- Leonor Telles de Menezes
Dona Leonor (Elionor) Telles (Teles) de Menezes (Meneses) (
1350 -April 27 ,1386 ), called by the people at her time "a Aleivosa" ("TheTreacherous "), wasqueen consort ofPortugal during the 14th century. Born inTrás-os-Montes e Alto Douro , she served as queen consort from 1372 to 1383 and asregent from 1383 to 1384.Married at a young age to a
courtier named Dom João Lourenço da Cunha, 3rd Senhor dePombeiro , with whom she had a son, Dom Álvaro da Cunha, she would be seduced byFerdinand I of Portugal when he was a prince. This would occur while Leonor was visiting her sister Maria Telles,lady-in-waiting to Ferdinand's half-sister Infanta Beatrice of Portugal.Ferdinand managed to annul her first marriage to João Lourenço da Cunha on grounds of
consanguinity and onMay 5 ,1372 secretly married Leonor Telles de Menezes.Upon the death of Ferdinand (1383), Leonor was nominated regent in the name of her daughter Beatrice (Beatriz). From 1383 onwards, Leonor ruled with her lover, João Fernandes Andeiro, 2nd Conde de
Ourém , called "Conde Andeiro", which angered the nobility and the lower classes. Beatrice's marriage to the Castilian king John I led to the expulsion of both mother and daughter.The loss of independence had been unthinkable for the majority of Portuguese nobles. A rebellion led by the Master of the Order of Aviz, future João I of Portugal, started in that year, leading to the
1383-1385 Crisis .She died in exile at a
monastery atTordesillas .
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