[2] Since her godmothers were daughters of the King, she spent her childhood at the court, along with her mother, Sancha Carrillo, who was Pedro's kinswoman, Alfonso XI’s niece.
While they lived there, Peter I was killed by his half-brother, who assumed the crown as Henry II of Castile, and besieged Carmona, because Martín López and his family were partisans of the murdered king.
Leonor then went to the house of her aunt, María García Carrillo, in Córdoba, while her husband tried in vain to recover their lost properties.
In the years after 1403, Leonor dwelt at the court of Henry III of Castile and his queen Catherine of Lancaster, to whom she became a close advisor.
Written after her fall from favour at court, the narrative is cast as a testimony of devotion, in which she shows the efficacy of prayer to the Virgin Mary.
The prayers included in the Memorias are intended to certify the veracity of Leonor's story, as the favours with which the Virgin Mary has rewarded them must argue that her father's disgrace, imprisonment and death must be unjust, recasting family shame in the light of subsequent divine protection.