Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Erin Manky,

listener discretion advised.

The year was 1441, and Eleanor Cobham was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women

in England.

Her scent had been astonishingly quick.

Eleanor had been born the daughter of a serene knight, and now she was a duchess.

Married to Humphrey, the Duke of Gloucester, and Gloucester wasn't just any duch.

He was the brother of the late King Henry V, and the uncle and counselor for the young

king Henry VI.

And because Henry VI was still young and unmarried, obviously with no children of his own, there

was something else incredibly important about the Duke of Gloucester in 1441.

His only other surviving older brother had died a few years earlier, which meant that if

anything should happen to his nephew, Henry VI, he Gloucester was next in line to be king.

Eleanor Cobham, daughter of a knight, was a heartbeat away from being queen of England.

It was a medieval Cinderella story.

This Eleanor was reflecting on how far she had come that summer, the afternoon of June

29, 1441.

Sure, she wasn't necessarily popular among the other nobles, those who rise quickly seldom

are, and certainly her husband's position of favor seemed to be temporarily ebbing as

jealous rivals sought to undermine his influence.

But it was hard to worry about that when Gloucester was quite literally next in line for

the throne.

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