Geoffrey Chaucer 1343-1400

1
Geoffrey Chaucer1343-1400

• The Canterbury Tales

2
Biographical Information

• Considered one of the 3 greatest poets of the
  English language.
• Son of a prosperous London wine merchant who
  secured a position for him as a page in a royal
  household.
• At 20 years old, during military service, Chaucer
  was captured in France and the King paid his
  ransom.

3
Biographical Information

• He married a woman of great connections and went
  on to be a civil servant, serving as a customs
  controller, justice of the peace and eventually a
  member of Parliament.
• In 1387 he began The Canterbury Tales, a work he
  never completed.
• The General Prologue is said to be a concise
  portrait of an entire nation.

4
Medieval Period

• 1066, Battle of Hastings
• Normans from France beat the Anglo-Saxons
• William the Conquerer leads (Norman King)
• 2 cultures blend begins feudalism

5
Medieval Period

• 1154, Norman line ends
• Henry II starts the Plantagenet Line
• Executes Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of
  Canterbury in 1170.

6
Medieval Period

• 1399-1413, House or Line of Lancaster
• Hundred Years War 1337-1453, England wanted to
  claim Frances land.

7
Medieval Period

• In 1455, Henry VI becomes ill and gives the
  throne to the Duke of York, starting the York
  line.
• War of the Roses- York (white rose) and Lancaster
  (red rose).
• Edward IV becomes the 1st York King.

8
Story of Canterbury

• These tales are told during a pilgrimage journey
  from London to the shrine of the martyr, St.
  Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral,
  approximately 70 miles to the southeast.
• St. Thomas Becket was executed by the order of
  Henry II

9
Thomas Becket

• Born in 1118 in London
• Studied in London and at the University of Paris.
• His father died, leaving him broke and the
  Archbishop of Canterbury took him in and financed
  his education.
• He became involved in the political happenings of
  the time and was eventually appointed Chancellor
  of England by Henry II, becoming the second most
  powerful man in England.

10
Thomas Becket

• He famed for luxury and a magnificent lifestyle.
• Henry nominated him the Archbishop of Canterbury
  and everything changed.
• He was ordained a priest and began living in
  great austerity.
• He soon clashed with the king over clerical and
  king rights.

11
Thomas Becket

• For 6 years they continued to clash
• Becket's allegiance shifted from the court to the
  Church inspiring him to take a stand against his
  king.
• Becket had excommunicated the Bishops of London
  and Salisbury for their support of the king.
• This news threw King Henry (still in France) into
  a rage in which he was purported to shout "What
  sluggards, what cowards have I brought up in my
  court, who care nothing for their allegiance to
  their lord. Who will rid me of this meddlesome
  priest?"

12
Thomas Becket

• The king's exact words have been lost to history
  but his outrage inspired four knights to sail to
  England to rid the realm Becket. They arrived at
  Canterbury during the afternoon of December 29
  and immediately searched for the Archbishop.
  Becket fled to the Cathedral where a service was
  in progress. The knights found him at the altar,
  drew their swords and began hacking at their
  victim finally splitting his skull.
• The death of Becket unnerved the king. The
  knights who did the deed to curry the king's
  favor, fell into disgrace. Several miracles were
  said to occur at the tomb of the martyr and he
  was soon canonized. Hordes of pilgrims
  transformed Canterbury Cathedral into a shrine.
  Four years later, in an act of penance, the king
  donned a sack-cloth walking barefoot through the
  streets of Canterbury while eighty monks flogged
  him with branches. Henry capped his atonement by
  spending the night in the martyr's crypt. St.
  Thomas continued as a popular cultist figure for
  the remainder of the Middle Ages.

13
The Story of Canterbury Continued

• The tales begin with the General Prologue, the
  first lines of which establish the fact that this
  pilgramage takes place in the spring, the
  symbolic time of new life and awakening.
• Along the way the poet stops at an inn and the
  Host suggests to the travelers that they all
  exchange tales as they travel.
• He wrote in iambic pentameter a line of poetry
  ten syllables long with an unstressed syllable
  followed by a stressed syllable. This later
  becomes the most popular metrical line in English.

14

• If you had to choose 5 types of people to
  represent our society today, who would they be?