Eleanor Beaufort
Eleanor Beaufort (1431–16 August 1501) was the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and his second wife, Lady Eleanor Beauchamp, Duchess of Somerset. She was a sister of the 3rd and 4th Dukes of Somerset.
In 1453, Eleanor's first husband James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond was Lieutenant of Ireland. Eleanor married him on or around April 1458.[1] When civil conflict broke out, the lieutenant fought on the Lancastrian side. He was present at the first battle of St. Albans in 1455, Mortimer's Cross in 1461 and at the Battle of Towton. Ormond also held the post of councillor to the Lancastrian Prince of Wales. After Towton, he was a proscribed traitor and was captured the same year at Cockermouth and executed there in 1461.[citation needed]
Eleanor next married Sir Robert Spencer in about 1470. They had two daughters:
- Catherine Spencer (1477–1542), who married Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland.
- Margaret Spencer (c 1472) who married Sir Thomas Carey.
References
- The royal descent of Nelson and Wellington, from Edward the first, George Russell French, 1853, page 28
- The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII, Retha Marvine Warnicke, 1984, page 36
- The Baronetage of England: containing a genealogical and historical account of all the English, Edward Kimber, 1771, Page 221
- ^ Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 106