The Age of Chaucer (1340-1400 CE) Lecture Notes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the major historical events, literary works, and character profiles from the Age of Chaucer as detailed in the lecture notes.

Hundred Years' War ($1337-1453$)

A prolonged conflict between England and France over succession to the French throne, territorial disputes, and feudal claims.

Salic Law

The law cited by the French to reject Edward III's claim to the throne, which barred inheritance through the female line.

Battle of Crécy ($1346$)

A major English victory during the Edwardian Phase of the Hundred Years' War characterized by the use of longbowmen.

Treaty of Brétigny ($1360$)

An agreement where England gained more land but Edward III gave up his claim to the French throne.

Battle of Agincourt ($1415$)

A battle marking an English victory during the Lancastrian Phase of the Hundred Years' War under Henry V.

Dual Monarchy ($1422$)

The period when the infant Henry VI was proclaimed king of both England and France following the Deaths of Henry V and Charles VI.

Joan of Arc

A peasant girl who claimed divine guidance, led French troops to lift the Siege of Orléans in $1429$, and helped Charles VII be crowned.

Battle of Castillon ($1453$)

The final major battle of the Hundred Years' War which resulted in a French victory.

Black Death ($1347-1351$)

One of the deadliest pandemics in history caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, reaching England in June $1348$.

Statute of Labourers ($1351$)

A law passed to fix wages at pre-plague levels and prevent peasants from moving to seek better opportunities following the labor shortage caused by the Black Death.

Peasants' Revolt ($1381$)

Also known as Wat Tyler's Rebellion, a rising sparked by economic hardship and the resentment toward the Poll Tax.

Poll Tax

A fixed tax levied on every adult regardless of income, which was the most resented cause of the Peasants' Revolt.

Rhyme Royal

A seven-line stanza in iambic pentameter ($10$ syllables) with a rhyme scheme of ababbcc.

Heroic Couplet

A pair of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter ($10$ syllables) with a rhyme scheme of aa, bb, cc…

The Romaunt of the Rose

Chaucer's Middle English translation of parts of Le Roman de la Rose, featuring allegorical characters like Jealousy and Wikked-Tunge.

The Book of the Duchess

An occasion-based dream vision elegy in octosyllabic couplets written for Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, the wife of John of Gaunt.

Troilus and Criseyde

A tragic verse romance in Rhyme royal based on Giovanni Boccaccio's Il Filostrato, dedicated to "moral Gower".

The Parliament of Foules

A $699$-line poem in Rhyme Royal depicting a gathering of birds on St. Valentine's Day to choose their mates under the presence of Nature.

The House of Fame

An unfinished dream vision in three books influenced by Dante's Divine Comedy, exploring the arbitrary nature of fame.

The Legend of Good Women

A dream vision poem containing nine stories of tragic love, notable for the earliest known use of heroic couplets by Chaucer.

The Canterbury Tales

An unfinished frame narrative work written in Middle English verse, primarily in heroic couplets, depicting a pilgrimage to Canterbury.

The Tabard Inn

The starting point of the pilgrimage in Southwark where the characters meet before traveling to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket.

Harry Bailey

The Host of the Tabard Inn who serves as the judge and organizer of the storytelling contest.

Estate Satire

A genre used in The Canterbury Tales to provide a panoramic view of English society and criticize the three estates (Nobility, Clergy, and Commoners).

Madame Eglentyne

The Prioress in The Canterbury Tales, characterized by her worldly affectations, coral beads, and a brooch inscribed "Amor vincit omnia".

Wife of Bath (Alisoun)

A gap-toothed cloth-maker who has been married five times and argues for female sovereignty in marriage.

Fabliau

A comic and bawdy literary genre, exemplified by The Miller's Tale and The Reeve's Tale.

The Knight's Tale

A chivalric romance based on Boccaccio's Teseida, following the competition between Palamon and Arcite for Emelye.

Radix malorum est cupiditas

The Latin theme of The Pardoner's Tale, meaning "Greed is the root of all evil."

The Parson's Tale

The final tale of the collection, written as a prose sermon on the seven deadly sins, rejecting fiction in favor of moral instruction.