Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer was born between 1343-5 to a well-to-do family of wine merchants in London. He served as a lower-level court official in a variety of roles throughout his life. Chaucer was captured by the French during the Hundred Years’ War but quickly released on ransom. Shortly afterwards, he married Philippa de Roet, an attendant to the Queen, and became an esquire at the King’s court. As an esquire, he served as a spy and traveled to Italy and France, where he likely encountered much of the continental European poetry that influenced his writing. Chaucer held several official positions, including the clerk in charge of overseeing new construction for the crown as well as one of the king’s foresters. In addition to The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer wrote a number of other important poems and prose texts, including Troilus and Criseyde, a romantic, mythological tragedy; The Book of the Duchess, a courtly elegy; and a scientific treatise on the astrolabe.