 Was the first writer to show that English could be a respectable literary language. › Most texts at the time were written in Latin.  Chaucer was born between 1340 and › His family was not noble, but they were well off. › Their money was from wine and leather trades.

 His parent placed him in the household of Prince Lionel’s wife to serve as an attendant. › An attendant was a highly sought after position. It introduced people to the customs of the upper class. › This is where Chaucer met Lionel’s younger brother John of Gaunt, who became his lifelong patron.

 When he was a teenager he joined the king’s army, and fought in the hundreds year war. › During the war Chaucer was captured. › The king himself contributed to his ransom.  After this he became a royal messenger.

 His earliest writing was an English translation of The Romance of the Rose.  His first IMPORTANT original work was The Book of the Duchess. › This was a poem written for his friend John’s first wife who died of the Plague.

 In 1377 Edward III dies and his son Richard II comes to the throne. › Richard was just a boy at this time.  Chaucer wrote The Parliament of Fowls to commemorate Richard’s wedding to Anne of Bohemia in  4 years later Chaucer was made a knight of the Shire and a member of Parliament.

 1399 power shifted from Richard to his cousin Henry IV.  Henry was the son of Chaucer’s friend  Chaucer died in  He was buried in Westminster Abbey.  Thus starting the famous Poet’s Conner.

 For two decades before his death Chaucer had worked on his most famous work The Canterbury Tales.  The Canterbury Tales are a collection of verse and prose tales.  At the time of his death the tale was left unfinished.

 Each story in the tale is told by a different character while they are traveling to Canterbury.  The Canterbury Tales is a frame story. › A frame story is a story with in a story.