Eleanor of Viseu (2 May 1458 – 17 November 1525; pt, Leonor de Viseu ) was a
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
''
infanta'' (princess) and later queen consort of
Portugal. She is considered one of her country's most notable queens consort and one of the only two who were not foreigners. To distinguish her from other infantas of the same name, she is commonly known as Eleanor of Viseu (after her
father's title) or Eleanor of Lancaster (''
Lancaster'', a name used by some Portuguese royals after her great-grandmother Queen
Philippa of Lancaster). In Portugal, she is known universally as ''Rainha Dona Leonor''.
Family
Eleanor was a daughter of
Infante Fernando, Duke of Viseu
Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and Beja (or ''Fernando,'' , 17 November 1433 – 18 September 1470) was the third son of Edward, King of Portugal and his wife Eleanor of Aragon.
Biography
Ferdinand was born in Almeirim on 17 November 14 ...
, and his wife and cousin
Beatrice of Portugal
Beatrice ( pt, Beatriz, ; 7–13 February 1373 – ) was the only surviving legitimate child of King Ferdinand I of Portugal and his wife, Leonor Teles. She became Queen consort of Castile by marriage to King John I of Castile. Following her fa ...
. Her maternal grandparents were
Infante João of Portugal and his wife and niece
Isabel of Barcelos.
Eleanor's sister
Isabel of Viseu married
Fernando II of Braganza, who was later accused and executed of treason by Eleanor's husband King
John II.
Eleanor's older brother
Diogo, Duke of Viseu
Infante Diogo of Viseu (1450–1484) was the second son of Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, and his wife Beatriz, Duchess of Viseu.
History
In 1472, when his older brother John, Duke of Viseu, died without issue, Diogo inherited his titles and estates ...
, was also involved in activities that John II considered treasonous and was executed by the king himself. Her younger brother succeeded John II as King
Manuel I of Portugal.
Marriage
Eleanor married
John, Prince of Portugal, on 22 January 1470. She thereby became the Princess of Portugal. The bride was eleven years old, and the groom was fourteen years old. Her spouse was the only living son of
Afonso V of Portugal
Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Africa. ...
and
Isabel of Coimbra
Infanta Isabel of Coimbra (Isabella of Portugal) (1 March 1432 – 2 December 1455) was a Portuguese infanta and Queen of Portugal as the first spouse of King Afonso V of Portugal.
Life
Isabella was a daughter of the Infante Peter, Duke of Co ...
and
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
to the Portuguese throne. Eleanor and John spent a lot of their childhood together and were good friends.
Queen consort
On 28 August 1481, Eleanor's father-in-law died, and her husband became
John II of Portugal, thus she became the new queen consort. The queens consort of Portugal were awarded fiefs and villages to grant them independent incomes, and Eleanor was granted Silves e Faro and Terras de Aldeia Galega e Aldeia Gavinha for this purpose.
She founded what became the city of
Caldas da Rainha
Caldas da Rainha () is a medium-sized Portuguese city in the Oeste region, in the historical province of Estremadura, and in the district of Leiria. The city serves as the seat of the larger municipality of the same name and of the Comunidade ...
, which was named in her honor ("rainha" means "queen" in
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
).
Eleanor and John II survived both their sons. Eleanor opposed the wish of her spouse to have his illegitimate son recognized as heir to the throne and appealed to the Pope, who sided with her and had her brother Manuel recognized as the heir of her husband.
John II died on 25 October 1495; the hypothesis of poisoning was never ruled out.
Queen dowager
After her brother
Manuel I Manuel I may refer to:
*Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (1143–1180)
*Manuel I of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond (1228–1263)
*Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was ...
succeeded to the throne in 1495, Eleanor moved to the palace of Xabregas, where she hosted the royal court and continued to be socially active. For a short period between 1500 and 1502, Eleanor's brother Manuel found himself childless, and Eleanor herself became the heir to the throne. As she had no children, she declined to make the oath as an heir in favour of her sister Isabel.
Eleanor was extremely wealthy and used much of her money for charity. In 1498, she spearheaded the creation of the
Santa Casa da Misericórdia
Santa Casa da Misericórdia is a lay Portuguese charity founded in 1498, whose mission is to treat and support the sick, the disabled, as well as abandoned newborns.
History
The institution traces its official foundation to 1498, when Quee ...
as confraternities with humanitarian purposes, especially the care of the poor, the sick, and abandoned children. The original foundations survive today, and more have since been founded in other towns and cities of Portugal and in the Portuguese colonies.
Eleanor is also credited with having introduced the
printing press to Portugal, when she commissioned a translation of ''
Vita Christi
The ''Vita Christi'' (''Life of Christ''), also known as the ''Speculum vitae Christi'' (''Mirror of the Life of Christ'') is the principal work of Ludolph of Saxony, completed in 1374.
The book is not just a biography of Jesus, but also a his ...
'' into Portuguese.
When the first of its four volumes were published in 1502, it became the first book to be printed in
Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish city in the Community of Madrid. Straddling the Henares River, it is located to the northeast of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated municipality. ...
.
Eleanor supported the foundation of the
Hospital Real de Todos-os-Santos (All Saints' Royal Hospital) in Lisbon, considered the best in contemporary Europe. She also founded the convent Madre de Deus (1509), considered a great architectural work, where she spent many of her later years, dressed almost as a nun.
Issue
Ancestry
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eleanor of Viseu
1457 births
1525 deaths
Portuguese queens consort
House of Aviz
Portuguese infantas
Princesses of Portugal
People from Beja, Portugal
People from Caldas da Rainha
15th-century Portuguese people
16th-century Portuguese people
15th-century Portuguese women
16th-century Portuguese women