Stillington's Revelation

All was progressing well and with the arrival of Anne, Duchess of Gloucester, in London, on 5th of June, Richard must have felt that the worse was behind him.

The same day letters were sent to fifty men, instructing them to make preparations to be knighted at the upcoming Coronation. They were to report to the Tower by the 18th of the month to support and protect the King during his own preparations.

Instructions to York arrived on the 6th June to demand four citizens to be sent from the city to attend parliament at Westminster, set for  25th June.  The York contingent planned to leave four days earlier in order to also attend the Coronation and were granted extra funds from the York City Council in order to do so.

Everything changed and all hell broke loose on 9th June, 1483 when Stillington dropped his bombshell.

It is thought that it is probable that Stillington made his first approach to Richard in a private audience, who promptly referred him to present his case to the Council. But it may well be that he sought to be heard by the Council in the first instance. Either way it makes no difference to the end result.

As he stood in the Council chamber, he must have been nervous, haunted by the secrets he had helped to hide for over twenty decades. Did he give a nervous cough to clear his through, lick his dry lips, take deep breaths or wring his hands in dread before he began? But begin he did, and having begun, he was committed to continue.

The Coronation of Edward IV's son could not go ahead for he was not the legitimate heir, but the child of a bigamous union made illicitly between Edward IV and the widow Elizabeth Grey. He swore he knew this to be true for Edward, while Earl of March had been married in a secret ceremony to the Lady Eleanor Butler and he, Stillington, had performed the ceremony.