Editing Alice Perrers (section)

== Life ==

=== Early life ===
Alice was born around 1348. No [[birth certificate|birth record]] remains, but it seems that Perrers was the [[surname]] of her first husband.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Ormrod |first=W. M. |date=2006 |title=Who Was Alice Perrers? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25094322 |journal=The Chaucer Review |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=219–229 |doi=10.1353/cr.2006.0005 |jstor=25094322 |issn=0009-2002|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Her ancestry has been the topic of much speculation, which is detailed below. Around 1360, at the age of 12, she married Janyn Perrers, a [[Bench jeweler|jeweler]] who died around 1364.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ormrod |first1=W. M. |date=2008 |title=The trials of Alice Perrers |journal=Speculum |volume=83 |issue=2 |page=369 |doi=10.1017/S0038713400013361 |jstor=20466215 |s2cid=154399794}}</ref><ref>Laura Tompkins, 'Alice Perrers and the Goldsmiths' Mistery: New Evidence Concerning the Identity of the Mistress of Edward III', ''The English Historical Review'', 130:547 (December 2015), pp. 1361-1391 {{doi|10.1093/ehr/cev319}}</ref>
[[File:Philippa of Hainault-mini.gif|left|thumb|Queen Philippa, employer of Alice Perrers at her coronation in 1330]]

=== Life at the royal court ===
Perrers became a part of the [[Royal household|household]] of [[Philippa of Hainault|Queen Philippa]] (1310/1315–1369) as a ''domicella'' ("damsel") before 1359.<ref name=":1" /> She became the [[Mistress (lover)|mistress]] of the king, [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] (1312–1377) around 1366, when she was around 18 years old and the King 55.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alice Perrers |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Perrers |access-date=7 November 2018 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> During the Queen's life, they had three children together. Three years after their relationship started, the Queen died, which devastated the 
King, causing him to lean more on Perrers. This resulted in her receiving more, mostly negative, attention from the [[Royal court|court]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Perriers exploited Edward's growing senility and convinced him to buy her the same jewels over and over again, which she would then turn in for more cash.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Herman |first=Eleanor |title=Sex With Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge. |date=2004 |publisher=HarperCollins |edition=1st |location=New York, NY |language=English}}</ref> She amassed a fortune of more than [[Pound sterling|£]]20,000, by doing so, which would be worth around £6,000,000 as of 2016.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}} 

[[File:Eduard3 novaStatuta.jpg|thumb|King [[Edward III]], Alice Perrers' lover and patron]]
Perrer's power further grew between 1370 and 1376. She reportedly provoked fear, and no one dared to sue her. She was seen as an ambitious, calculating, cold-hearted opportunist who manipulated the elderly King. Towards the end of Edward III's life, Perrers was even accused of making his life miserable, and it is reported that she even stole the rings off his fingers after the King died.<ref name="historytheinterestingbits.com">{{cite web |date=31 July 2015 |title=Alice Perrers, Mistress of the King |url=https://historytheinterestingbits.com/2015/07/31/alice-perrers-mistress-of-the-king/ |access-date=16 May 2018 |website=Historytheinterestingbits.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gambier-Parry |first1=T.R. |year=1932 |title=Alice Perrers and Her Husband's Relatives |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=47 |issue=182 |pages=272–276 |doi=10.1093/ehr/xlvii.clxxxvi.272}}</ref> 

As the King's health was ailing, Perrers contracted a secret marriage in November 1375, at the age of 27, with 53-year-old [[Sir]] [[William de Windsor]], [[Baron]] Windsor (circa 1325–1384) to ensure her safety and [[livelihood]] after Edward's death. He was the King's [[lieutenant]] in [[Ireland]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ormrod |first1=W. M. |date=2008 |title=The trials of Alice Perrers |journal=Speculum |volume=83 |issue=2 |page=372 |doi=10.1017/S0038713400013361 |jstor=20466215 |s2cid=154399794}}</ref> De Windsor spent long periods of time away from England, thus making it less probable that the King would discover the marriage. The couple remained together until the death of the husband on 15 September 1384, but had no children.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

=== Exile ===
In 1376, an ordinance aimed specifically at Perrers set penalties for women who practised "maintenance", interfering in the due process of the law.<ref name="The trials of Alice Perrers">{{cite journal |last1=Ormrod |first1=W.M. |date=2008 |title=The trials of Alice Perrers |journal=Speculum |volume=83 |issue=2 |page=370 |doi=10.1017/S0038713400013361 |jstor=20466215 |s2cid=154399794}}</ref> A contemporary description of the ordinance is as follows:

<blockquote>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.<ref name="The trials of Alice Perrers" /></blockquote>

Perrers was tried for [[corruption]] and subsequently [[exile]]d from England by the [[Good Parliament]], her lands [[Forfeiture (law)|forfeit]]. In May 1379, the [[Lord High Treasurer|royal treasurer]] [[Thomas de Brantingham|Thomas Brantingham]] delivered 21,868 pearls confiscated from Alice Perrers to the royal wardrobe.<ref>Laura Tompkins, 'Edward III's Gold-Digging Mistress', Cathleen Sarti, ''Women and Economic Power in Premodern Royal Courts'' (Leeds: ARC, 2020), pp. 61, 67.</ref> She was later able to return and regain some of her lands, but she would spend the rest of her life trying to get everything back.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Upminster 021.jpg|thumb|Church of St Laurence in Upminster, where Alice Perrers was buried]]

=== Death ===
Perrers died during the winter of 1400/1401, aged around 52, and was buried in the [[Church of St Laurence, Upminster|Church of St Laurence]] in [[Upminster]].