#titulus regius

She didn't but I don't see how could she. When Titulus Regius was proclaimed she was at the sanctuary with her 5 daughters, the sanctuary was surrounded with armed men, guarded so that she wouldn't be able to escape. She did not have any power and she did not have a voice. Titulus Regius was a statute of the Parliament that basically explained why Richard should be named king of England passing Elizabeth and Edward's children (because their marriage was illegitimate due to the fact that Edward supposedly was already married to Eleanor Butler) as well as George's children (because George was executed and attained hence his children also had no right to the throne). The witchcraft and sorcery was mentioned in passing saying Elizabeth and her late mother Jacquetta committed it in regards to the marriage but the point was made on the precontract. Elizabeth was not on trial for witchcraft as was Eleanor Cobham, for example. If she was she might have been given a word to state her case but as we know this was mentioned in Titulus Regius and never mentioned anywhere else again. It's evident neither the people nor the parliament considered these accusations being true or serious, otherwise Elizabeth would have been tried like Eleanor Cobham was.

As to the validity of the marriage Titulus Regius accused Edward (who was recently dead) to have a precontract with Eleanor Butler (who was long dead at the time) so what would be the point of Elizabeth saying anything to this? She could not have been accused of something she had no knowledge of. Two people who could without a doubt refute the claim that there was a pecontract and that Edward and Elizabeth's marriage was valid were Edward and Eleanor Butler and both of them were dead.

I would assume again that most people saw this act as a pretense to give Richard the crown. Edward and Elizabeth's marriage was not questioned for 19 years despite the fact that it was conducted in secret. Warwick himself did not question it and Eleanor Butler was his distant relative. The witchcraft rumors were not anything taken seriously either as evident by the lack of any reaction from the public, the parliament and even Richard himself following the act of parliament.

Indeed, the fact that the surviving copy of Titulus Regius was discovered during the XVIIth century did create some confusion on the exact accusations Richard III made against his brother's marriage.

No, bishop Stillington is not mentioned in Titulus Regius (probably because whatever he was saying was not true and they couldn't put it in offical document of the Parliament.)

This is what is said about the precontract in Titulus Regius:

"And howe also, that at the tyme of contract of the same pretensed Mariage, and bifore and longe tyme after, the seid King Edward was and stode maryed and trouth plight to oone Dame Elianor Butteler, Doughter of the old Earl of Shrewesbury, with whom the same King Edward had made a precontracte of Matrimonie, longe tyyme bifore he made the said pretensed Mariage with the said Elizabeth Grey, in maner and fourme abovesaid."

You can read the whole text here:

Parliamentary Rolls 1484 new style.

A Parliament held at Westminster on Friday the 23rd January 1484 n.s. in the 1st year of the reign of King Richard III.

Titulus Regius

[ An Act for the Settlement of the Crown upon the King and his descendents, with a restatement of his title. ]

BE IT REMEMBERED that a certain bill was exhibited before our Lord the King, in the Parliament preceding, in these words.

Where late heretofore, that is to say, before the consecration, coronation, and enthronement of our Sovereign Lord the King Richard the Third, a roll of parchment, containing in writing certain articles of the wording underwritten, on the behalf and in the name of the three estates of this realm of England, that is to wit, of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and of the Commons, by many and diverse persons of the Commons in great multitude was presented and actually delivered unto our said Sovereign Lord the King, to the intent and effect expressed at large in the same Roll; to the which Roll, and to the considerations and present petition comprised in the same, our said Sovereign Lord, for the public well-being and tranquillity of this land, benignly assented.

Now forasmuch as neither the said three Estates, neither the said persons, which in their name presented and delivered, as is above said, the said Roll unto our said Sovereign Lord the King, were assembled in form of Parliament; by occasion whereof, diverse doubts, questions and ambiguities, being moved and engendered in the minds of diverse persons, as it is said:

Therefore, to the perpetual memory of the truth, and declaration of the same, be it ordained, provided and established in this present Parliament, that the wording of the said Roll, with the contents of the same, presented, as is above said, and delivered to our aforesaid Sovereign Lord the King, in the name and on the behalf of the said three Estates out of Parliament, now by the same three Estates assembled in this present Parliament, and by authority of the same, be ratified, enrolled, recorded, approved and authorised, into removing the occasion of doubts and ambiguities, and to all other lawful effect that shall and must thereof ensue; so that all things said, affirmed, specified, desired and remembered in the said Roll, and in the wording of the same underwritten, in the name of the said three Estates, to the effect expressed in the same Roll, be of like effect, virtue and force, as if all the same things had been so said, affirmed, specified, desired and remembered in a full Parliament, and by authority of the same accepted and approved.

