Geoffrey Chaucer: Father of English Literature

Geoffrey Chaucer is a great man; he’s considered as a founding Father of English literature. He’s also a philosopher, astronomer and author. Although he wrote many of his works, his best known work was The Unfinished Tale of the Canterbury Tales. Sometimes honored as the father of English literature, Chaucer was also honored by several scholars as the first author to demonstrate the art of original English, in addition to French or Latin.

He was born around 1343 in London, his date of birth and location of his birth remain unknown, His father and grandfather were both wine maker in London, the previous generations are businessman in Ipswich. In 1359, at the beginning of the Hundred Years War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer join the region with Elizabeth’s husband, Lionel Antwerp, as a member of the British Army. In 1360, he was arrested during the Rheims siege, and Edward paid a 16-pound ransom, which was a considerable sum, and Chaucer was released. After the incident, Chaucer’s life wasn’t clear, but he arrived in France, Spain, and Flanders, high chance a procurator and maybe pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Around1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet. It is unclear whether he and Philippa have several children, but some sources say there are three or four. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had a distinguished career, was the general manager of four kings, envoys to France, and spokesman of the lower house of An. Daughter Thomas, Alice, married Suffolk’s Duke. Thomas’s great-grandfather, John de la Pole, was the heir to Richard III’s throne before he was overthrown. Other children of Geoffrey are probably Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey. Agnes, who served in the coronation of Henry IV; and the other is Lewis Chaucer.

Chaucer’s “Treatise on the Astrolabe” was written for Lewis. Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple at the time, he also become a member of the Royal Court Edward III, like a yeoman on June 20 1376. He traveled aboard a lot, sometime as a yeoman, as a part of military expedition, he went to Picardy and he visited Genoa and Florence in 1373. A lot of scholars said that o that Italian trip, he met Petrarch or Boccaccio and they introduced him to the medieval Italian poetry. In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy to the Visconti and to Sir John Hawkwood in Milan. That seem be the Knight of the Canterbury Tales based on him. On July 12 1389, Chaucer became clerk of the king’s work and keeper of the lodge at the King’s park in Feckenham, which is a very honorable position.

Chaucer’s first major work is The Book of the Duchess and the other early work are Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame. There are a lot of major work such as: Roman de la Rose, The Legend of Good Women, Treatise on the Astrolabe. Chaucer is a very great man, he has contributed to literature of the world in general and in English literature in specific.