1507-1542), was a monk of Westminster Abbey who wrote a chronicle of English history from Brutus of Britain to the seventh year of Henry VIII, entitled The Flowers of England.
[2] After the dissolution of the monasteries Gardiner has been described as an "ex-monk turned propagandist", dedicated to promoting Henry VIII.
His genealogical roll for Henry VIII was similar in character, designed to confirm the noble ancestry of the Tudors.
[3] The roll gave Henry VIII a pedigree showing his descent from Cadwallader, referred to as "the laste kynge of that blode from whome by trew and lynyall descensse" the Tudors descended.
Gardiner also claimed that Henry was descended from Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror and Hugh Capet,[3] which he was.