TIMELINE

1421(?)	Birth of Thomas Boteler, son and heir of Lord Sudeley.
Summer 1435	Lord Talbot visits England. Eleanor’s conception.
Spring 1436	Eleanor Talbot born, probably at Blakemere, Shropshire.
Late Feb. 1442	Eleanor sees her father for the first time.
20 May 1442	John Talbot created Earl of Shrewsbury.
End of May 1442	The Earl of Shrewsbury returns to France.
Winter 1442–43	Eleanor’s sister, Elizabeth, born.
Summer 1443	Lord Shrewsbury visits England; marriage of Eleanor’s eldest full brother, John Talbot III; murder of her half-brother, Sir Christopher Talbot.
26 July 1444	Eleanor’s brother, John Talbot III, created Lord Lisle.
Spring 1445	Eleanor’s mother goes to France to escort Margaret of Anjou to England for her marriage with Henry VI.
1448	Birth of Eleanor’s nephew and eventual heir, Thomas Talbot of Lisle.
1449	Eleanor marries Thomas Boteler and enters Lord Sudeley’s household.
1450	Elizabeth Talbot marries John Mowbray, Lord Warenne, son and heir of the Duke of Norfolk. Kenninghall is purchased from the Earl of Arundel for Elizabeth as part of her jointure.
1451	Lord Shrewsbury returns to England for the first time since 1443.
Mar. 1451/2	Consummation of Eleanor’s marriage to Thomas Boteler, following her sixteenth birthday.
1 Sept. 1452	Lord Shrewsbury makes his will at Portsmouth. The will includes an injunction to his executors to take action, if necessary, against Lord Sudeley, in respect of Eleanor’s jointure. He then returns to France with Lord Lisle.
10 May 1453	Lord Sudeley grants Thomas and Eleanor the manors of Burton Dassett, Griff and Fenny Compton. They establish their own household.
17 July 1453	The Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord Lisle killed at the battle of Castillon.
22 May 1455	first battle of St Albans. Lord Sudeley wounded.
1455–56	Thomas Boteler knighted.
May 1456	Lord Sudeley concludes an agreement with St Alban’s Abbey, naming his son as Sir Thomas Boteler.
Oct. 1458	Death of Eleanor’s eldest surviving brother, Sir Louis Talbot of Gresford.
23 Sept. 1459	battle of Blore Heath.
Dec. 1459	Sir Thomas Boteler dies.
Jan. 1459/60	Eleanor returns Griff to Lord Sudeley. He grants her Fenny Compton absolutely. She continues to hold Burton Dassett in dower.
10 July 1460	Eleanor’s half-brother John Talbot II, second Earl of Shrewsbury, is killed at the battle of Northampton.
Dec. 1460	battle of Wakefield. Death of the Duke of York.
2/3 Feb. 1460/1	battle of Mortimer’s Cross.
17 Feb. 1460/1	second battle of St Albans.
3 Mar. 1460/1	Edward IV proclaimed king in London.
29 Mar. 1461	battle of Towton. Edward IV returns south via Norfolk.
8 June 1461	Eleanor married to Edward IV by Canon Stillington, at one of her Warwickshire manors.
24 July 1461	Edward IV brokers a settlement of the dispute between Margaret, Countess of Shrewsbury and her step-grandson, the third Earl of Shrewsbury, recognising Margaret’s tenure of the manor of Painswick (Glos.).
Autumn 1461	Edward IV may have taken a mistress (name unknown).
1 Nov. 1461	Edward IV awards an annual salary of £365 to Canon Stillington.
6 Nov. 1461	Elizabeth Talbot becomes Duchess of Norfolk.
26 Feb. 1461/2	Edward IV (possibly at Eleanor’s behest) grants an exemption to Lord Sudeley. Possibly at about this time Edward IV grants Eleanor property in Wiltshire.
30 May 1462	Edward IV (possibly at Eleanor’s behest) grants venison from Woodstock park to Lord Sudeley.
1462	Edward IV’s unknown mistress may have borne him a daughter, Elizabeth(?) (later Lady Lumley), whom the king recognises. Eleanor endows a new fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, to which Thomas Cosyn MA is appointed.
20 Oct. 1462	By letters patent, Edward IV grants Elizabeth Talbot control of her jointure (including Kenninghall).
Oct. 1462	Edward IV’s exemption grant to Lord Sudeley is effectively revoked.
Dec. 1462	Edward IV begins a same-sex relationship with Eleanor’s cousin, Henry, Duke of Somerset.
Mar. 1462/3	Eleanor becomes a Carmelite tertiary.
July/Aug. 1463	Edward IV’s relationship with Henry, Duke of Somerset ends.
1 May 1464	Edward IV secretly, and bigamously, marries Elizabeth Widville.
July 1464	Death of Eleanor’s sister-in-law, Joan, dowager Viscountess Lisle. Margaret, dowager Countess of Shrewsbury becomes guardian of the three Lisle children.
Sept. 1464	Edward IV’s Widville ‘marriage’ made public.
1464	Eleanor’s brother, Humphrey Talbot, knighted.
January 1464/5	Edward IV seeks to appoint Stillington to the first bishopric to fall vacant (Bath and Wells). The pope, however, proposes an alternative candidate.
