Editing Titulus Regius

{{Short description|Act of the Parliament of England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2025}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = ''{{lang|la|Titulus Regius}}''
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = Under which title all the reasons and allegations divised to prove the King to be true and undoubted heir to the crown, are set forth at large, and the same allowed, ratified; and enacted by the lords and commons; and his brothers children made bastards.
| year                  = 1484
| citation              = [[1 Ric. 3]] c. 0
| territorial_extent    = {{ubli|[[England and Wales]]|[[Ireland]]}}
| royal_assent          = 20 February 1484
| commencement          = 23 January 1484{{efn|Start of session.}}
| repeal_date           = 7 November 1485
| repealing_legislation = Title of the King
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = Repealed
| original_text         = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915526&seq=501
}}
'''''{{lang|la|Titulus Regius}}''''' ("royal title" in [[Latin]]) is a statute of the [[Parliament of England]] issued in 1484 by which the title of [[List of English monarchs|King of England]] was given to [[Richard III of England|Richard III]].

The act ratified the declaration of the Lords and the members of the House of Commons a year earlier that the marriage of [[Edward IV of England]] to [[Elizabeth Woodville]] had been invalid and so their children, including [[Edward V of England|Edward]], [[Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York|Richard]] and [[Elizabeth of York|Elizabeth]], were illegitimate and thus debarred from the throne. Their uncle Richard III had been proclaimed the rightful king. Since the Lords and the Commons had not been officially convened as a parliament, doubts had arisen as to its validity and so when Parliament convened, it enacted the declaration as a law.

After the death and overthrow of Richard III, the act was repealed, which had the effect of reinstating the legitimacy of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville's children.

== Contents ==
[[File:Richard III portrait.jpg|thumb|[[Richard III]] promulgated the ''{{lang|la|Titulus Regius}}'' to legitimise his seizure of the throne. [[Society of Antiquaries of London]].]]
Edward's marriage was invalidated because Bishop [[Robert Stillington]] testified that the king had precontracted a marriage to [[Lady Eleanor Talbot|Lady Eleanor Butler]].

<blockquote>And how also, that at the time of contract of the same pretensed Marriage, and before and long time after, the said King Edward was and stood 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, long time before he made the said pretensed Marriage with the said Elizabeth [Woodville] Grey, in manner and form above-said.</blockquote>

The document also claimed that Elizabeth Woodville and her mother had used witchcraft to get the king to marry her. Since Richard's brother [[George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence|George, Duke of Clarence]], had been executed and [[attainder|attainted]], his descendants forfeited all rights to the throne, leaving Richard the true heir. For good measure, the document also hinted that George and Edward (born in Ireland and Normandy, respectively) were themselves illegitimate and stated Richard, "born within this land" was the "undoubted son and heir of Richard, late Duke of York".<ref name="act">John A. Wagner, "Titulus Regius", ''Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses'', ABC-CLIO, 2001, pp.268–70.</ref>

Edward's reign was also criticised, he was said to have led by "sensuality and concupiscence" and delighted in "adulation and flattery" and to have been easily influenced by "persons insolent, vicious and of inordinate avarice", a reference to the Woodville family. In contrast, Richard was said to have been a man distinguished by "great wit, prudence, justice, princely courage, and memorable and laudable acts in diverse battles."<ref name="act"/>

==Repeal==
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = ''{{lang|la|Titulus Regius}}''
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = Titulus Regis.
| year                  = 1485
| citation              = [[1 Hen. 7]] (part preceding c. 1)
| territorial_extent    = {{ubli|[[England and Wales]]|[[Ireland]]}}
| royal_assent          = 7 November 1485
| commencement          = 7 November 1485{{efn|Start of session.}}
| repeal_date           = 30 July 1948
| replaces              = ''{{lang|la|Titulus Regius}}''
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1948]]
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = Repealed
| original_text         = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915526&seq=523
}}
After Richard was [[Battle of Bosworth Field|killed in battle]], the act was repealed by the first parliament of the new king, [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]]. The repeal was important because the new King and his supporters viewed Richard III's rule as a usurpation and also because Henry VII's prospective wife, [[Elizabeth of York]], whom he had pledged to marry if he gained the throne, was the eldest daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and the Act had made her illegitimate.

Henry also ordered his subjects to destroy all copies of it and all related documents without reading them. His orders were carried out so well that only one copy of the law has ever been found. That copy was transcribed by a monastic chronicler into the ''[[Croyland Chronicle]]'', where it was discovered by Sir [[George Buck]]{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} more than a century later during the reign of [[James VI and I|James I]].

The repealing act was passed in the first Parliament of Henry VII, stating that the original ''Titulus Regius'' was
<blockquote>void, adnulled, repelled, irrite [invalidated], and of noe force ne effecte<ref>{{cite web|title=Rotuli Parliamentorum A.D. 1485 1 Henry VII|url=http://partyparcel.co.uk/information/price-guarantee.html#annullment|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022212606if_/http://partyparcel.co.uk/information/price-guarantee.html|archive-date=2016-10-22|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote> and that the original be destroyed, and that any copies should be either destroyed or returned to Parliament on pain of fine and imprisonment.

A law report from his reign stated:
<blockquote>that the said Bill, Act and Record, be annulled and utterly destroyed, and that it be ordained by the same Authority, that the same Act and Record be taken out of the Roll of Parliament, and be cancelled and brent ['burned'], and be put in perpetual oblivion.<ref>[http://www.bu.edu/lawyearbooks/pages/full-size/11/11050.jpeg Year Book 1 Henry VII, Hil., plea 1]</ref></blockquote>

Henry almost succeeded in suppressing the ''Titulus Regius''.<ref>Bryce, Tracy. [http://home.cogeco.ca/~richardiii/Titulus%20Regius.htm "Titulus Regius: The Title of the King"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901003910/http://home.cogeco.ca/~richardiii/Titulus%20Regius.htm |date=2013-09-01 }}, Richard III Society of Canada, accessed 31 October 2014</ref> The 100-year gap during which ''{{lang|la|Titulus Regius}}'' was [[censorship|censored]] coincided with the ruling period of the [[Tudor dynasty]]. It was known that Richard had claimed that a marriage pre-contract invalidated Edward's sons' right to the throne, but it was not known who Edward's supposed "real" wife was. [[Thomas More]] assumed that the act referred to Edward's longtime mistress, [[Elizabeth Lucy]], a view that was repeated until Buck discovered the original document.

Edward IV's first son, though ''Titulus Regius'' annulled his reign, is still counted as [[Edward V of England|Edward V]] to emphasise{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} that Richard III was a usurper. Thus, Henry VII's grandson was numbered [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]].

== See also ==
*''[[The Daughter of Time]]'', 1951, by [[Elizabeth MacKintosh]] writing as Josephine Tey.
{{wikisource}}
* [[Act of Accord]] (1461)

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Titulus_Regius Original text of ''Titulus Regius'']
{{Richard III}}
{{Wars of the Roses}}
{{English legislation}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Acts of the Parliament of England 1484]]
[[Category:Acts of the Parliament of England 1485]]
[[Category:Repealed English legislation]]
[[Category:Succession to the British crown]]
[[Category:Edward V]]
[[Category:Richard III of England]]
[[Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in England]]
[[Category:Wars of the Roses]]
[[Category:Succession acts]]
[[Category:Elizabeth of York]]
[[Category:Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York]]
[[Category:Edward IV]]
[[Category:Elizabeth Woodville]]