Eleanor Talbot

Personal and Family Information

Eleanor was born about 1436, the daughter of John Talbot and Margaret Beauchamp. The place is not known.

She died on 30 JUN 1468. The place is not known.

Her husband was sir Thomas Butler, who she married in 1449. The place has not been found. They had no known children.

Pedigree Chart (3 generations)

Events

Notes

Note 1

After the death of king Edward IV of England it was claimed by his brother Richard, the future Richard III, that she had had a legal precontract of marriage to Edward, which invalidated the king's later marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. According to Richard, this meant that he, rather than Edward's sons, was the true heir to the throne. Richard took the crown and imprisoned Edward's sons, who subsequently disappeared.

After the overthrow and death of Richard at the hands of Henry Tudor, the precontract alleged by Richard was presented as a fiction to justify Richard's usurpation of power and to cover his murder of the princes. Most subsequent historians have agreed with this view. Supporters of Richard, however, have argued that the precontract was real and that it legitimated his ascent to the throne.