Eleanor Verney
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Eleanor or Alianor Verney was an English courtier who travelled to Scotland with Margaret Tudor in 1503.
She was a daughter of Geoffrey Pole and Edith St John. Her brother Richard Pole married Margaret Plantagenet daughter of George, Duke of Clarence in 1487, a wedding perhaps intended to heal the divisions of the War of the Roses.[1]
Household of Elizabeth of York
She married Ralph Verney, chamberlain to Elizabeth of York. Henry VII granted them the manor of Swerford in Oxfordshire. Ralph Verney was steward of the Duchy of Lancaster for Bedford and Buckingham in 1485.[2] Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, made Verney keeper of the parks of Berkhamsted and Kings Langley in 1487.[3] They had a son, John Verney, born in 1488.[4] She became chief lady in waiting to Elizabeth of York,[5] and attended her coronation at Westminster Abbey on 25 November 1487.[6] Ralph Verney was given a black velvet doublet and gown in December 1498.[7]
An account of the privy purse of Elizabeth of York shows that Lady Verney accompanied the queen and made payments for her. In July 1502 Lady Verney paid the ferry man at Datchet for carrying the queen across the Thames. In August, at the command of Elizabeth of York, she made an offering of 20 pence at the shrine of Saint Frideswide at Oxford.[8] On 28 August Elizabeth of York crossed the Severn at Chepstow on her way to Thornbury and Berkeley Castle, accompanied by Lady Verney, who transferred 40 shillings to the queen's purse at "Walleston" perhaps Woolaston near Chepstow.[9] A modern transcription of the queen's account has been compiled by the Tudor Chamber Books Project.[10]
Lady Verney paid the painters Robert Fyll and John Reynolds for making heraldic beasts for the garden at Windsor Castle.[11] A copy of Wynkyn de Worde's Vitas Patrum now in Lambeth Palace library was inscribed by Eleanor Verney and the nun Martha Fabyan.[12]
"Lady Alyanor Verney" was paid a fee or pension of £20 in March 1503, as was Elizabeth Denton.[13]