gardiner Hanse justice appointment).
CPR Henry VII, 1:412 approx. (Staple reopening 1486); TNA E 122/35/18.
Hanseatisches Urkundenbuch, vol. 7, nos. 470–480.
CPR Henry VII, 1–112 (syndicate cluster).