Chaucers Official Life

Chaucer's Official Life

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Title: Chaucer's Official Life
Author: James Root Hulbert
Release Date: September, 2004 [EBook #6565] [Yes, we are more than
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CHAUCER'S OFFICIAL LIFE ***

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CHAUCER'S OFFICIAL LIFE
BY
JAMES ROOT HULBERT

NOTE
In making reference to books and manuscripts, I have attempted to use
abbreviations which seem, reasonably clear. Perhaps the least
intelligible are C. R. which stands for Close Rolls, and L. R. which
stands for Life Records of Chaucer (Chaucer Soc.) Wherever possible,
I have referred to prints rather than to original manuscripts because the
printed calendars are much more accessible. In a work which has
involved the copying of innumerable references, many of which are to
documents in the Public Record Office not available to me as I revise
my copy, it is too much to expect that there should be no inaccuracies.
Therefore, if the reader discovers erroneous references, I must ask his
leniency.
For their courtesy and assistance in making books and documents
accessible to me, I wish most heartily to thank J. A. Herbert, Esq., of
the Manuscript Department, the British Museum, and Edward Salisbury,
Esq., and Hubert Hall, Esq., of the Public Record Office. To my friend
and colleague, Dr. Thomas A. Knott, of the University of Chicago, I
am deeply indebted for his kindness in reading over parts of my
manuscript and trying to make their style clearer and more readable.
My greatest obligation, however, is to Professor John M. Manly, not
only for encouragement and specific suggestions as to the handling of
this subject, but for a training which has made possible whatever in my
results may be considered of value.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: Statement of the problem THE ESQUIRES OF
THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD: Their Families Appointment
Classification Services Rewards Marriage Careers of the Esquires of
1368 THE JUSTICES OF THE PEACE THE CUSTOMS SIR JOHN
DE BURLEY SIR EDWARD DE BERKELEY SIR THOMAS DE
PERCY SIR WILLIAM DE BEAUCHAMP RICHARD FORESTER
HENRY SCOGAN OTO DE GRAUNSON BUKTON CHAUCER'S
CAREER AND HIS RELATION TO JOHN OF GAUNT
CHAUCER'S RELATION TO RICHARD II SOME GENERAL
POINTS
INTRODUCTION
The researches of Sir Harris Nicolas, Dr. Furnivall, Mr. Selby and
others have provided us with a considerable mass of detailed
information regarding the life and career of Geoffrey Chaucer. Since
the publication of Nicolas's biography of the poet prefixed to the
Aldine edition of Chaucer's works in 1845, the old traditional
biography of conjecture and inference, based often on mere probability
or the contents of works erroneously ascribed to Chaucer, has
disappeared and in its place has been developed an accurate biography
based on facts. In the sixty-five years since Nicolas's time, however, a
second tradition--connected in some way with fact, to be sure--has
slowly grown up. Writers on Chaucer's life have not been content
merely to state the facts revealed in the records, but, in their eagerness
to get closer to Chaucer, have drawn many questionable inferences
from those facts. Uncertain as to the exact significance of the various
appointments which Chaucer held, his engagement in diplomatic
missions and his annuities, biographers have thought it necessary to
find an explanation for what they suppose to be remarkable favors, and
have assumed--cautiously in the case of careful scholars but boldly in
that of popular writers--that Chaucer owed every enhancement of his
fortune to his "great patron" John of Gaunt. In greater or less degree
this conception appears in every biography since Nicolas. Professor
Minto in his Encyclopedia Britannica article [Footnote: Ed. Scribners
1878, vol. 5, p. 450.] says with regard to the year 1386: "that was an
unfortunate year for him; his patron,