About Geoffrey Chaucer | Academy of American Poets Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London sometime between 1340 and 1344 to John Chaucer and Agnes Copton. John Chaucer was an affluent wine merchant and deputy to the king's butler. Through his father's connections, Geoffrey held several positions early in his life, serving as a noblewoman's page, a courtier, a diplomat, a civil servant, and a collector of scrap metal. His early life and education were not strictly documented although it can be surmised from his works that he could read French, Latin, and Italian. In 1359, Chaucer joined the English army's invasion of France during the Hundred Years' War and was taken prisoner; King Edward III of England paid his ransom in 1360. In 1366, Chaucer married Philipa de Roet, who was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's wife. Chaucer's early work is heavily influenced by love poetry of the French tradition, including the Romaunt of the Rose (c. 1370) and Saint Cecilia (c. 1373), later used as the "Second Nun's Tale" in the Canterbury Tales.
KS3 Bitesize History - The Norman Conquest : Revision, Page 7 www.ancient Geoffrey Chaucer (l. c. 1343-1400 CE) was a medieval English poet, writer, and philosopher best known for his work The Canterbury Tales, a masterpiece of world literature. The Canterbury Tales is a work of poetry featuring a group of pilgrims from different social classes on a journey to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury who agree to tell each other stories to pass the time. Chaucer was well acquainted with people from all classes, and this is evident in the details he chooses as well as the accents employed, how the people dress, and even their hairstyles. The Canterbury Tales have therefore been invaluable to later scholars as a kind of snapshot of medieval life. Chaucer was a prolific writer, creating many other fine works which have been overshadowed by The Canterbury Tales. Early Life & Travels Geoffrey Chaucer was the son of John Chaucer, a wealthy vintner (winemaker and seller) and his wife Anne. Love History? Sign up for our free weekly email newsletter! Conclusion
Geoffrey Chaucer Biography While many writers of the Middle Ages, such as Marie de France or the Gawain-poet, remain obscure or anonymous Geoffrey Chaucer is a different case. As well as being – arguably – the greatest poet of the Middle English period, he was also a public servant who worked as a soldier, diplomat, comptroller of customs, justice of the peace, clerk of works and a forest official – so his life is well represented in surviving documents. We don’t know when Chaucer was born, but a document dating to 1386 describes him as ‘forty and more’, so his date of birth was probably in the early 1340s. What do surviving documents reveal about Chaucer’s life? These records of Chaucer’s life map out a life of service. Chaucer’s royal connections and patrons Chaucer was well connected at the royal court. Chaucer’s life as a public servant also gave him the opportunity to travel. The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer’s literary works Chaucer wrote in a range of poetic forms and genres. Biography
In everything we say, there is an echo of 1066 It’s Sunday, and let us hope that you are about to have lunch. As you prepare to enjoy the roast beef, it may, possibly, occur to you that but for an event on this date, October 14, centuries ago, you might be about to eat the same joint but you wouldn’t be calling it beef. That event was the Battle of Hastings (aka Senlac Hill) in 1066, as a result of which William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, became William the Conqueror, King of England. The English language is unusual in that we have different names for farm animals in the field or byre, and the flesh of these animals when they appear on the table. In Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe, a Saxon peasant explains that the oxen, calves, swine and sheep are good Saxons tended by Saxons when alive, but turn into Norman-French when they are ready to be eaten as beef (or beeves), veal, pork and mutton. So, if you were to begin by asking, in Monty Python style, “what have the Normans ever done for us?”
