Leonore Teles de Menezes

Leonore Teles de Menezes, Queen and Regent of Portugal

Leonore Teles de Menezes (also Leonor Tellez des Menezes ; * around 1350 in Trás-os-Montes ; † probably April 27, 1386 in Tordesillas ) was a Portuguese noblewoman. As the wife of King Ferdinand I of Portugal , she was queen from 1372 to 1383 and, after the death of her husband, regent of Portugal from 1383 to 1384. Only their fall made it possible for Johann I to ascend to the throne and thus the beginning of the rule of the House of Avis . The Portuguese called it aleivosa ( the deceiver ). After Theresa of León, she was the second woman to rule Portugal as regent.

Lineage and Early Life

Leonore Teles was born as the daughter of the Portuguese nobleman Martim Afonso Telo de Menezes and his wife Aldonça Anes de Vasconcelos . As a young girl, her first marriage was to a relative, João Lourenço da Cunha , second master of Pombeiro. In addition to a stillbirth, the couple had a surviving son:

• Álvaro da Cunha, third lord of Pombeiro (* 1371)

Leonore's older sister Maria was a lady of honor of Infanta Beatrix , the half-sister of King Ferdinand of Portugal. When Leonore visited Maria at court, she made the acquaintance of King Ferdinand, who fell in love with the red-haired beauty. Maria Teles spoke out against her sister's relationship with the king, who had also promised in a peace treaty in 1371, after the end of his first war against the Castilian king Henry II of Trastámara , to marry his daughter Eleanor . Nevertheless, Ferdinand did not want to leave Leonore Teles, who, on the advice of her uncle João Afonso Telo de Menezes , Count of Barcelos, who was influential at the court , did not immediately give herself up, but intended to be made queen. In fact, Ferdinand gave up his marriage project with the Infanta Eleonore and, when João Lourenço da Cunha had his wife called back to him, enforced the annulment of his lover's marriage on the pretext of her allegedly too close relatives to her husband.

According to some sources, Ferdinand and Leonore secretly married in late 1371. In any case, their relationship met with popular resistance and called opposition nobles such as Ferdinand's half-brother Dinis on the scene, who caused a tumult in Lisbon . At the head of the thousands of protesters who appeared in front of the palace, Fernão Vasques called Leonore Teles a witch and announced that the people would not allow the king to marry her. Fearing the crowd, Ferdinand assured him that he was not married to Leonore Teles and that he did not intend to enter into such a marriage in the future either; the next day he would give more information in the Dominican monastery. But under cover of darkness he and Leonore were able to leave Lisbon unnoticed, whereupon the couple traveled on to Santarém and then to the province of Entre-Douro-e-Minho . At Leonore's instigation, bloody measures were taken against the rebels, and Vasques was also killed. In May 1372 Ferdinand and Leonore celebrated their wedding publicly in the Leça do Balio monastery in Matosinhos in the presence of many nobles and prelates. The Infante Dinis, however, refused to kiss the hand of the new queen and with it the approval; he went into exile in Castile.

queen

By seemingly friendly and generous behavior, Leonore Teles sought to make herself popular with the noble Portuguese, but did not fail to secure high and influential public positions for her relatives. For example, her brother João Afonso Telo de Menezes became an admiral. Ferdinand donated rich income to Leonore from several cities: Vila Viçosa , Abrantes , Almada , Sintra , Torres Vedras , Alenquer , Atouguia , Óbidos , Aveiro and the fiefs of Sacavém , Frielas and Unhos. They exchanged Vila Viçosa for Vila Real in 1374 and acquired Pinhel in 1376 .

Leonore and King Ferdinand I soon had a daughter and later two sons, who, however, died as small children:

• Beatrix (* 1372; † after 1409), who married King John I of Castile in 1383 .
• Peter (* / † 1380)
• Alfons (* / † 1382)

In 1372 King Ferdinand I made an alliance with John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster , who made claims to the Castilian throne. With this the Portuguese king provoked a new war with Henry II Trastámara and made his country a sideline in the Hundred Years War between England and France. Castilian troops invaded Portugal victoriously and besieged Lisbon. Since the expected English help did not materialize either, Ferdinand had to conclude the shameful Peace of Santarém (March 19, 1373). Although he entered into a secret alliance with England on June 16, 1373 and thus remained true to his political line, the Portuguese-Castilian peace continued for the next few years.

Especially during the last years of Ferdinand's life, when Ferdinand had largely withdrawn from the government due to illness, Leonore Teles was able to gain a great influence on Portuguese politics and sought to secure her position against possible competitors. After the death of her husband Álvaro Dias de Souza in 1376, her sister Maria secretly married King Ferdinand's half-brother John, who, like the Infante Dinis, was a son of King Peter I of Portugal and Inês de Castro . In view of the lack of male offspring and the poor health of her husband, Leonore feared that after his death the Infante Johann might ascend the throne and so her sister would take her place as the new queen. The scheming Leonore therefore aroused doubts in Johann about his wife's loyalty and, after separating from her, offered him the prospect of marrying her own daughter, the presumptive heiress to the throne, Beatrix. Thereupon the Infante stabbed his wife Maria in Coimbra in June / July 1379 , but fled to the Castilian border before the revenge of the powerful relatives of the murdered. With her intercession, Leonore was allowed to return to the court, but Johann soon had to realize that he had been deceived regarding the allegations of infidelity of his wife and the promised hand of the king's daughter and went into exile in Castilian with his brother Dinis.

