Queen of Portugal
Eleanor married her uncle by marriage, King Manuel I of Portugal, after a proposed marriage with her cousin the Crown Prince, the future King John III of Portugal, did not occur. Her brother Charles arranged the marriage between Eleanor and the King of Portugal to avoid the possibility of Portuguese assistance for any rebellion in Castile. Manuel had been married to two of Eleanor's maternal aunts.
Manuel and Eleanor married on 16 July 1518. They had two children: the Infante Charles (who died as a child, born 18 February 1520) and the Infanta Maria (born 8 June 1521, and who was later one of the richest princesses of Europe). She became a widow on 13 December 1521, when Manuel died of the plague. As Queen Dowager of Portugal, Eleanor returned to the court of Charles in Spain. Eleanor's sister Catherine later married Eleanor's stepson, King John III of Portugal.
In July 1523, Eleanor was engaged to Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, in an alliance between Charles and Bourbon against France, but the marriage never took place. In 1526, Eleanor was engaged to King Francis I of France during his captivity in Spain.
Read more about this topic: Eleanor Of Austria
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“I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)