Geoffrey Chauser
...poet.
1321
Death of Dante Alighieri, Italian Poet, soon after the completion of the Divina Commedia.
1327
Accession of Edward III, aged 14.
1340
Boccaccio writes Filocolo.
c. 1340-1345
Birth of Geoffrey Chaucer.
Chaucer: 1340-1400: The Life and Times of the First English Poet
by Richard West Buy the Book Today!
Daily Life in Chaucer's England
by Jeffrey L. Singman and Will McLean Buy the Book Today!
1337-1453
The Hundred Years' War between England and France.
The English had held land in France for a long time, but lost Normandy in 1204. In 1337 Edward III declared himself king of France based on his mother's lineage. His ambition was the recovery of territories England used to held in France. His declaration was the onset of a long period of wars.
1338
Completion of Giovanni Boccaccio's Il Filostrato.
1340
Birth of Eustache Deschamps, French poet.
1341
Boccaccio's finishes Teseide delle Nozze d'Emilia.
1346
English victory at the battle of Crecy.
1348-1349
The Black Death wipes out one third of the population of England.
Early 1350s
Revival of alliterative poetry in the West and North-West of England.
1356
English victory at the battle of Poitiers. King John of France is captured and lives at the English court from 1357 until 1360.
1357
Chaucer became page in the household of Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster. (She is the wife of Lionel, Earl of Ulster, second son of Edward III.)
The earliest known document in which Geoffrey Chaucer is named is a household account book kept for the Countess (June 1356 - April 1359). The account book mentions purchases for Geoffrey Chaucer in April 1357: a short jacket, a pair of red and black hose (stockings) and a pair of shoes.
1359
In September 1359 King Edward and his sons were invading France with a large expeditionary force. Prince Lionel went into the...
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