Biography of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340/1345 – 1400)
Geoffrey Chaucer was born between 1340 and 1345 in London and died around 1400. He was known as the ‘Father of English literature’ and established the English writing instead of the French and Latin.
He was a page to the Countess of Ulster, Elisabeth, who was the wife of the third son of King Edward III. He met Philippa Roet when both were around 10 years old; they both worked in the palace to take care of the Queen’s daughter Philippa of Eltham.
In 1359 Geoffrey went off to war in France. He was taken prisoner and the King paid part of his ransom, so he could get away. After this he went to serve the King.
In 1366 he married Philippa Roet-Chaucer.
In September 1369 he wrote a book for a Duchess, it was called ‘The Book of the Duchess’.
In 1370 Geoffrey traveled for the king to France, Genoa, Florence and possibly other places we don’t know about. He stayed loyal to the King, but tried to focus himself on his literally work more around 1378, which was the year in which he made his last journey for the King Edward III.
In 1380 a rape-claim was filed against him. Cecile Campaigne claimed to be raped by the writer and Geoffrey was sentenced to a debt of ten pounds (which was around half his money for the year at the time) and he paid it. This is said to be true, but we don’t have proof other than a legal record.
In 1387 Philippa died, of unknown reasons.
On the 24th of December in 1399 Chaucer rented a place in the gardens of Westminster’s chapel. It is believed he died there in 1400.
He was buried in Westminster Abby as the first in the now-called ‘Poet’s Corner’ where some of the most important poets and writers are buried. He was initially buried there because he worked as a Clerk of Works to the Westminster palace, but it changed into a place to bury and commemorate important writers and poets.
A few of the people that are buried or commemorated in Poet’s Corner (next to Chaucer) are Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde.

A few random facts about Geoffrey Chaucer:
When Geoffrey grew up the language written in was French, for the aristocracy, or Latin, for it was spoken in church. Because Chaucer preferred writing in English, or Anglos-English as it was called at the time, he made the language more popular because of the popularity of his books. He himself spoke French in daily life.
He also thought that male and female are not two opposites, but working together. This was very modern thinking for that time. This also shows in his works.

A few of Chaucer’s other accomplishments are:
There’s a crater on the moon that’s named after Chaucer.
Even though he died more than 600 years ago, Chaucer has more than 2.100 fans on Facebook.
Chaucer has had a lot of jobs, he worked as a page, a soldier, an esquire, a diplomat, a customs controller, justice of the peace, member of Parliament, Clerk of the Works of Westminster, Commissioner of Walls and Ditches, and Deputy Forester of the Royal Forest.
Chaucer was elected in the British Parliament for one year.
He had a part-time job collecting scrap metal to reuse and worked as a diplomat at the same time.

Chaucer’s most important work was ‘The Canterbury Tales’.
It’s a collection of stories written by Chaucer in Anglos-English. He planned to write 120 stories he had all thought out, but in reality he only wrote 24 of them. He started writing those stories in 1380 and stopped around 1390. ‘The Canterbury Tales’ would tell 4 stories: two people going to Canterbury and two going to London. They were pilgrims and told each other stories.

This is the prologue of ‘The Canterbury Tales’ translated into Modern English.
The drought of March has pierced unto the root
And bathed each vein with liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;
When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,
Quickened again, in every holt and heath,
The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun
Into the Ram one half his course has run,
And many little birds make melody
That sleep through all the night with open eye
(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-
Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,
And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,
To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.
And specially from every shire's end

This basically just tells us that the pilgrims start their journey.

Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/chaucer_geoffrey.shtml http://www.exampleessays.com/papers/Gender_Role/Geoffrey_Chaucer.html http://www.enotes.com/authors/geoffrey-chaucer http://www.smithsonianjourneys.org/blog/2010/09/13/geoffrey-chaucer/comment-page-1/ http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/chaucer/resume.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa_Roet