25 Oct. 1465	Edward IV grants a retrospective pension to Margaret, dowager Countess of Shrewsbury.
30 Oct. 1465	Papal licence finally granted for Stillington’s episcopal appointment.
14 June 1467	Margaret, dowager Countess of Shrewsbury, dies (probably in London). Eleanor, Elizabeth and Humphrey assume joint guardianship of the Lisle children.
15 Feb. 1467/8	Execution of Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond.
4 June 1468	Eleanor, knowing she is dying, cedes Fenny Compton to Elizabeth and grants her the reversion of her estates in Wiltshire.
18 June 1468	Elizabeth Talbot, accompanied by her brother, Humphrey, and the Lisle children, leaves London for Flanders as chief lady in waiting to Margaret of York on her wedding journey.
30 June 1468	Death of Eleanor Talbot.
13 July 1468	Elizabeth Talbot leaves Flanders to return to England.
18 July 1468	Writ of diem clausit extremum to the escheator of Warwickshire, following Eleanor’s death.
Late July 1468	Eleanor buried in the choir of the Carmelite Priory church, Norwich.
16 Aug. 1468	Eleanor’s inquisition post-mortem held at Henley-in-Arden.
7 Sept. 1468	Copy of Eleanor’s Warwickshire inquisition delivered to the chancery.
Feb. 1468/9	Edward IV compels Lord Sudeley to surrender Sudeley Castle.
1470	Restoration of Henry VI. Lord Sudeley carries the sword of state before Henry through the streets of London. Birth of Edward, first son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Widville, at Westminster.
1471	Restoration of Edward IV. Lord Sudeley imprisoned.
1473	Birth of Richard of Shrewsbury, second son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Widville. Death of Lord Sudeley.
17 Jan. 1475/6	Sudden and unexpected death of Eleanor’s brother-in-law, John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk (friend of the Duke of Clarence).
1477	Birth of George, third son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Widville. Thomas Burdet, servant of the Duke of Clarence, publishes political poems in London, possibly mentioning the Talbot marriage and the ‘prophey of G’. Elizabeth Widville becomes doubtful about the validity of her marriage and perceives Clarence as a threat to her children. Clarence is arrested. Edward IV seeks Elizabeth Talbot’s daughter, Lady Anne Mowbray, as a bride for his second son, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.
Jan. 1477/8	Eleanor’s niece, Anne Mowbray, marries Richard, Duke of York.
18 Feb. 1477/8	George, Duke of Clarence is executed.
28(?) Feb. 1477/8	Bishop Stillington is briefly imprisoned for some unstated action which connected him with the treason of George, Duke of Clarence.
9 Apr. 1483	Death of Edward IV.
June 1483	Bishop Stillington tells the royal council that Edward IV was married to Eleanor Talbot. The crown is offered to Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III). Elizabeth Talbot attends his coronation.
Jan. 1483/4	The Act of Parliament known as titulus regius formally acknowledges Edward IV’s marriage to Eleanor Talbot.
22 Aug. 1485	Richard III killed at Bosworth.
23 Aug. 1485	Henry VII orders the arrest of Bishop Stillington, who is kept in prison for the rest of his life.
25 Aug. 1485	Henry VII executes William Catesby, a relative by marriage of Eleanor Talbot.
Sept. (?) 1485	Henry VII repeals the titulus regius of 1484, and orders all copies of it to be destroyed.
Oct. 1487	Dr Thomas Cosyn elected Master of Corpus Christi College. Eleanor’s fellowship at the college lapses because no new fellow is appointed.
June 1491	Bishop Stillington dies in prison at Windsor.
1492	Death of Eleanor’s last surviving brother, Sir Humphrey Talbot, on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
1495	Elizabeth Talbot re-establishes and extends Eleanor’s endowment at Corpus Christi College.
Oct. 1506	Death of Elizabeth Talbot, dowager Duchess of Norfolk.
c.1525	Writing his posthumously published Richard III, Thomas More substitutes the invented name of ‘Elizabeth Lucy’ for that of Eleanor Talbot as the person named in the bigamy allegation against Edward IV.
1533–34	Letters from Eustace Chapuys, ambassador from the Emperor Charles V to Henry VIII, state that Henry’s only real claim to the English throne (through his mother, Elizabeth of York) is invalid because of Edward IV’s bigamy, and the consequent bastardy of his children by Elizabeth Widville.
1534	Polydore Vergil’s history of England, written for Henry VII, avoids any mention of Eleanor Talbot.
1611	Speed first publishes the text of the titulus regius of 1484.
1619	Buck’s Richard III contains the first published account of Eleanor and her relationship with Edward IV.
1631	Weever first publishes details of Eleanor’s burial in Norwich.
1753	Masters first publishes details of Eleanor’s association with Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and correctly identifies her family connections.
1844	Halsted first suggests that Eleanor retired into some kind of religious life.
1878	Gairdner states that there are insufficient grounds for dismissing Edward IV’s alleged Talbot marriage.
1955	Kendal draws attention to the references to Eleanor in the Patent rolls, and to her inquisition post-mortem.
2006	The present author first publishes the Warwickshire archive material relating to Eleanor.