Leonor Telles de Meneses
| Leonor Teles | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Queen consort of Portugal | |
| Tenure | 5 May 1372 – 22 October 1383 |
| Born |
c. 1350 Trás-os-Montes, Portugal |
| Died |
c. 1406 Valladolid, Castile |
| Spouse | Ferdinand I of Portugal |
| Issue | Beatrice of Portugal |
| House | Meneses |
| Father | Martim Afonso Telo de Meneses |
| Mother | Aldonça Eanes de Vasconcelos |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Leonor Teles (or Teles de Meneses) (c. 1350 – c. 1405), was by marriage queen consort of Portugal and one of the protagonists, along with her brothers and her daughter Beatrice, of the events that led to the Crisis of 1383 – 1385, which culminated in the defeat of her son-in-law, King John I of Castile and his armies in the Battle of Aljubarrota. Called "the Treacherous" (a Aleivosa in Portuguese) by her subjects, who execrated her on account of her adultery and treason to her native country, historian Alexandre Herculano considered her "the Portuguese Lucrezia Borgia".
A member of the lineage of the Teles de Meneses, an important family originally from Tierra de Campos, Leonor's father Martim Afonso Telo de Meneses, a Portuguese nobleman, mayordomo mayor and alleged lover of Queen Maria de Portugal, the wife of King Alfonso XI of Castile, was assassinated in 1356 by orders of King Peter I. Leonor's mother was Aldonça Eanes de Vasconcelos, daughter and heiress of João Mendes de Vasconcelos and Aldara Afonso Alcoforado.
Leonor had three full-siblings: two brothers — João Afonso Telo (6th Count of Barcelos, mayor of Lisbon in 1372 and admiral of the Portuguese kingdom around 1375, who died in the Battle of Aljubarrota) and Gonçalo Teles de Meneses (Count of Neiva and Lord de Faria) — and a sister — María Teles de Meneses, who was married first to Alvaro Dias de Sousa and then to John of Portugal, an illegitimate half-brother of Leonor's husband King Ferdinand I. María was murdered in 1379 by her second husband, who accused her of adultery; historians suspect that Leonor, fearing for the succession of her daughter Beatrice and her own position as regent, was involved in the crime. Maria was a lady-in-waiting of her sister-in-law Beatrice of Portugal, and was introduced to King Ferdinand I, who fell passionately in love with her, when Leonor visited her sister in court.
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