Jonty Claypole

And this brings Chaucer into the documented world.

He is now a person who exists on the page because we can see how he's interacting with the course in different ways.

And the internationalism wasn't just something Chaucer encountered in London growing up.

He also has a surprisingly international life.

Anyone who thinks that in the Middle Ages, in the 1300s, you never went more than five miles from the place you were born.

Because what is going on also in the background is Chaucer was growing up in the early decades of the so-called 100 Years' War, you know,

Famously, the war does not last 100 years.

It's a series of wars that last for over 100 years.

But essentially, the 100 years war begins when the English monarchy, the Plantagenets, make a claim to the French throne, which isn't a great idea.

And they start a series of invasions, partly to protect English territories in France, of which there are many at this time, but also as a bid to just take control of the throne.

And the French fight back and both countries are then bogged down in these endless, increasingly unpopular wars, certainly at home in England.

There's huge taxation at this time to fund the war.

Now, when Chaucer's young, he's still a teenager, he accompanies his patron, Lionel of Antwerp, across to the continent to participate in one of the battles of the Hundred Years' War against the French.

And the young Chaucer is captured in the Siege of Rheims in 1360 and has to be ransomed by the king.

And it's not just that.

Over the following decades, he makes a series of visits to the continent.

He goes to France.

He goes to Italy.

And all the time on these trips, he is collecting the latest developments of literature.

He's collecting French literature.