Eleanor Beaufort
Appearance
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2c/Beaufort_Arms_%28France_modern%29.svg/200px-Beaufort_Arms_%28France_modern%29.svg.png)
Lady Eleanor Beaufort (1431 – 16 August 1501) was the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406-1455), KG, and was a sister of the 3rd and 4th Dukes of Somerset.
Origins
She was the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, KG (1406-1455), by his wife, Lady Eleanor Beauchamp daughter of Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick by his first wife, Elizabeth de Berkeley, daughter and heiress of Thomas de Berkeley, 5th Baron Berkeley by his wife Margaret de Lisle, 3rd Baroness Lisle. Eleanor Beauchamp was an elder half-sister of Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick and Anne Neville, 16th Countess of Warwick.
Marriages & progeny
Eleanor Beaufort married twice:
- Firstly in about April 1458[1] she married James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, 1st Earl of Wiltshire (d.1461), Lieutenant of Ireland in 1453. 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 as a traitor and was captured in the same year at Cockermouth and executed there in 1461.[citation needed]
- Secondly she married Sir Robert Spencer[2] of Spencer Combe in the parish of Crediton, Devon,[3] by whom she had two daughters and co-heiresses:
- Margaret Spencer (1472-1536), (or Eleanor Spencer[4]) wife of Thomas Cary of Chilton Foliot, Wiltshire, second son of Sir William Cary (1437-1471) of Cockington, Devon.[5] She had two sons:
- Sir John Cary (1491–1552) of Plashey, eldest son, ancestor to the Cary Viscounts Falkland.[6]
- William Cary, her 2nd son, the first husband of Anne Boleyn's sister Mary Boleyn and ancestor to the Cary Barons Hunsdon, Barons Cary of Leppington, Earls of Monmouth, Viscounts Rochford and Earls of Dover.[7]
- Catherine Spencer (1477–1542), wife of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland and mother to Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, an early love interest of Anne Boleyn.
- Margaret Spencer (1472-1536), (or Eleanor Spencer[4]) wife of Thomas Cary of Chilton Foliot, Wiltshire, second son of Sir William Cary (1437-1471) of Cockington, Devon.[5] She had two sons:
References
- ^ Weir, Alison. Britain's Royal Family: A Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), page 106
- ^ Reference:C 146/1170 Description: Receipt from Robert Spencer, knight, and Eleanor his wife, Countess of Wiltshire, late the wife of James Earl of Wiltshire, to Thomas, Earl of Ormond, William Husee, the King's Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, John Cheyne, William Hody, and John Biconell, knights, William Martyn, William Froste, and Thomas Cary, for 40 marcs, paid in the church of St. Paul at the Rood of the north door, part of a yearly rent of 80 marcs payable out of certain manors, &c.: [Middx.]. Note:Fragment of sealDate: London at the Rood of the north door in St. Paul's, 3 June, A.D. 1498Held by: The National Archives, KewLegal status: Public Record
- ^ Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, pp.100-101 [1]
- ^ Vivian, p.150, pedigree of Cary
- ^ Vivian, p.150, pedigree of Cary
- ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pp.150, 154-6, pedigree of Cary
- ^ Vivian, pp.150, 154-6, pedigree of Cary
Sources
- 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