John of Gaunt left isolated (even the Black Prince supported the need for reform) and the Commons refused to grant money for the war unless most of the great officers of state were dismissed and the king's mistress Alice Perrers, another focus of popular resentment, was barred from any further association with him. But even after the government acceded to virtually all their demands, the Commons then refused to authorise any funds for the war, losing the sympathy of the Lords as a result. The death of the Black Prince on 8 June 1376 and the onset of Edward III's last illness at
Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk - pursued the unsuccessful Yorkist claim to the throne against Henry VII. Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk Alice de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk (1404–1475) was a granddaughter of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Married three times, she eventually became a Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, an honour granted rarely to women and marking the friendship between herself and her third husband William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk (d.1450) with King Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou. She was born as Alice Chaucer, a daughter of Thomas Chaucer by his wife Matilda