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Ancient and Medieval Bards – Surprising Facts About Some of History’s Greatest Poets

Khalid Elhassan March 17, 2025 17 min

Poets - Statue of Al-Mutanabbi, the Arabic Language's greatest bard, in Baghdad — Statue of Al-Mutanabbi, the Arabic Language's greatest bard, in Baghdad. Chaldean News

21. The Bureaucrat Bard

Opening title of The Dreame of Chaucer, commonly referred to as The Book of the Duchess. University of Glasgow Library

Chaucer was born into a prosperous family and attended school at Saint Paul’s Cathedral. There, he was influenced by the writings of Virgil and Ovid. As a teenager, his father secured him a position as a royal page – a stepping stone to knighthood and future advancement. He spent his adult life as a courtier, civil servant, and diplomat. In his teens, he participated in the Hundred Years’ War, was captured, and ransomed by the king for a considerable sum. His earliest major poem was The Dreame of Chaucer. Commonly referred to as The Book of the Duchess, it elegizes the deceased wife of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III and father of future King Henry IV. Written in the early 1370s, it earned Chaucer a comfortable annuity from the powerful widower.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.