History
In the Middle Ages, the Perche constituted a county lying between Normandy and Maine, of which Corbon, Mortagne and Nogent-le-Rotrou were successively the capitals. It was held by an independent line of counts until 1226. One of these, Geoffroy V, would have been a leader of the Fourth Crusade had he not died before the assembled forces could depart.
The county then became a possession of the crown, which removed part of it to create the county of Alençon. After 1325, both counties were generally held by a member or members of a cadet line of the House of Valois. Upon the death without children of the last Duke of Alençon in 1525, it returned to the crown, and was granted only sporadically thereafter.
Under the ancient regime it formed, together with Maine, a government of which Mortagne was the capital. It had its own customary law "coûtume du Perche" until the French Revolution.
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