Note 638 — BOOK THE FIFTH. (continued 2)

Robert Stillington was appointed chancellor on the 20th of June, 1467. He appears to have been of humble origin, but he gained a great name at Oxford, where with much applause he took the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was a zealous legitimist, and on the succession of Edward IV. he was a special favourite with that prince, who successively made him Archdeacon of Taunton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and finally Lord Chancellor. He held this last office for six years, with the exception of the few months when Edward was obliged to fly the kingdom, and the sceptre was again put into the feeble hands of Henry VI. He resigned the chancellorship from ill health on the 8th of June, 1473. After the coronation of Henry VII., Stillington showed his never-dying enmity to the house of Lancaster, by taking up the cause of Lambert Simnel; but being detected in this conspiracy, and expecting no mercy from the king, he fled for refuge to Oxford. The university consented to deliver him up on condition that his life should be spared; and he was conducted to Windsor, where he remained a prisoner till his death, in June, 1491. See Lord Campbell’s Lives of the Chancellors, vol. i. pp. 385-391.