The wording of the said Roll of Parchment, whereof above is made mention, follows and is thus:

To the High and Mighty Prince Richard Duke of Gloucester

Please it your Nobel Grace to understand the consideration, election and petition underwritten, to the benefit of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons of this Realm of England, and thereunto agreeably to give your assent, to the common and public well-being of this land, to the comfort and gladness of all the people of the same.

First, we consider how that heretofore in time past, this Land many years stood in great prosperity, honour and tranquillity; which was caused, forasmuch as the Kings then reigning used and followed the advice and counsel of certain Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and other persons of approved seriousness, prudence, policy and experience, dreading God and having tender zeal and affection to indifferent ministration of Justice, and to the common and politic well-being of the Land; then our Lord God was dread, loved and honoured; then within the Land was peace and tranquillity, and among Neighbours concord and charity; then the malice of outward enemies was mightily resisted and repressed, and the land honourably defended with many great and glorious victories; then the intercourse of merchandise was largely used and exercised: by which things above remembered, the Land was greatly enriched, so that as well as the Merchants and Artificers, as other poor people, labouring for their living in diverse occupations, had competent gain, to the sustenance of themselves and their households, living without miserable and intolerable poverty.

But afterwards, when those such as had the rule and governance of this Land, delighting in adulation and flattery, and lead by sensuality and carnal lust, followed the council of persons insolent, vicious, and of inordinate avarice, despising the council of good, virtuous and prudent persons, such as above remembered; the prosperity of this Land daily decreased, so that felicity was turned into misery, and prosperity into adversity, and the order of policy, and the law of God and Man, confounded; whereby it is likely this Realm to fall into extreme misery and desolation, which God forbids, without due provision of suitable remedy be had in this behalf in all goodly haste.

Over this, among other things, more specially we consider how that the time of the Reign of King Edward IV, late deceased, after the ungracious pretence of marriage, as all England has cause so to say, made between the said King Edward and Elizabeth, sometime wife to Sir John Grey Kt, late naming herself and many years heretofore Queen of England, the order of all politic rule was perverted, the laws of God and of God’s Church, and also the laws of Nature and of England, and also the laudable customs and liberties of the same, wherein every Englishman is inheritor, broken, subverted and condemned, against all reason and justice, so that this Land was ruled by self-will and pleasure, fear and dread, all manner of equity and laws laid apart and despised, whereof ensued many inconveniences and mischief, as murders, extortions and oppressions, namely of poor and impotent people, so that no man was sure of his life, land nor livelihood, nor of his wife, daughter nor servant, every good maiden and woman standing in dread to be ravished and defiled.

And besides this, what discords, inward battles, effusions of Christian men’s blood, and namely, by the destruction of the blood of this land, was had and committed within the same, it is evident and known through all this realm, unto the great sorrow and heaviness of all true Englishmen.

And here we consider how that the said feigned marriage between the above named King Edward and Elizabeth Grey (Elizabeth Woodville) was made of great presumption, without the knowing assent of the Lords of this Land, and also by Sorcery and Witchcraft, committed by the said Elizabeth and her mother Jacquetta Duchess of Bedford, as the common opinion of the people, and the public voice and same is through all this Land; and hereafter, if and as the case shall require, shall be proved sufficiently in time and place convenient.

And here also we consider how that said feigned marriage was made privately and secretly, without edition of banns, in a private chamber, a profane place, and not openly in the face of the Church, after the law of God’s Church, but contrary thereunto, and the laudable custom of the Church of England.

And how also, that at the time of contract of the same feigned Marriage, and before and a long time after, the said King Edward was and stayed married and troth plight to one Dame Eleanor Butler, Daughter of the old Earl of Shrewsbury, with whom the same King Edward had made a precontract of matrimony, a long time before he made the said feigned Mariage with the said Elizabeth Grey, in manner and form above said.

Moreover we consider how that afterward, by the three Estates of this Realm assembled in Parliament held at Westminster the 17th year of the Reign of the said King Edward IV, he then being in possession of the Crown and Royal Estate, by an act made in the same Parliament, George Duke of Clarence, Brother to the said King Edward now deceased, was convicted and attainted of High Treason; as in the same Act is contained more at large. Because and by reason whereof, all the children of the said George was and is disabled and barred of all Right and Claim, that in any way they might have or challenge by Inheritance, to the Crown and Dignity Royal of this Realm, by the ancient Law and Custom of this same Realm.

Over this we consider how that You be the undoubted Son and Heir or Richard late Duke of York, very inheritor to the said Crown and Dignity Royal, and as is in right King of England, by way of Inheritance; and that at this time, the premises duly considered, there is no other person living but You only, that by Right may claim the said Crown and Dignity Royal, by way of Inheritance, and how that You be born within this Land; by reason whereof, as deem in our minds, You be more naturally inclined to the prosperity and common well-being of the same; and all the three Estates of the Land have, and may have, more certain knowledge of your Birth and Filiations above said. We consider also the great Wit, Prudence, Justice, Princely Courage, and the memorable and laudable Acts in diverse battles, which as we by experience know You heretofore have done, for the salvation and defence of this same Realm; and also the great dignity and excellence of your Birth and Blood, as of him that is descended of the three most Royal houses in Christendom, that it to say, England, France and Hispania.

