Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/William Gardner (knight)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete.  MBisanz  talk 00:08, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

William Gardner (knight)

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This person probably did not exist. See the article talk page for discussion. Essentially it seems that the creator of this article, User:Lonewolfcg, made a lot of articles about people called Gardner, many of which have already been deleted. A now defunct web-page speculated that a soldier named William Gardner killed King Richard III AND that he was the same person who married Helen Tudor and became the father of cleric Stephen Gardiner. It seems that these are all different people and that there is no evidence whatever that any of them killed Richard III (or anyone else). This has become a minor case of "I read it on Wikipedia" syndrome, as some mainstream newspapers repeated the William Gardner tale after the recent discovery of the body said to be Richard's. An article in the journal The Ricardian (see article talk page) demonstrates that this William is a bloated conflation of multiple medieval Gardners. None of these are notable on their own. Paul B (talk) 16:32, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Biography-related deletion discussions. 17:26, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of England-related deletion discussions. 17:26, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. Smerdis of Tlön - killing the human spirit since 2003! 17:26, 29 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Delete - I think he did exist, but not in the form described in this article. Unless someone is prepared to take the trouble to research the subject fully, it is better to delete it than leave it as stands - at least that will be a warning to others in the future. Deb (talk) 20:37, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Humm, yes, let future Gardners be warned! Yes there were several Billy Gardners, but there's no evidence any were knights. There may have been a halberdier called Gardner (though there seems to be zero evidence for this) and there's no evidence he killed anyone. There was certainly a London businessman and a Bury-St-Edmunds cloth-merchant. Different people, neither notable as far as I can see. Were they one man, they might just be semi-notable for their spouses and offspring, but the big claim to notability seems to be chimerical. Paul B (talk) 20:50, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Delete -- The article on his alleged son says that gives a differnet parentage. The article itself says that he was a commoner (i.e. not a knight).  I cannot check the alleged Welsh sources, but the whole think looks unreliable to me.  Peterkingiron (talk) 17:57, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.