Editing Lady Eleanor Talbot (section)

==Allegations==
[[File:King Edward IV.jpg|thumb|[[Edward IV]], alleged to have precontracted marriage to Eleanor Talbot]]
After King Edward's death in 1483, his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was appointed protector to the as-yet-uncrowned king [[Edward V of England|Edward V]]. Richard placed Edward and his younger brother in the [[Tower of London]]. He then proclaimed that they were illegitimate. According to the French chronicler [[Philippe de Commines]] he acted with the support of [[Robert Stillington]], [[Bishop of Bath and Wells]]. Stillington had been briefly imprisoned and fined for speaking out against Edward IV in 1478. Commines later wrote,

<blockquote>The bishop discovered to the Duke of Gloucester that his brother king Edward had been formerly in love with a beautiful young lady and had promised her marriage upon condition that he might lie with her; the lady consented, and, as the bishop affirmed, he married them when nobody was present but they two and himself. His fortune depending on the court, he did not discover it, and persuaded the lady likewise to conceal it, which she did, and the matter remained a secret.<ref>Philipe de Commines, '’The memoirs of Philip de Commines, lord of Argenton'’, Volume 1, H.G. Bohn, 1855, pp.396–7</ref></blockquote>

Richard then persuaded Parliament to pass an act, ''[[Titulus Regius]]'', which debarred Edward V from the throne and proclaimed himself as King Richard III. At a meeting held on 23 January 1484 the former king's marriage was declared illegal. The document states:

<blockquote>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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Titulus Regius – Original Text|url=http://partyparcel.co.uk/|access-date=21 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901080051/http://www.partyparcel.co.uk/|archive-date=1 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> </blockquote>

Opponents of Richard declared that the precontract was fiction. Richard's leading enemy, Henry Tudor, allied himself with Elizabeth Woodville, promising to re-legitimise her children if Richard was overthrown. After Henry's army defeated and killed Richard at the [[Battle of Bosworth Field]] on 22 August 1485, he came to the throne as [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]]. He ordered the copy of ''Titulus Regius'' in parliamentary records to be destroyed, along with all others (one copy was later found to have survived).

Stillington later joined the rebellion of [[Lambert Simnel]] against Henry in 1487. He was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower until his death in 1491.