The document provides an overview of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. It describes how a group of pilgrims from various social classes agree to tell stories on their journey from London to Canterbury to honor Thomas Becket. Chaucer intended the work to satirize and portray English society in the late 14th century through the characters and their tales. The unfinished work consists of a general prologue introducing the pilgrims followed by tales told by each along the way. It was highly popular and helped establish English as a literary language.

1. An Introduction to The Canterbury Tales

2.  The Doomsday Book: Survey of all the lands
and possessions of England
 The Magna Carta: Allowed for the formation of
a powerful parliament
 The Church - The Church was to be free from royal
interference, especially in the election of bishops
 Taxes - No taxes except the regular feudal dues were to be
levied, except by the consent of the Great Council, or Parliament
 The right to due process which led to Trial by Jury
 Weights and Measures - All weights and measures to be kept
uniform throughout the realm

3.  Key Dates relating to the event: This terrible plague started in Europe in 1328 and lasted
until 1351 although there were outbreaks for the next sixty years
 Why was the disease called the Black Death? The disease was called the Black Death
because one of the symptoms produced a blackening of the skin around the swellings. or
buboes. The buboes were red at first, but later turned a dark purple, or black. When a
victim's blood was let the blood that exuded was black, thick and vile smelling with a
greenish scum mixed in it.
 How the disease was spread: The Black Death was spread by fleas that were carried by rats
or other small rodents
 The spread of the Black Death followed all of the Trade Routes to every country
 The Black Death of the Middle Ages was believed to have originated in the Gobi Desert
 Key People relating to the event: Nearly one third of the population of died - about 200
million people in Europe
 The 1328 outbreak in China caused the population to drop from 125 million to 90 million in
just fifty years
 7500 victims of the disease were dying every day
 The Black Death in England raged from 1348-1350
 Why the Black Death was important to the history of England: The population drop resulted
in a higher value being placed on labor - the Peasants Revolt followed in 1381. Farming
changed and the wool industry boomed. People became disillusioned with the church and
its power and influence went into decline. This ultimately resulted in the English
reformation

4.  were far reaching in England:
 Prices and Wages rose
 Greater value was placed on labor
 Farming land was given over to pasturing, which was much less
labor-intensive
 This change in farming led to a boost in the cloth and woolen
industry
 Peasants moved from the country to the towns
 The Black Death was therefore also responsible for the decline of
the Feudal system
 People became disillusioned with the church and its power and
influence went into decline
 This resulted in the English reformation
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs

5.  Feudalism in England was established by William the
Conqueror and the Normans following the defeat of the English
Anglo Saxons at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The system and
structure of feudalism had been well established in Europe for
some time and the Normans imposed feudalism in England.
 Feudalism was based on the exchange of land for military
service. King William the Conqueror used the concept of
feudalism to reward his Norman supporters for their help
in the conquest of England. Life lived under the Medieval
Feudal System, or Feudalism, demanded that everyone
owed allegiance to the King and their immediate superior.

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaxzwlg9N_Q
 Training took 7 years as a page and another 7 years as a Squire before
becoming a Knight
 Knights often wore ladies' "favors", generally a scarf, veil, or sleeve, when
jousting
 Knights met each other at combined speeds of 60 mph when jousting
 The death-blow a knight gave to his mortally wounded opponent was
called a Coup de Grace
 'Dubbing' was a blow struck with the flat of the hand or the side of the
sword and was regarded as an essential act of the knighting ceremony
 A disgraced Knight had his spurs hacked off and his shield was hung
upside down as a sign of dishonor
 Full Plate Armor was introduced during the 15th century weighing
approximately 50 lbs

8.  Faith
 Charity
 Justice
 Sagacity
 Prudence
 Temperance
 Resolution
 Truth
 Liberality
 Diligence
 Hope
 Valor

9.  The women were expected to instantly obey
not only their father, but also their brothers
and any other male members of the family.
Any unruly girls were beaten into submission
and disobedience was seen as a crime against
religion.
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU

10.  The daily life of a peasant woman started at started in the summer as early as 3am
 She first had to prepare a breakfast, usually of pottage
 Work in the fields or on the land started by dawn and the daily life of a peasant
woman during the Middle Ages would include this type of hard work during busy
times especially harvest
 Preparations had to be started in order to provide the daily meals
 Peasant women were expected to look after small animals - geese, chickens etc
 Weaving, spinning and making and mending clothes were also part of a woman's
work
 Preparing rushes for lighting
 Making preserves
 Tending the vegetable plot and collecting berries and herbs
 Women were also responsible for the children and need an understanding of
medicines and herbs for basic nursing requirements
 Outside work finished at dusk, working hours were therefore longer during the
summer months
 Women generally ate when her husband and children had finished and had little
leisure time

11.  Nationality: English
 Also Known by the Nickname: Father of English Literature
 Family connections : He was the son of a vintner
 Education: Geoffrey Chaucer was well educated and studied law
at the Inner Temple in London
 Career: Geoffrey Chaucer was an author, poet, philosopher,
courtier, and diplomat.
 Date of Death: Geoffrey Chaucer died in 1400 ( his exact date of
death is unknown)
 Character of Geoffrey Chaucer: Intelligent, loyal and hard
working
 Accomplishments or why Geoffrey Chaucer was famous: as the
author of Canterbury Tales. Geoffrey Chaucer also wrote 'The
Book of the Duchess' which was an elegy for Blanche of
Lancaster who was the first wife of John of Gaunt.

12.  The work was never finished, but what was
written amounted to about 17,000 lines, written for
the most part in heroic couplets.
 In The Canterbury Tales, a party of twenty-nine
pilgrims gathers at the Tabard Inn in Southwark in
preparation for their pilgrimage to the shrine of
Thomas Becket in Canterbury. The host of the inn
proposes to go along on the pilgrimage as
guide, and as a way to pass the time he suggests
that the pilgrims each tell two stories on the way
out and on the way back. That would mean a total
of 116 tales all together. The pilgrim with the best
stories would have a free dinner once all are
returned to Southwark.

13.  The work of The Canterbury Tales begins with a General
Prologue, which is what in medieval terms is called an “estates
satire.” “Estate” is a term for “class.” So it is a survey of the
various “classes” of late medieval society.
 Each class is represented by a group of figures. The knight and
squire represent the nobility. The monk and prioress represent the
religious orders. At the other end of the social spectrum are the
Parson and Plowman. They are idealized types, shining examples
of the pious, hardworking and dutiful lower orders.
 The “satire” aspect comes from the fact that all these characters are
often figures of fun. They are there to be ridiculed, or
censured, or, occasionally, admired. People have often wondered
why Chaucer put the Tales together. He is actually playing with
the “estates satire” to give a picture of a society in the process of
change in the England of the 1380s and 1390s.

14.  Chaucer's decision to write in his country's
language, English, rather than in the Latin of so
many of his educated colleagues, was something of
a risk, and a big break with learned tradition.
 The risk paid off – we know The Canterbury Tales
were enormously popular because so many more
manuscripts of the tales survived than almost any
other work of this time period.
 The Canterbury Tales were still going strong when
the first printers made their way to England.
William Caxton published the first printed version
of The Canterbury Tales in 1470.

15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E-
0PaK4RtI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caIlw
Ci6JCc

16. Commoners
Miller Shipman The Wealthy
Wife of Bath Plowman Merchant Lawyer
Cook Physician Manciple
The Religious King’s Servants
Summoner Knight
Monk Squire
Nun Reeve
Friar Pardoner