In the meantime, in Castile, John I had ascended the throne in May 1379 after the death of his father Heinrich II Trastámara. In 1380 he negotiated a marriage arrangement with the Portuguese side, which provided for a later marriage between his eldest, only one year old son, Heinrich, and King Ferdinand's heir, Beatrix. It was also agreed that in the event of the premature death of one of the two future spouses, his kingdom should fall to the survivor. Leonore Teles, however, disapproved of this marriage plan designed for her daughter.

The Galician knight Juan Fernández Andeiro , who had fled Castile to Portugal but had to leave his host country after the Castilian-Portuguese rapprochement and had sought refuge in England, secretly returned from there with the offer of the Duke of Lancaster to renew the against Castile turned back Portuguese-English alliance. Leonore Teles supported this proposal. Andeiro was her favorite, whom she had made Count of Ourém, and according to late medieval sources she is said to have had an adulterous relationship with him. Under the influence of Andeiro and Leonore, their royal consort accepted the English offer of alliance. So in 1381 the third war broke out that Ferdinand waged against Castile. In July 1381 English reinforcement troops arrived in Portugal by sea, led by Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York , the fifth son of the English King Edward III. , were cited. Edmund's eight-year-old son Edward was married to Ferdinand's daughter Beatrix. The arrogant behavior of the English auxiliary troops led to tensions with the Portuguese population.

Meanwhile, there was a conflict between Leonore Teles and Ferdinand's illegitimate half-brother Johann , Grand Master of the Avis Knight Order, in which the Queen saw a competitor for power. When the Count of Ourém entered the palace sweating once and Leonore handed him a cloth to wipe it off, Johann von Avis and his confidante Gonçalo Vasques de Azevedo criticized this behavior as improper and apparently spread rumors about a relationship between the Queen and the Count. At Leonore's instigation, Johann von Avis and Azevedo were imprisoned by the commander of that city, Vasco Martinho de Mello, while they were in Évora . A little later he received the order to execute the prisoners. When the commandant asked the king personally whether he should really carry out the execution, Ferdinand gave the order to spare the prisoners. Since Leonore's plan had failed, she now appeared to be conciliatory for the release of the order grandmaster and his friend, but they were only allowed to leave their dungeon after about 20 days by order of the king.

In August 1382 the peace between Portugal and Castile came about and the English withdrew again. The Pope annulled the marriage of the little English Prince Edward and the Infanta Beatrix, who would instead be married to Ferdinand , the second son of King John I of Castile. In order to better secure the succession of their daughter to the throne, Ferdinand and his wife had the Count of Ourém negotiate again with the Castilian side at the beginning of 1383 and managed to get the recently widowered John I to marry Beatrix himself in May 1383. In the contract of Salvaterra de Magos (April 2, 1383), however, it was determined that after Ferdinand's death, the reign of Portugal would initially pass to Leonore Teles until a son of Beatrix had reached the age of 14, and various other clauses of the marriage contract should prevent Portugal from being completely absorbed in Castile.

Regent, fall and last years of life

After her husband's death (October 22, 1383), Leonore Teles wanted her daughter to be proclaimed Queen of Portugal and took over the reign of the country on her behalf. She had some following among the nobility, but was extremely unpopular with the people. Many nationally-minded Portuguese did not want their state to join Castile and distrusted the autonomy promises made by Castile. In addition, Leonore granted her favorite Andeiro greater powers than ever, which also led to strong criticism among the people. Therefore, after only six weeks of rule, it was overthrown by a revolt of the craft guilds in Lisbon ( revolution of 1383 ). Johann von Avis, half-brother of the late king, sat at the head of the uprising, penetrated the palace of the queen widow with some loyal followers and murdered the hated Andeiro on December 6, 1383. This happened almost under the eyes and to the deep dismay of Leonore, who, however, remained unmolested and was allowed to retreat to the city of Alenquer, which is still standing by her. The goods of their sympathizers were confiscated.

Now Leonore asked the Castilian king, her son-in-law, for help, who invaded Portugal with his troops. In January 1384 he met Leonore in Santarém, who had to resign from her reign in his favor. In the meantime Johann von Avis had been proclaimed regent and defender of Portugal on December 16, 1383. He withstood a six-month siege of Lisbon by Castilian troops, which were finally forced to withdraw in September 1384 due to the plague raging in their ranks. John I of Castile had the sons of Peter I of Portugal and Inês de Castro, the Infants Johann and Dinis, who were in his country, interned as aspirants to the Portuguese throne; but on April 6, 1385, the Cortes in Coimbra instead recognized John of Avis as the new king of Portugal. After the devastating defeat of the Castilian king in the battle of Aljubarrota (August 14, 1385), the rule of John of Avis was secured.

Because John I of Castile no longer wanted to give Leonore Teles any influence, she is said to have promised her hand to Pedro of Trastámara if he would get rid of her royal son-in-law, but the plot was discovered in time. In any case, the Castilian king had the vicious Leonore imprisoned in the nunnery of Santa Clara in Tordesillas near Valladolid , where, according to some historians, she died as early as 1386, according to others only years later. She was buried in the Mercedarians' monastery in Valladolid.

See also

• List of queens of Portugal
• History of Portugal
• Timeline Portugal
• Portugal under the Burgundian rulers

literature

• M. del Pilar Rábade-Obradó: Leonor 4) Tellez . In: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 5 (1991), Col. 1896.
• Kendall W. Brown: Leonora Telles . In: Women in World History , Vol. 9 (2001), pp. 394-397.

Web links

Commons : Leonore Teles de Menezes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ According to M. del Pilar Rábade-Obradó ( Lexicon of the Middle Ages , Vol. 5, Col. 1896) Leonore Teles did not die until 1405.

Predecessors	Office	Successors
Beatrix of Castile	Queen of Portugal 1372–1383	Philippa of England
Ferdinand I.	Regent of Portugal 1383–1384	Johann I.