Geoffrey ChaucerHe is considered to be the cornerstone of English literature

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Born between 1340-1343, probably in London

• Family made money in wine and leather trades (Chaucer is French for shoemaker)

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Parents placed him in the house of Prince Lionel, son of King Edward III.

• He served there at an attendant. He learned customs of upper-class.

Geoffrey Chaucer

• While working for Lionel, Chaucer met John of Gaunt, who becomes his lifelong patron.

• As a teenager, Chaucer joined the army to fight in the Hundred Years’ War.

Geoffrey Chaucer

• He was captured and the King of England contributed to his ransom.

• Chaucer later served as a royal messenger and worked his way up to more diplomatic assignments.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Chaucer’s early diplomatic travels to the European mainland exposed him to French and Italian literature.

Geoffrey Chaucer

• The last 2 decades of Chaucer’s life saw his finest literary achievement - The Canterbury Tales.

Geoffrey Chaucer

• In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer joins the stories together through having the characters join as members of a group of travelers journeying from London to Canterbury.

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Although he began the work in 1387, he didn’t finish it.

• He finished 22 of the 116 stories

Geoffrey Chaucer

• When he died in 1400, Chaucer was accorded an honor rare for a commoner—burial in Westminster Abbey.

The Canterbury Tales

• The characters are on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury, to the shrine of Saint Thomas a Becket.

• Becket was appointed archbishop of Canterbury by King Henry II in 1162.

The Canterbury Tales

• After Becket and Henry II quarreled bitterly over the rights of the Church, four of Henry’s loyal knights murdered the archbishop in his own Cathedral in 1170. 3 years later Becket was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.