A manuscript pedigree dated to [1500] names "dau and heir of the Lord Poynings" as wife of "Henry Earl of Northumberland". She succeeded her paternal grandfather in 1446 as Baroness Poynings suo iure. The will of "Eleanor Countess of Arundel and Lady Maltravers", dated 20 Jul 1455, proved 23 Aug 1455, bequeathed property to “William Earl of Arundel my son...Joane Countess of Arundel...Lady Eleanor Percy my daughter...a bason of silver with the arms of the Lord Poynings and of John Berkley Knight my father...Lady Dudley my sister...Lady Margaret the wife of Lord Hungerford...Robert Hungerford Knight, Lord Molins, now a prisoner in France...Morice Berkley Knight my brother...Ann wife of the said Maurice...Edward Berkley another of the sons of my said brother Maurice...William Gurney and Agnes his wife”. 1
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[Eleanor] was born about 1422, and was heir general in 1446 to her grandfather, Robert Poynings, knt., 4th Lord Poynings.... Legatee in the 1455 will of her mother, Eleanor, countess of Arundel. Eleanor was co-heiress in 1457 to her cousin, Avice Stafford, wife of James Butler, K.G., Earl of Wiltshire, 5th Earl of Ormond....
In the period 1461-5... Eleanor sued Edmund Dawtre, Esq., in Chancery regarding hunting and breaking her parks in Sussex and threatening the parkers. She was admitted to the Fraternity of St. Nicholas in London in 1462. In 1465 she sued John, Bishop of Chichester, Elizabeth, widow of Robert Poynings, and another for the next presentation to the chantry of Crawley, Sussex. 2
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