Leonor Teles de Menezes

Leonor Teles (or Teles de Meneses; ) was queen consort of Portugal by marriage to King Ferdinand I, and regent of Portugal during the minority of her daughter in 1383-1384. She was one of the protagonists, along with her brothers and her daughter Beatrice, of the events that led to the succession 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, she was dubbed by the historian Alexandre Herculano as "the Portuguese Lucrezia Borgia". Life Birth and childhood 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. Family 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. Leonor's mother was Aldonça Eanes de Vasconcelos, daughter and heiress of João Mendes de Vasconcelos and Aldara Afonso Alcoforado.