Eleanor Cobham

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Eleanor Cobham (born undated, close to 1400 – died circa 1452 – 1454) was an English noblewoman. She was wife to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, a son of Henry IV of England and his first wife Mary de Bohun.

She was an attendant to Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, first wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. She was also Humphrey’s mistress and may have produced two of his children.

She married Humphrey three years after his marriage was declared invalid, circa 1431. In 1435, after the death of his older brother John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, Humphrey became the heir to their nephew Henry VI of England.

In 1441 three priests, Roger Bolingbroke, Eleanor's secretary; John Hunne, her chaplain; and Thomas Southwell were executed for conspiring to kill the king by witchcraft. Eleanor was tried on the same charges and admitted five of the twenty-eight counts. The authorities sentenced her to do public penance in London, divorced her from Humphrey and imprisoned her for life. She was exiled in the Isle of Man.

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