www.bl Biography While many writers of the Middle Ages, such as Marie de France or the Gawain-poet, remain obscure or anonymous Geoffrey Chaucer is a different case. As well as being – arguably – the greatest poet of the Middle English period, he was also a public servant who worked as a soldier, diplomat, comptroller of customs, justice of the peace, clerk of works and a forest official – so his life is well represented in surviving documents. We don’t know when Chaucer was born, but a document dating to 1386 describes him as ‘forty and more’, so his date of birth was probably in the early 1340s. He was born into a prosperous merchant family in London. What do surviving documents reveal about Chaucer’s life? These records of Chaucer’s life map out a life of service. Chaucer’s royal connections and patrons Chaucer was well connected at the royal court. Chaucer’s life as a public servant also gave him the opportunity to travel. The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer’s literary works
Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer was born between the years 1340-1345, the son of John and Agnes (de Copton) Chaucer. Chaucer was descended from two generations of wealthy vintners who had everything but a title and in 1357 Chaucer began pursuing a position at court. As a squire in the court of Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, the wife of Lionel, Earl of Ulster (later Duke of Clarence), Chaucer would have served as a gentleman’s gentleman—essentially a butler. Known as the first English author, Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was considered the grammatica, or language which would not change, and most of the upper-class English spoke French. Chaucer wrote many works, some of which like The Canterbury Tales (circa 1375-1400) he never finished. Chaucer’s first major work, The Book of the Duchess, is an elegy on the death of Blanche, John of Gaunt’s first wife. The Canterbury Tales innovates on this model in significant ways.
nationalgeographic On October 14, 1066, Duke William of Normandy ended the Anglo-Saxon period in British history with his victory at the Battle of Hastings, England. This battle is so pivotal in the history of Western Civilization that the year “1066” is often used to refer to the event, and the victor’s nickname has gone down in history as “William the Conqueror.” William was the leader of Normandy, a region in northwest France with cultural ties to the island kingdoms of Great Britain just across the English Channel. In fact, William had previously met and corresponded with Harold Godwinson, the English king his forces confronted and killed at the Battle of Hastings. The Norman conquest of England had long-lasting consequences. After crowning himself king in December, William (now William I of England) immediately began to replace almost all English landowners and religious leaders with his own supporters from France.
www.britannica Geoffrey Chaucer, (born c. 1342/43, London?, England—died October 25, 1400, London), the outstanding English poet before Shakespeare and “the first finder of our language.” His The Canterbury Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetic works in English. Top Questions What did Geoffrey Chaucer do for a living? Geoffrey Chaucer is today one of the most highly regarded English poets, but during his lifetime his writing was largely subsidiary to his role in public affairs in 14th-century England. What is Geoffrey Chaucer known for? What is The Canterbury Tales? Written at the end of his life, The Canterbury Tales is Geoffrey Chaucer’s best-known work. Perhaps the chief characteristics of Chaucer’s works are their variety in subject matter, genre, tone, and style and in the complexities presented concerning the human pursuit of a sensible existence. Although c. 1340 is customarily given as Chaucer’s birth date, 1342 or 1343 is probably a closer guess. Facts Matter. By 1366 Chaucer had married.
Geoffrey Chaucer - Diplomat and civil servant During the decade of the 1370s, Chaucer was at various times on diplomatic missions in Flanders, France, and Italy. Probably his first Italian journey (December 1372 to May 1373) was for negotiations with the Genoese concerning an English port for their commerce, and with the Florentines concerning loans for Edward III. His next Italian journey occupied May 28 to September 19, 1378, when he was a member of a mission to Milan concerning military matters. Several times during the 1370s, Chaucer and his wife received generous monetary grants from the king and from John of Gaunt. On May 10, 1374, he obtained rent-free a dwelling above Aldgate, in London, and on June 8 of that year he was appointed comptroller of the customs and subsidy of wools, skins, and tanned hides for the Port of London. Now, for the first time, Chaucer had a position away from the court, and he and his wife had a home of their own, about a 10-minute walk from his office.
en.m.wikipedia 17th-century English poet and playwright John Dryden (; 19 August [O.S. 9 August] 1631 – 12 May [O.S. 1 May] 1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668.[1] Early life[edit] Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire, where his maternal grandfather was rector of All Saints. He was the eldest of fourteen children born to Erasmus Dryden and wife Mary Pickering, paternal grandson of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet (1553–1632), and wife Frances Wilkes, Puritan landowning gentry who supported the Puritan cause and Parliament. He was a second cousin once removed of Jonathan Swift. As a humanist public school, Westminster maintained a curriculum which trained pupils in the art of rhetoric and the presentation of arguments for both sides of a given issue. Later life and career[edit] Dryden, by James Maubert, c. 1695 Frontispiece and title page, vol. Dryden near end of his life