Eleanor Talbot

Lady Eleonore Talbot (* around 1435, † June 30, 1468 ), married Eleanor Butler, was an English noblewoman and mistress of King Edward IV. A promise of marriage between Eleonore and Edward led to the downfall of the House of Plantagenet .

Life

Eleanor was the youngest daughter of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury (1384-1453) and his second wife Lady Margaret Beauchamp, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick .

Lady Eleonore married Sir Thomas Butler († 1461), second son of Ralph Butler, Lord of Sudeley, in 1450. After the death of her husband, Lady Eleonore was driven from their property by her father-in-law because the marriage was childless. Thereupon she asked the king for help, for the return of the lands. King Edward IV was considered a womanizer. In order to own her, he promised her marriage. The connection resulted in a son, Edward de Wigmore (1461-1468). Lady Eleanor died in a convent and was buried in the Church of the White Carmelites in Norwich .

King Edward IV of the House of York , who was dissolute in love affairs , took a look at the beautiful widow, Lady Elisabeth Woodville (1437–1492), from the enemy camp and secretly married her on May 1, 1464 against the advice of his confidants, including Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (1428–1471), who was negotiating a French marriage for the king. In addition to the purely physical aspect, which Eduard seemed to follow here, the marriage nevertheless had a political component, since the marriage to a widow of a Lancaster supporter gave the York king at least temporary peace, although the marriage to a relative from the lower Nobility was a scandal. When Edward IV died in 1483, Elizabeth defied her husband's last will. He had not placed the reign of his 12-year-old son and heir Edward V in the hands of the Woodville family, but rather his brother and Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III. , including guardianship for the young king and his younger brother Richard. The queen widow seized the state treasure and the insignia of the throne and was heir to the throne through her brother, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers (1440–1483). In June 1483, the Bishop of Bath and Lord Chancellor of England , Robert Stilington , claimed that all of Elizabeth's children with Edward IV were illegitimate because Edward had already been engaged to Eleonore Talbot at the time of his wedding. It is not clear whether Richard III. was behind this rumor or whether he just had to act, since England was now threatened with an illegitimate king. On June 23, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham represented Richard's claim to the throne, which was granted by Parliament on June 25 ( Titulus Regius ).

Worth mentioning

• Bishop Robert Stillington is said to have provided evidence of a secret marriage vows between King Edward IV and Lady Eleanor. On June 9, 1483, he presented these to the House of Lords , including two testimonies. The witnesses were named by name, Lady Jane Shore and Lady Elizabeth Lucy (mother of Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle (1475–1542), an illegitimate son of the king). But King Richard III. is said to have destroyed the documents in his name in order to be considered the rightful King of England (see also Princes in the Tower ).
• A prenuptial agreement was a promise to get married. A contract with Lady Eleonore would have made Elizabeth Woodville's marriage illegal. This was the law in England. Getting married in secret was an admission that there was a legal barrier. So when evidence was presented to Parliament that Edward was married to Lady Eleanor or contracted, it was necessary to declare that the marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was bigamous and that the children of the marriage were bastards. The fact that the princes were bastards did not mean they could not inherit. Parliament could have legitimized the princes and allowed Edward V to remain king. Child kings like Henry III. , Richard II. And Heinrich VI. it had always been a catastrophe for England and the War of the Roses was stopped by Edward IV as an adult king.
• As king Edward could very easily have released himself from his promise of marriage.

literature

• Charles Derek Ross: Edward IV (Yale English Monarchs Series). New Haven (1998)

Belletristic representation

• Rosemary Hawley Jarman: The Queen's Revenge , Munich (1979)
• Posie Graeme-Evans: The Healer's Oath (Original Edition: "The Innocent", New York 2002), The Healer of Bruges, The Triumph of the Healer (German paperback edition Goldmann, 2006)