The Robberies of Chaucer

Author / Editor
Carlson, David R.

Title
The Robberies of Chaucer

Published
ESC 35.2-3 (2009): 29-54.

Description
Legal proceedings following the 1390 roadside theft from Chaucer while he was on the King's business demonstrate the folly of any medieval challenge to hierarchical prerogative by a gang representing antihierarchical attitudes. Theoretically supported by hierarchical authority, pilgrimages are often denounced as profane secularization. Chaucer treats them as examples of the assertion of prerogative and as instances of the conflict between inclusion and exclusion.

Chaucer Subjects
Chaucer's Life.
Canterbury Tales--General