Wherefore, these promises by us diligently considered, we desiring effectively the peace, tranquillity, and well-being public of this Land, and the reduction of the same to the ancient honourable estate and prosperity, and having in your great Prudence, Justice, Princely Courage and excellent Virtue, singular confidence, have chosen in all that which in us is, and by this our Writing choose You, high and mighty Prince, into our King and Sovereign Lord et c., to whom we know for certain it belongs of inheritance so to be chosen. And hereupon we humbly desire, pray and require your said Noble Grace, that, according to this Election of us the Three Estates of this Land, as by your true Inheritance, You will accept and take upon You the said Crown and Royal Dignity, with all things thereunto annexed and belonging, as to You of Right belonging, as much by Inheritance as by lawful Election; and, in case You so do, we promise to serve and to assist your Highness, as true and faithful Subjects and Liegemen, and to live and die with You in this matter, and every other just quarrel.

For certainly we be determined rather to adventure and commit us to the peril of our lives and jeopardy of death, than to live in such thraldom and bondage as we have lived long time heretofore, oppressed and injured by Extortions and new Impositions, against the Laws of God and Man, and the Liberty, old Policy, and Laws of this Realm, wherein every Englishman is inherited. Our Lord God, King of all Kings, by whose infinite goodness and eternal providence all things being principally governed in this world, lighten your soul, and grant You grace to do as well in this matter as in all others, all that may be according to his will and pleasure, and to the common and public well-being of this Land; so that, after great clouds, troubles, storms and tempests, the Sun of Justice and of Grace may shine upon us, to the comfort and gladness of all true Englishmen.

lbeit that the Right, Title, and Estate, which our Sovereign Lord the King Richard the Third has to and in the Crown and Royal Dignity of this Realm of England, with all things thereunto within the same Realm, and without it, united, annexed and belonging, being just and lawful, as grounded upon the Laws of God and of Nature, and also upon the ancient Laws and laudable Customs of this said Realm, and so taken and reputed by all such persons as being learned in the Laws and Customs.

Yet nevertheless, forasmuch as it is considered, that the most part of the people of this Land is not sufficiently learned in the above said Laws and Customs, whereby the truth and right in this behalf of likelihood may be had, and not clearly known to all the people, and thereupon put in doubt and question.

And over this, how that the Court of Parliament is of such authority, and the people of this Land of such nature and disposition, as experience teaches, that manifestation and declaration of any truth or right, made by the Three Estates of this Realm assembled in Parliament, and by authority of the same, make, before all other things, most faith and certainty; and, quieting men’s minds, removes the occasion of all doubts and seditious language.

Therefore, at the request and by assent of the Three Estates of this Realm, that is to say, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons of this Land, assembled in this present Parliament, by authority of the same, be it pronounced, decreed, and declared that our said Sovereign Lord the King was, and is, truly and undoubted King of this Realm of England, with all things thereunto within the same Realm, and without it, united, annexed and belonging, as well by right of Consanguinity and Inheritance, as by lawful Election, Consecration and Coronation.

And over this, that, at the request, and by the assent and authority above said, be it ordained, enacted and established, that the said Crown and Royal Dignity of this Realm, and the Inheritance of the same, and other things thereunto within this same Realm, or without it, unite, annexed and now belonging, rest and abide in the person of our said Sovereign Lord the King, during his Life, and, after his Decease, in his heirs of his Body begotten.

And especially, at the request, and by assent and authority above said, be it ordained, enacted, pronounced, decreed and declared, that the High and Excellent Prince Edward, Son of our said Sovereign Lord the King, be Heir Apparent of the same our Sovereign Lord the King, to succeed to him in the above said Crown and Royal Dignity, with all things as is aforesaid thereunto unite, annexed and belonging to have them after the Decease of our said Sovereign Lord the King, to him and his heirs of his Body lawfully begotten.

This same Bill was carried to the general assembly of the Kingdom of England in the said current Parliament: To which Bill the Commons gave their consent in these words:

To this bill the Commons assented.

Which said Bill and Agreement before the King in Parliament aforesaid was read, heard and fully understood, the assent of the the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament similarly was given, and too the Commons aforesaid, as well as the authority of this Parliament, pronounced, decreed and declared that each and everything in the said Bill is beyond doubt true; the Lord King, with the assent of the three Estates of the Kingdom, and the authority aforesaid, each and every premise of the Bill was granted, and pronounced, decreed and delcared as being the truth.