I’m not sure how much to put into this response, because I’ve written about this hereherehereherehere, here and here.
But to answer your questions:
Renly hid it, because until Robert signs on the dotted line with Margaery and the Tyrells, revealing the truth would have made Stannis the heir to the Iron Throne. Renly doesn’t want that, nor do the Tyrells.
If you think about it, it’s the exact same reason why Littlefinger and Varys withheld the same information, despite ultimately intending to bring down the Lannister regime.
Rather difficult to do that when Stannis has withdrawn to Dragonstone and started raising an army and navy to protect himself.
Because GRRM, in his tricksy wisdom, also made Renly intelligent, funny, and genuinely charming and then made his main opponents people who aren’t.
When we first encounter Renly in Sansa I and Eddard III, not only is he a young Robert without the alcoholism and Targ-murder-boner, but he’s also making fun of the Lannisters who we’re being primed to hate even more because they’re trying to execute dogs. (Although if you think about it, isn’t it interesting that Renly comes off so well despite not lifting a finger to actually help?)
Then when we encounter him again in ACOK, he’s being contrasted against Stannis, who we’re also primed to dislike (so that the face turn works in ASOS). Remember, Stannis is introduced allowing walking empathy magnet Maester Cressen to be humiliated, and the next image we have of him before he meets with Renly is him joining a scary cult (another example of how priming wrong-foots people: Melisandre). And again, look at their meeting:
Again, on the surface, Renly’s the one with the better japes, the peach, and he’s the one who’s going to get horribly murdered so there’s the sympathy factor as well.
Nope. Renly’s campaign pitch was: A. the glamour and magnificence of his person and his court, and B. the size of his battalions, while trying to get everyone to forget about the larger implications of any of it.
As usual, Stannis puts it best:
“Good men and true will fight for Joffrey, wrongly believing him the true king. A northman might even say the same of Robb Stark. But these lords who flocked to my brother’s banners knew him for a usurper. They turned their backs on their rightful king for no better reason than dreams of power and glory, and I have marked them for what they are.”
Before he married her, Renly was scheming to get Robert to replace Cersei with Margaery.
Mace and Loras went along with this plan.
None of this actually benefits Renly or the Tyrells unless Cersei’s children could be disinherited as well.
The only way that Renly could promise that to Mace and Loras is if Renly knew about the adultery/incest, which would make Joffrey et al. bastards born of incest.
But, and this is key, the moment Robert dies without having divorced Cersei and disinherited her kids, Renly can’t admit any of this because it makes Stannis the indisputable rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
That is absolutely not Renly’s “general political direction” and it points to how Renly is profoundly misunderstood by the fandom. Despite his pretentions to meritocracy and popularity, Renly does not believe in the concept of an elective monarchy or Great Councils at all. He says this directly:
“Robb will set aside his crown if you and your brother will do the same,” she said, hoping it was true. She would make it true if she must; Robb would listen to her, even if his lords would not. “Let the three of you call for a Great Council, such as the realm has not seen for a hundred years. We will send to Winterfell, so Bran may tell his tale and all men may know the Lannisters for the true usurpers. Let the assembled lords of the Seven Kingdoms choose who shall rule them.”
Renly laughed. “Tell me, my lady, do direwolves vote on who should lead the pack?” Brienne brought the king’s gauntlets and greathelm, crowned with golden antlers that would add a foot and a half to his height. “The time for talk is done. Now we see who is stronger.” Renly pulled a lobstered green-and-gold gauntlet over his left hand, while Brienne knelt to buckle on his belt, heavy with the weight of longsword and dagger.”
When you take away the witty repartee, Renly’s political theory is naked tyranny – his personal excellence or popularity only matter to the extent that they attract soldiers to install him as king by force of arms, and you can see how paper-thin those rationalizations are when Catelyn tells him to put his money where his mouth is and stand for election in front of the political community and Renly says no.
I’m honestly perplexed how people keep missing the fact that Renly is a hollow man: the thematics are everywhere, from Donal Noye comparing him to copper to Maester Cressen remembering him as a pageantry-obsessed attention-seeking child. The tragedy of Brienne in ACOK is that Renly doesn’t give a damn about her (as Loras says later, “Renly thought she was absurd. A woman dressed in man’s mail, pretending to be a knight”), he only gives her the cloak because Barristan didn’t show up and he knows he can make use of her (“He said that all his other knights wanted things of him, castles or honors or riches, but all that Brienne wanted was to die for him”), he knows she’s in love with him and treats her like a dog he can summon and dismiss whenever he wants (”His words seemed to strike the girl harder than any blow she had taken that afternoon. “As you will, Your Grace.” Brienne sat, eyes downcast.”).
And as I’ve explained in my recaps of AGOT and ACOK, Renly does all of this knowing that Joffrey is not Robert’s heir, that Stannis is telling the truth, that he himself has no right to be king. HE IS A BAD MAN WITH GOOD PR.
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