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Leonor Telles de Menezes

Leonor Teles
Leonore Teles de Menezes.jpg
Queen consort of Portugal
Tenure 5 May 1372 – 22 October 1383
Born c. 1350
Disputed: Trás-os-Montes, Portugal or Castile
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".

The date or place of Leonor's and her siblings' birth is not recorded in any document. According to some sources, she was born in Trás-os-Montes because King Ferdinand I on 3 January 1375 donated Vila Real to his wife "for being a native of the province of Tralosmontes". If so, she would be the first queen of Portugal born in that country. Yet, her parents lived in Castile from 1340 and it was between that year and 1356 when the children of the marriage were born, as well as the illegitimate daughter; there are no sources that mention the births or the early years of the siblings. This is the reason Portuguese historian Ferro Tavares suspects the place of her birth was actually in Castilian territory and that the birthplace was changed on purpose. According to this hypothesis, the place of origin was moved to a Portuguese location in order to stress the political detachment he made from the Franco-Castilian diplomatic bloc in the Hundred Years' War with such a marriage. This situation is complicated by the fact Leonor's family held lands and tenancies in Portuguese territory, which makes the thesis of Trás-os-Montes still viable.


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