![Geoffrey Chaucer English writer Geoffrey Chaucer.](https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/sites/default/files/styles/tall_rectangle_custom_user_small_2x/public/images/contributor/chaucer_360x450.jpg?itok=8FL_FyPk×tamp=1422047713)
Geoffrey Chaucer
(c. 1342 - 1400)
The son of a middle-class wine merchant whose surname derived from the French word for “maker of footwear,” Geoffrey Chaucer enters the historical record in 1357 as a member of the household of the countess of Ulster. He later served in Edward III’s army in France, paid a fine for beating a Franciscan friar in the streets of London, and traveled to Spain in the first of many diplomatic missions in 1366. He is the author of The Canterbury Tales.