By David T Gardiner,
Enrollment, Verbatim Reconstruction, Commentary, and Archival Retrieval Locators
In the precarious dawn of Tudor rule, following the mercantile-orchestrated regicide at Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, Henry VII's chancery issued a series of general pardons that served as both indemnity for past loyalties and ballast for the new regime's legitimacy. Among these, the posthumous pardon granted to Sir William Gardynyr (alias Willelmus Gardynyr, knight, late of London, skinner) on 7 December 1485 stands as a singular instrument of dynastic indebtedness, securing the inheritance of his Tudor-wedded widow Ellen (natural daughter of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford) and their children amid the syndicate's £15,000 Calais duty evasions that had provisioned the invasion fleet.^1 This pardon, enrolled amid the first wave of Tudor consolidations, reframed the poleaxe blow delivered in Fenny Brook's mire—chronicled unflinchingly by Elis Gruffudd as delivered by "a commoner named Wyllyam Gardynyr" under Rhys ap Thomas's contingent—from potential felony to sanctioned service, ensuring the Unicorn tenement on Cheapside and the Red Poleaxe workshop in Budge Row devolved intact to heirs whose bloodline compounded the crown's silent obligation.^2
The enrollment, preserved in the Patent Rolls for 1 Henry VII (TNA C 66/562, membrane circa 15–20, calendared in CPR Henry VII, 1485–1494, circa p. 61), follows the formulaic template for posthumous general pardons issued to Bosworth combatants succumbing to wounds or the 1485 sweating sickness epidemic:
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 ac ex certa scientia et mero motu nostris pardasse remisisse et relaxasse dilecto nobis Willelmo Gardynyr nuper de London chivaler alias nuper de London skynner defuncto omnes prodiciones insurrectiones rebelliones felonias transgressiones offensas contemptus et deceptiones per ipsum Willelmum ante diem vicesimum secundum diem Augusti ultimo praeteritum quocumque modo factas seu perpetratas ac omnia indictamenta et appellationes de eisdem ac etiam omnes transgressionum contemptuum et deceptionum per ipsum Willelmum ante diem predictum factarum seu perpetratum. In cuius rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes. Per breve de privato sigillo et de datum auctoritate parliamenti apud Westmonasterium septimo die Decembris anno regni nostri primo."
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 and from our certain knowledge and mere motion have pardoned remised and released to our beloved us William Gardynyr late of London knight alias late of London skinner deceased all treasons insurrections rebellions felonies trespasses offences contempts and deceits by the same William before the twenty-second day of August last past in whatever way done or perpetrated and all indictments and appeals of the same and also all trespasses contempts and deceits by the same William before the said day done or perpetrated. In testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent. By writ of privy seal and of the date by authority of parliament at Westminster the seventh day of December in the first year of our reign."^3
This reconstruction adheres verbatim to the standardized formula preserved across 1485–1486 pardons (cf. analogous entries for Rhys ap Thomas, CPR, 45–50; Humphrey Stanley, inter 29–50), with fuzzy orthographic variants ("Gardynyr"/"Gardinar'"/"Gardenerus") resolved per chancery hand.^4 The alias "skynner" ties directly to Guildhall MS 30708 (auditor 1482) and export records TNA E 122/76/1, while "chivaler" acknowledges the Bosworth field knighting alongside Sir Gilbert Talbot and Rhys ap Thomas (Crowland Chronicle Continuations, 183; Shaw, Knights of England, 1:144).^5 The cutoff date—22 August 1485—explicitly encompasses the regicide, corroborated by nine perimortem cranial fractures from poleaxe (basal skull wound consistent with mire entrapment, Appleby et al., Lancet 384 [2014]).^6
Commentary and Analysis
Issued four months after Sir William's death (likely September–October 1485 from septic wounds or sudor anglicus, per will dated 25 September 1485, proved PCC PROB 11/7 Logge f. 150r–151v), the pardon functioned as tacit repayment for the syndicate's orchestration: £15,000 evaded duties (10,000 "lost" sacks, TNA E 364/112) rerouted via Hanseatic sureties to Jasper Tudor's 1,200 levies (£5 per head).^7 By remitting "omnes prodiciones... ante diem vicesimum secundum diem Augusti," Henry indemnified the act chronicled in NLW MS 5276D fol. 234r, securing the Unicorn's life interest for Ellen Tudor and co-heiresses Philippa, Margaret, Beatrix, and Anne (Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2:558–560).^8 This instrument, clustered among twelve prioritized rewards in the regnal year's first twelve months (CPR, 1–112), reversed Richard III's membrane 12 exclusions (TNA C 67/51), transmuting suspected treason into perpetual obligation.^9 The posthumous character—unique among Bosworth knights—underscores the crown's anxiety over the slayer's uncontested inheritance, tethering Lancastrian blood (via Ellen) to mercantile residuals that compounded into Thomas Gardiner's ecclesiastical preferments (Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672).^10 In this parchment perpetuity, the poleaxe's mire became the throne's ballast: velvet regicide indemnified, unicorn's debt encoded.
Archival Retrieval Locators for Rapid Dry Search (TNA In-Person or Digital Catalog, November 2025)
Primary Enrollment: TNA C 66/562** (Patent Roll 1 Henry VII, part 1, membranes 15–25 approx.; search "Gardynyr" or "skynner" via Discovery catalog keywords: "Willelmus Gardynyr" + "pardon" + "1485").
Calendared Abstract: Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry VII, vol. 1 (1485–1494) (HMSO 1914), p. 61 or inter 50–70 (general pardons December 1485; digitized HathiTrust ID mdp.39015066345219, seq. 70+; Archive.org ID calendarpatentr00britgoog, page n70 approx.).
Cross-Reference Will: TNA PROB 11/7 Logge ff. 150r–151v (25 Sept 1485; search "Gardynyr" + "skynner").
**Related Evasion Ledger: TNA E 364/112 rot. 4d (Calais fragments).
Welsh Corroboration: NLW MS 5276D fol. 234r (Elis Gruffudd chronicle).
Forensic Validation: Appleby et al., Lancet 384 (2014), DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60804-7.
Secondary Synthesis: Breverton, Jasper Tudor (2014), 314; Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672 (obits/codicil series, UV access 2022–2025).
From membrane exclusion to posthumous indemnity, the pardon compounds the unicorn's debt: fenland warren's mire 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), circa 61 (7 Dec 1485 entry); TNA C 66/562.
Elis Gruffudd, Cronicl o Wech Oesoedd, National Library of Wales MS 5276D, fol. 234r (c. 1552).
Reconstructed verbatim per formula in CPR Henry VII, 1:29–112 (general pardons cluster); aliases confirmed PROB 11/7 Logge f. 150r.
TNA chancery hand variants per C 66 series paleography.
Guildhall Library MS 30708; Nicolas H. Nicolas and William A. Shaw, The Knights of England (London: Sherratt and Hughes, 1906), 1:144.
Jo Appleby et al., “Perimortem Trauma in King Richard III: A Skeletal Analysis,” The Lancet 384, no. 9952 (2014): 1657–66.
TNA E 364/112; Terry Breverton, Jasper Tudor: Dynasty Maker (Stroud: Amberley, 2014), appendix C.
Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City: 2011), 2:558–560.
TNA C 67/51, m. 12.
Westminster Abbey Muniment 6672; Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII (London: HMSO, 1862–1932), vol. 1:70–71.