The Relationship of Chaucer to the English and European Traditions

Kingship, Parliament and the Court: the Emergence of ‘High Style’ in Petitions to the English Crown, c.1350–1405

“…103 Chaucer himself drew heavily on French literary models to inspire his earliest poetry, including, most famously, the Book of Duchess. 104 He, like Jean Froissart, who was a member of the household of Queen Philippa, may have been responsible for compiling a number of French-language works in the 1360s. 105 French poetry in general-especially lyric poetry-appears to have circulated widely among the English aristocracy at this time, no doubt in part because of the influence of Guillaume de Machaut, the foremost French poet of his time and a member of King John II's household.…”