A 19th century imagining of Alice Perrers seated beside the throne of Edward III.
ALICE PERRERS, BORN 1348
MISTRESS OF KING EDWARD III
Alice Perrers was married in 1360, at the age of 12, to London goldsmith, Janyn Perrers. Widowed at 16, she joined the court of Edward III as a lady in waiting. At 18 she became the mistress of Edward III, then 55 and married to the ailing Queen Philippa. When in 1369 Philippa died, Perrers became effectively an uncrowned Queen, accompanying Edward openly at public events. During the period up to 1377, when Edward died, Perrers became increasingly influential and wealthy, accumulating a vast property portfolio. She was treated with intense envy and suspicion by the all-male court who, after Edward’s death, accused Perrers of devious manipulation of the elderly king, including stealing the royal rings from his fingers on his deathbed. She was banished to France, and her numerous properties were confiscated. Meanwhile she had secretly married a military grandee William de Windsor, who in 1380 negotiated her return to England and the transfer to him of some of her properties. These included Paddenswick Manor in what is now Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, where she had lived from 1373. She spent the years from 1380 to her death in 1401 in fruitless efforts to recover he rest of her confiscated wealth.
This life story is a reproduction, with acknowledgement and thanks, of a 2013 PhD thesis by Laura Tompkins of the University of St.Andrews.