It is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. 1396) became the third wife of John of Gaunt. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, who later ( c. Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet. Possibly funeral helm of his son Thomas ChaucerĪfter this, Chaucer's life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum equivalent to £12,261 in 2021, and Chaucer was released.Ĭhaucer crest A unicorn's head with canting arms of Roet below: Gules, three Catherine Wheels or (French rouet = 'spinning wheel'). In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims. In 1359, the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the English army. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the King's Works. The countess was married to Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, the second surviving son of the king, Edward III, and the position brought the teenage Chaucer into the close court circle, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. The first of the 'Chaucer Life Records' appears in 1357, in the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh, the Countess of Ulster, when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's connections, a common medieval form of apprenticeship for boys into knighthood or prestige appointments. While records concerning the lives of his contemporaries William Langland and the Gawain Poet are practically non-existent, since Chaucer was a public servant his official life is very well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career.

Career Chaucer as a pilgrim, in the early 15th-century illuminated Ellesmere manuscript of the Canterbury Tales In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie, which translates as: 'I, Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner John Chaucer, London'. John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in 1349, including 24 shops in London from her uncle Hamo de Copton, who is described in a will dated 3 April 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as 'moneyer', said to be a moneyer at the Tower of London. The aunt was imprisoned and fined £250, now equivalent to about £200,000, which suggests that the family was financially secure. In 1324, his father John Chaucer was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the 12-year-old to her daughter in an attempt to keep the property in Ipswich. His family name is derived from the French chaucier, once thought to mean 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a maker of hose or leggings. Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been vintners and merchants in Ipswich. His great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather worked as a purveyor of wines, and his father John Chaucer rose to become an important wine merchant with a royal appointment. The Chaucer family offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. Life Origin Arms of Geoffrey Chaucer: Per pale argent and gules, a bend counterchanged.Ĭhaucer was born in London most likely in the early 1340s (by some accounts, including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise date and location remain unknown. Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as ' the firste fyndere of our fair langage' (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament.Īmong Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women, and Troilus and Criseyde. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey.

He has been called the 'father of English literature', or, alternatively, the 'father of English poetry'. 1340s – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales.

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