Many people don’t realise that The Canterbury Tales was never actually finished. The book’s vivid, lively characters still have the power to bring the Middle Ages to life.
The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer
Some of the details of Chaucer’s life are sketchy, but historians over the years have built up a picture of Chaucer’s life, through business papers and royal documents. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London around the year 1343, into a family of winemakers – a trade which went back several generations through his family. Chaucer’s family seem to have been of fairly good means and he tried several careers, including diplomat, courtier and civil servant before becoming a writer. He was taken prisoner during the Hundred Years War in 1360 and King Edward III contributed to a ransom for his release.
Chaucer’s connection with the royal family continued when he married Philippa Roet, lady in waiting to Edward III’s wife Philippa of Hainault.
The Career of Geoffrey Chaucer
About 1367, Chaucer became a member of the court of Edward III as a chamberman, One of the earliest of around 500 written items attributed to him was The Book of the Duchess, on the death of Blanche, the wife of his friend and patron John of Gaunt.
Chaucer next held several high profile posts, including comptroller of the London customs, clerk of the King’s works (in which he oversaw royal building projects) and member of Parliament for Kent.
Chaucer moved to Kent in the 1380s and it’s believed it is here that he began work on The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories about a group of varied characters carrying out a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.
Much of the poem’s appeal to contemporaries came about because of the way in which the author poked fun at self-important figures such as nuns and priors, making all people seem equal.
Chaucer’s Death
The exact date of Chaucer’s death is not known, but it is believed to have been around 1400 and he seems to have outlived his wife, with whom he had at least three children, by around fifteen years.
Geoffrey Chaucer is buried in ‘poet’s corner’ in London’s Westminster Abbey, in the company of writers including Robert Browning and Charles Dickens.
Sources
Pearsall Derek The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography [Wiley Blackwell, 1994]
Ackroyd Peter Chaucer [Nan A Talese, 2005]
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