Geoffrey Chaucer Was Captured By The French During The Hundred Years’ War

(Portrait of Chaucer as a Canterbury pilgrim, Ellesmere manuscript of The Canterbury Tales, c. 15th century, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

In his youth, the renowned English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400 CE), tried his hand at soldiering in the army of King Edward III of England during the Hundred Years’ War. He was deployed on the French front in 1359, but he soon found that war was not his calling—the eighteen year-old Chaucer was captured by the French during the English siege of Rheims in 1360.

Yet, Chaucer was a man with connections. In the years prior to his being called up for war in France, Chaucer had been employed as a page for the Countess of Ulster. Fortunately for Chaucer, the Countess had become the Duchess of Clarence, and her father-in-law was none other than King Edward III. Therefore, the king of England paid the ransom for Chaucer’s release, allowing the young man to return home—which was around the time Geoffrey Chaucer likely began dabbling in the poetry that would make him immortal.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Check out our Geoffrey Chaucer biography, HERE.

Take a look at our Geoffrey Chaucer quote pictures, HERE.

Source:

• The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill. New York: Penguin Classics, 1977.

Before The 15th Century, Adults Frequently Wore Diapers

(Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons. Modified with diaper.)

Sorry—that is misleading. In the Middle Ages, there was a fancy fabric called diaper. It was a cloth decorated with a repeating pattern, like diamonds, floral patterns or geometric shapes. The diaper pattern was sometimes used with silk fabric, and even gold and silver threads would be sewn into clothing or linens in the diaper fashion.

Around the 15th century, however, the fabric was being widely used in a new way. Enough people were using the diaper-decorated fabric as nappies for their young children that the cloth became irreconcilably connoted with baby excrement. Consequently, diaper fabric fell out of fashion on anything but babies and toddlers.

In books before the 15th century, however, there are plenty of references to grown people, and everyday objects, being clothed in diaper fabric. An example from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is included below—now it should make more sense to the average reader.

“And with Arcita, so the poets sing,

Went great Emetrius the Indian king

On a bay steed whose trappings were of steel

Covered in cloth of gold from haunch to heel

Fretted with diaper.”

• From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics edition, 1977).

Sources:

• https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/diaper  
• http://www.dictionary.com/browse/diaper 
• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diaper