Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer, author of one of the greatest—and earliest—poems written in English, was born in London in the early 1340s. His father was a successful vintner and deputy chief butler to King Edward III. Little is known of Chaucer’s early years. He most likely attended a grammar school but did not study at a university. He learned Latin and French, and perhaps some Italian, the latter probably from wine traders with whom his father did business. Around 1356 he became a page in the household of Elizabeth, countess of Ulster and wife of Lionel, one of Edward III’s sons.

In 1359 Chaucer journeyed to France in the service of Prince Lionel and Edward III on one of the many campaigns fought during the Hundred Years’ War; when Chaucer was captured, Edward provided the money for his ransom. Little is known of Chaucer during the decade following his return from France. In the early 1360s he entered Edward III’s household as a yeoman and soon became an esquire; as such, he probably lived at court and performed duties for the crown. He married Philippa Roet, who was descended from a powerful family, in 1366. During the same period, Edward III awarded him a lifetime annuity, one among many Chaucer and his wife received.

Chaucer served Edward III, John of Gaunt, and Richard II in a variety of capacities, including diplomat, justice of the peace, and translator. Beginning in 1374 he was controller of wool customs for the port of London; around this time he and his family moved into comfortable, rent-free quarters above one of London’s seven city gates. He traveled frequently on royal business; in the late 1370s, during a trip to Italy, he may have obtained copies of the works of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch.

Possibly in response to political pressures, Chaucer resigned his position as controller of customs and left his London apartment in 1386; that same year he was elected to Parliament from the county of Kent, and in 1387 his wife is reported to have died. In 1391 he retired to Kent, presumably to write. A year or two before his death, he returned to London to live.

Chaucer is thought to have begun The Canterbury Tales, his masterpiece, in the late 1380s. While he drew on French and Italian forms of prose, and on the work of Dante, Ovid, and Virgil, his poetry was innovative—written in his native tongue, while most writers of the day composed in Latin or French. He produced some of the most renowned verse in the history of the English language, particularly in The Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400 and was buried in Westminster Cathedral.