Chaucer Time Line

ROUGH DRAFT ONLY

An Age of English Mystics and Writers.

13 November 1312 Birth of Edward III to Edward II & Isabella of France

1314 Birth of Philippa of Hainault. Philippa was born in Valenciennes (then in Flanders, now France) and was the daughter of William I, Count of Hainaut and Jeanne of Valois, the granddaughter of Philip III of France.

1327 Edward III crowned King

1328 Marriage of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault in York Minster.
Married on 24 January 1328, / Among their children were: Edward, Prince of Wales, The Black Prince, and John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster

1343 Richard Rolle, hermit and mystical writer, writes "The Fire of Love". ("I cannot tell you how surprised I was the first time I felt my heart begin to warm.") Anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" is a contemporary.
- Geoffrey Chaucer born

c 1346 Philippa Roet born.

1348 The Black Death: one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of bubonic plague.

3 April 1366/7 Henry IV (Bolingbroke) born at Bolingbroke Castle,son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster

6 January 1367 Birth of Richard II (son of Edward, the Black Prince, and Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent".

1369 Death of Philippa of Hainault

1372 Dame Julian of Norwich has a series of mystical experiences; writes of them in "Revelations of Divine Love". ("And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.")

1375 "Gawain" poet at work.

It is only with the Peasants' Revolt that Richard starts to emerge clearly in the annals.

20 January 1382 Richard marries Anne of Bohemia, daughter of Charles IV, King of Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperor and Elisabeth of Pomerania. victories.[21] The marriage was childless, and Anne died in 1394.

1386 Geoffrey Chaucer begins the "Canterbury Tales".

c1387 Philippa Roet dies

27 July 1380 Henry IV marries Mary de Bohun at Arundel Castle. They will have seven children.

1390 William Langland, an evangelical, completes "Piers Plowman".

4 November 1396 Richard II marries Isabella of Valois No children. Isabella, daughter of Charles VI of France. There were some misgivings about the marriage, however; since the princess was only six years old she was unlikely to produce an heir for many years.

1396 Walter Hilton, Augustinian mystic and author of "The Ladder of Perfection", dies.

1381 Peasnats Revolt. A Dream of John Ball

1381 John Wyclif, an Oxford theologian, publishes his "Confession", denying that the "substance" of bread and wine are miraculously annihilated during the Eucharist. (Wyclif is appealing to the Bible over the heads of the clergy. He is forced to retire by his colleagues, mostly because they are worried by this year's peasant revolt.)

c.1386–1393 John Gower Confessio Amantis

30 September 1399 Henry IV King BUT Richard??

1400 14th February: King Richard II deposed.
- 25th October: Geoffrey Chaucer dies.

1401 Persecution of Lollards (Dutch word for "babblers"). They are mostly working men, revolting against clergy. Their leaders read Wyclif's translation of the Bible.

7 February 1403 Henry IV marries (2) Joanna of Navarre inWinchester Cathedral. No children

20 March 1413 Henry IV dies Westminster Abbey aged 45 or 46

1438 The Book of Margery Kempe completed.