Leonor was only nine years old at the time she and her family were imprisoned. After eight years of hardship, all of her relatives except her husband had died in prison. They were finally set free by a provision in Enrique II's will. 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. On her husband's return after seven years of wandering, having recovered nothing, Leonor asked her aunt for a place of her own to dwell. It was in that place that she built both a home and a chapel.