Leonor Telles de Menezes - Queen of Portugal

Queen of Portugal

Infante Ferdinand managed to annul Leonor's first marriage to João Lourenço da Cunha on grounds of consanguinity and on 5 May 1372 they were secretly married.

Upon the death of Ferdinand (1383), Leonor was nominated regent in the name of her daughter Beatrice. From 1383 onwards, Leonor ruled with her lover, João Fernandes Andeiro, 2nd Count of Ourém, also called "Conde Andeiro", which angered the nobility and the lower classes. Beatrice's marriage to the Castilian king John I led to the expulsion of both mother and daughter.

The loss of independence had been unthinkable for the majority of Portuguese nobles. A rebellion led by the Master of the Order of Aviz, future John I of Portugal, started in that year, leading to the 1383–1385 Crisis.

Leonor died in exile at a monastery at Tordesillas.