Alice Perrers

 Alice Perrers was born sometime around 1348. There are no birth records for her, and Perrers is believed to be the name of her first husband. Who she was and where she came from is unknown for sure, although there are a few theories.

When she was about twelve, she married Janyn Perrers, who was a jeweller. The marriage didn’t last long; she was widowed four years later, in 1364.

Around 1359, Alice became a lady to Queen Philippa. By 1366, she had become the mistress of King Edward III; she was around eighteen years old, and the King was fifty-five. Three years later, when the Queen died, King Edward was devastated by the loss, and he became more and more reliant on Alice. Edward showered Alice with gifts, estates, and lands, making her an extremely wealthy woman. As the king aged, she became more and more controlling of him. She was despised at court and seen as ambitious, calculating, and cold-hearted, but no one dared speak a word against her for fear of the King’s wrath.

As Edward III’s health failed, Alice knew her time in power was coming to an end, so she negotiated a secret marriage for herself in November 1375. When she was twenty-seven, she married fifty-three-year-old Sir William de Windsor, Baron Windsor. This move was to safeguard herself and her possessions after the King’s death. De Windsor was the King’s lieutenant in Ireland and was absent for long periods of time, making discovery of the marriage less probable.

Alice was probably of low birth, but she loved the arts and championed many local poets and writers; she was a patron of Chaucer and spent a lot of her fortune on patronages for others. At the height of her power, Alice owned 56 castles and houses. The king backed her against every claim and suit brought against her, making her untouchable even in the king’s court of justice.

In 1376, after repeated complaints, an ordinance aimed specifically at Alice set penalties for women who practised “maintenance,": interfering in the due process of the law. The ordinance is as follows:
"Because a complaint was made to the king that some women have pursued various business and disputes in the king's courts by way of maintenance, bribing, and influencing the parties, which thing displeases the king, the king forbids any woman to do it, and especially Alice Perrers, on penalty of whatever the said Perrers can forfeit and of being banished from the realm."

Alice had gone too far, and her time at the top was over. She was brought to court and tried for corruption; she was exiled from England, and her lands were forfeit. She was later able to return and claim a small portion of her former possessions.

Alice died during the winter of 1400/1401, aged around 52, and was buried in the Church of St Laurence in Upminster.

Alice had at least three illegitimate children with King Edward III: Sir John de Southeray and two daughters, Jane and Joan.

Detail of Ford Madox Brown's painting of Chaucer reading to the court of King Edward III, depicting Alice Perrers and Edward III

Sources:

The Trials of Alice Perrers, W.Mark Ormrod

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 45
Perrers, Alice, Charles Lethbridge Kingsford

Alice Perrers, Encyclopaedia Britannica