Titulus Regius
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| Dates | |
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| Royal assent | 1484 |
| Repealed | 1485 |
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Status: Repealed
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Titulus Regius ("royal title" in Latin) is a statute of the Parliament of England, issued in 1484, by which the title of King of England was given to Richard III.
The act ratifies the declaration of the lords and the members of the House of Commons, in the year before, that the marriage of Edward IV of England to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid, and consequently their children, including Edward, Richard and Elizabeth, were illegitimate and, therefore, debarred from the throne. Thus Richard III had been proclaimed the rightful king. But as the Lords and Commons had not been officially convened as a parliament, doubts had arisen as to its validity, so when Parliament convened it enacted the declaration as a law.
Following the overthrow of Richard III, the Act was repealed, which had the effect of reinstating the legitimacy of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville's children.
Edward's marriage was invalidated because the king was said, on the testimony of a bishop, Robert Stillington, to have precontracted a marriage to Lady Eleanor Butler.
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.
The document also claims that Elizabeth Woodville and her mother used witchcraft to get the king to marry her. Since Richard's brother George, Duke of Clarence, had been executed and attainted, his descendants forfeited all rights to the throne, leaving Richard the true heir. For good measure, the document also hints that George and Edward were themselves illegitimate, while Richard, "born within this land" was the "undoubted son and heir of Richard, late Duke of York".
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Wikipedia