Robert Stillington (about 1405 – May 1491) was an English cleric and administrator who was
Bishop of Bath and Wells
The Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.
The present diocese covers the overwhelmingly greater part of the (ceremonial) county of Somerset and a small area of D ...
from 1465 and twice served as
Lord Chancellor
The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...
under King
Edward IV
Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...
. In 1483, he was instrumental in the accession of King
Richard III
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
, which led to later reprisals against him under King
Henry VII.
Life
Stillington was
Archdeacon of Taunton
The Archdeacon of Taunton has been, since the twelfth century, the senior ecclesiastical officer in charge of the archdeaconry of Taunton in the Diocese of Bath and Wells (in the Church of England). The archdeaconry includes List of ecclesiastical ...
(1450–1465) and
Archdeacon of Berkshire (1464–1465) when he was made
Keeper of the Privy Seal from 1460 to 1467.
[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'', p. 95.]
Stillington was selected as Bishop of Bath and Wells on 30 October 1465, and was consecrated on 16 March 1466.
[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'', p. 228.] He was appointed Lord Chancellor on 20 June 1467 and held the office until 29 September 1470, when
Henry VI was restored to the throne. After the return of Edward IV, he was reappointed to his former office and held it until 18 June 1473, when Edward dismissed him.
[Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'', p. 87.]
In 1478, Stillington spent some weeks in prison, apparently as a result of some association with the disgraced
George, Duke of Clarence. It has been suggested that he gave Clarence information about the king's prior
common law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
association with a mistress
Lady Eleanor Talbot, information that would have put Clarence in a position to claim the throne for himself.
After Edward's death in April 1483, Stillington was a member of the council of the boy-king
Edward V
Edward V (2 November 1470 – ) was King of England from 9 April to 25 June 1483. He succeeded his father, Edward IV, upon the latter's death. Edward V was never crowned, and his brief reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and Lord ...
. Some time in June, a clergyman, identified as Stillington only by the writings
'Mémoires'', book VI chapter 17of the French diplomat
Philippe de Commines
Philippe de Commines (or de Commynes or "Philippe de Comines"; Latin: ''Philippus Cominaeus''; 1447 – 18 October 1511) was a writer and diplomat in the courts of Burgundy and France. He has been called "the first truly modern writer" (Charles ...
, who referred to him as ''levesque de Bas'' (bishop of Bath) and ''ce mauvais evesque'' (this bad bishop), told
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the
Lord Protector
Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') is a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometime ...
, that the marriage of Edward IV and
Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville (also spelt Wydville, Wydeville, or Widvile; c. 1437Karen Lindsey, ''Divorced, Beheaded, Survived'', p. xviii, Perseus Books, 1995. – 8 June 1492), known as Dame Elizabeth Grey during her first marriage, was Queen of Engla ...
had been invalid on the grounds of Edward's earlier marriage to
Lady Eleanor Talbot at which he claimed to have officiated. That led to Elizabeth Woodville's children by Edward IV being declared illegitimate and the Duke of Gloucester ascending the throne as Richard III.
After
Henry VII defeated Richard III at
Bosworth in 1485, he immediately had Stillington imprisoned again. Henry had the bigamy charge against Edward IV reversed and married Edward's daughter,
Elizabeth of York
Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII of England, Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death in 1503. She was the daughter of King E ...
.
Some years after Stillington's second release, he became involved in the plot to place the impostor
Lambert Simnel on the throne in 1487. After finding refuge at
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, he was eventually handed over to the king and imprisoned.
[ He was buried in a chapel of his own founding, since demolished, at ]Wells Cathedral
Wells Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Bath and Wells and the mother church of the diocese of Bath and Wells. There are daily Church of England services in ...
.[''Dictionary of National Biography'']
Citations
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stillington, Robert
15th-century English Roman Catholic bishops
Bishops of Bath and Wells
Archdeacons of Taunton
Archdeacons of Berkshire
Lord chancellors of England
Lords Privy Seal
1420 births
1491 deaths