Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester: Chronicles and Ideas of Exile and Imprisonment in Fifteenth-Century England

In 1442, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester (c. 1400–1452) was permanently removed from London as punishment for her involvement in a conspiracy to foresee or bring about the death of Henry VI. Sometimes contemporary chroniclers depicted Eleanor's removal as imprisonment, sometimes as more akin to exile. An analysis of three chronicle recensions explores these portrayals for what they can reveal about the fluidity of these states and their relevance at a particular historical moment. As this approach argues that ideas of exile and imprisonment were malleable and interrelated, the significance of Eleanor's story is also highlighted.