Eleanor Cobham
Encyclopedia
Eleanor [née Eleanor Cobham], Duchess of Gloucester (c.1400 – 7 July 1452), was a mistress and the second wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Pembroke, KG , also known as Humphrey Plantagenet, was "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of king Henry IV of England by his first wife, Mary de Bohun, brother to king Henry V of England, and uncle to the...

. A convicted sorceress, her imprisonment for treasonable necromancy
Necromancy
Necromancy is a claimed form of magic that involves communication with the deceased, either by summoning their spirit in the form of an apparition or raising them bodily, for the purpose of divination, imparting the ability to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge...

 in 1441 was a cause célèbre.

Family

Eleanor was daughter of Reginald Cobham, 3rd Baron Sterborough, 3rd Lord Cobham, and his first wife, Eleanor Culpeper (d. 1422), daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper, of Rayal.

Mistress and wife to the Duke of Gloucester

In about 1422 Eleanor became a lady-in-waiting to Jacqueline d'Hainault, who, on divorcing John IV, Duke of Brabant
John IV, Duke of Brabant
John IV, Duke of Brabant was the son of Antoine of Burgundy, Duke of Brabant, Lothier and Limburg.John IV was the second Brabantian ruler of the House of Valois....

, had fled to England in 1421. In 1423, Jacqueline married Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester, 1st Earl of Pembroke, KG , also known as Humphrey Plantagenet, was "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of king Henry IV of England by his first wife, Mary de Bohun, brother to king Henry V of England, and uncle to the...

, the youngest son of King Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...

 , who since the death of his elder brother, King Henry V
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

 was Lord Protector of the child king Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...

 and a leading member of his council.

Gloucester went to France to wrest control of his wife's estates in Hainault. On his return to England in 1425, Eleanor became his mistress. In January 1428, the Duke had his marriage to Jacqueline annulled and married Eleanor. According to Harrison "Eleanor was beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious and Humphrey was cultivated, pleasure-loving, and famous" .

Over the next few years they were the centre of a small but flamboyant court based at La Plesaunce in Greenwich
Greenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...

, surrounded by poets, musicians, scholars, physicians, friends and acolytes. In November of 1435, Gloucester placed his whole estate in a jointure
Jointure
Jointure is, in law, a provision for a wife after the death of her husband. As defined by Sir Edward Coke, it is "a competent livelihood of freehold for the wife, of lands or tenements, to take effect presently in possession or profit after the death of her husband for the life of the wife at...

 with Eleanor and six months later, in April 1436, she was granted the robes of a duchess for the Garter ceremony.

In 1435, Gloucester's elder brother, John, Duke of Bedford died, making Humphrey heir presumptive to the English throne. Gloucester also claimed the role of regent, hitherto occupied by his brother but was opposed in that endeavour by the council. His wife Eleanor had some influence at court and seems to have been liked by Henry VI.

Trial and imprisonment

Eleanor consulted astrologers to try to divine the future. The astrologers, Thomas Southwell and Roger Bolingbroke predicted that Henry VI would suffer a life-threatening illness in July or August 1441. When rumours of the prediction reached the King's guardians, they also consulted astrologers who could find no such future illness in their astrological predictions, a comfort for the king who had been troubled by the rumours. They also followed the rumours to their source and interrogated Southwell, Bolingbroke and John Home (Eleanor's personal confessor) and then arrested Southwell and Bolingbroke on charges of treasonable necromancy. Bolingbroke named Eleanor as the instigator so she too was arrested and tried. The charges against her were possibly exaggerated to curb the ambitions of her husband.
Eleanor denied most of the charges but confessed to obtaining a potions from Margery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye"
Margery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye"
Margery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye Next Westminster", was a 15th Century English woman, who was accused of treasonable witchcraft, and subsequently burned at the stake in 1441. Born before 1415. Died 27th October, 1441....

. Her explanation was that they were potions to help her conceive. Eleanor and her fellow conspirators were found guilty. Southwell died in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

, Bolingbroke was hanged, drawn and quartered
Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reigns of King Henry III and his successor, Edward I...

, and Jourdemayne was burnt at the stake. Eleanor had to do public penance in London, divorce her husband and was condemned to life imprisonment. In 1442, Eleanor was imprisoned at Chester Castle
Chester Castle
Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls . The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining parts of the medieval castle together with the...

, then in 1443 moved to Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle is located in the town of the same name in Warwickshire, England. Constructed from Norman through to Tudor times, the castle has been described by architectural historian Anthony Emery as "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant...

. In July 1446 she was moved to the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, and finally in March 1449 to Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of King Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales. It was designed by James of St. George and was begun in 1295, but never completed...

 in Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

, where she died on 7 July 1452.

Cultural references

Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester appears as a character in Henry VI, Part 2
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, Part 2 or The Second Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...

 by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

. In the play Shakespeare has King Henry VI banish her to the Isle of Man.

Children

  • Arthur Plantagenet (d. 1447)
  • Antigone Plantagenet
    Antigone Plantagenet
    Antigone Plantagenet was an English noblewoman and the legitimised daughter of Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester . She was the granddaughter of Henry IV of England. She was thought to have been born between 1425 and 1428...

    , who married Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tankerville
    Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tankerville
    Henry Grey, 2nd Earl of Tankerville, 7th Lord of Powys was an English peer. He was the son of John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville and his wife Joan Charleton, co-heiress and 6th Lady of Powys.-Life:...

    , Lord of Powys (c. 1419-1450) and then John d'Amancier.

Further reading

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