A PERFECT MARRIAGE ON THE ROCKS:GEOFFREY AND PHILIPPA CHAUCER,AND THE FRANKLIN’S TALEby Craig R. DavisIn the romance of the Franklin’s Tale Chaucer imagines the marriage ofa lower-born knight to a higher-born lady. This fictional union is not dis-similar, structurally, to the bourgeois poet’s own advantageous marriageto Philippa Roet, the daughter of a Flemish knight. In both cases, a sociallyinferior husband marries up in the world: above his own rank in the caseof the knight Arveragus, above his own estate or class in the case ofGeoffrey Chaucer. Since the Franklin’s Tale has long been received as themost idealized depiction of conjugal love in the Canterbury Tales,1its anal-ogy to the poet’s own marital situation might repay some closer scrutinyand social analysis.THE CHAUCERS2Geoffrey Chaucer was from the wealthy, though nouveau, upper reachesof the third estate; his wife Philippa was the daughter of Sir Payne orPaon de Roet, a herald-at-arms in the service of Queen Philippa ofHainault. When Sir Payne returned to the service of the queen’s sisterMarguerite, empress of Germany, Queen Philippa took charge of herretainer’s four children, among whom was her namesake. Philippa Roetmay have first met Geoffrey Chaucer in the household of the queen’sdaughter-in-law Elizabeth, Countess of Ulster, where the future poet hadbeen placed, presumably by his parents, as a page. In any case, a“Philippa Pan.,” whose abbreviated name is variously explained, appearsalong with that of Geoffrey Chaucer in an expense account of 1357. Ifthis Philippa is Sir Payne’s daughter, she returned to the service of thequeen some time after the Countess Elizabeth departed with her hus-band to Ireland in 1361.THE CHAUCER REVIEW, Vol. 37, No. 2, 2002.Copyright © 2002 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA02/37/2/3rd PROOF 11/20/02 9:30 AM Page 129In 1366 Philippa Chaucer was granted a lifetime annuity of 10 marksas domicella of the queen, perhaps on the occasion of her marriage toGeoffrey Chaucer.3The next year, King Edward gave an annuity of 20marks to the poet himself, possibly at the birth of a child to his formerward and her new husband.4When the queen died later that year,Philippa went on to the service of Constance of Castile, John of Gaunt’ssecond wife. Philippa’s sister Katherine, married to Sir Hugh Swynford,was governess of Gaunt’s children, becoming first his mistress, then even-tually his third wife.Further royal annuities followed. On the day after Chaucer was swornin as Controller of Customs in 1374, John of Gaunt granted the coupleanother annuity, partly but explicitly in recognition of Philippa’s formerservice to his mother, the old queen, and to the second Countess ofLancaster, Constance. Thomas Chaucer, the Chaucers’ son, enjoyedunusual favor and generosity from Gaunt in later years, who paid out 100pounds for his marriage to Maud, daughter of Sir John Burghersh ofEwelme. Thomas took his father’s surname, of course, but kept hismother’s Roet coat-of-arms, which we find quartering the Burghersh armsof Thomas’s wife Maud on his tomb at Ewelme in 1534.5Donald Howardcomments:What must be remembered is that Chaucer married well, and themarriage brought him advantages of status, connections, andannuities . . . Precisely what advantages Philippa would have hadfrom the contract must be a matter for earnest conjecture.(Howard’s emphasis)6Of course, it was probably the poet’s promise and personal wealth thatmade him a potential match for Philippa Roet, whose father’s real statusin the royal household as a dependent “King of Arms” may not have beenall that high.7But the marriage was still a step up for the poet, and theaccess of Geoffrey and Thomas to the exalted circles in which they movedwas largely through Philippa’s intimacy with the Lancastrian household.Philippa remained close to her fortunate sister Katherine, often livingwith her in Lincolnshire and apart from her husband in London.8Andeven though Gaunt had known Chaucer since they were young men,9thepoet’s continued association with him came primarily through Philippa:she was the socially significant partner in this couple. Geoffrey Chaucerhad to work pretty hard, in fact, to maintain his usefulness in a milieuthat his wife had entered at birth. And this fact meant that the couple’sduties—hers as lady-in-waiting, his as Controller of Customs and royalagent—kept them often apart.THE CHAUCER REVIEW13002/37/2/3rd PROOF 11/20/02 9:30 AM Page 130CRAIG R. DAVIS131UNEQUAL MARRIAGEIn the Franklin’s Tale Chaucer shows how such a strategic marriage mightbe experienced emotionally. In fact, the Franklin quietly makes the socialinequality of husband and wife a tacit precondition of the idealized rela-tionship he imagines for them:In Armorik, that called is Britayne,Ther was a knyght that loved and dide his payneTo serve a lady in his beste wise;And many a labour, many a greet emprise,He for his lady wroghte er she were wonne.For she was oon the faireste under sonne,And eek therto comen of so heigh kynredeThat wel unnethes dorste this knyght, for drede,Telle hire his wo, his peyne, and his distresse. (V 729–37)10Arveragus has to win by laborious martial service the recognition of a ladywho enjoys her superior status by birth, by her “heigh kynrede.”11TheFranklin emphasizes the social awkwardness of the knight’s suit by a dou-bling of adverbs: “eek therto” in line 735; “wel unnethes” in line 736.“And furthermore, in addition [to her beauty as a woman],” Dorigen had“come from such a noble family that truly this knight scarcely dared, forfear, to reveal to her his suffering, his pain, and his distress” (735–37).What is interesting about this passage is that even though the ladyDorigen clearly represents a social opportunity for Arveragus, one thatis worth an investment of considerable effort on his part, that investmentis depicted as spontaneous and interest-free, as motivated not by calcu-lation of future benefit, but by true love. The knight’s genuine sufferingin love validates his social ambition for the Franklin: it confirms the nat-ural appropriateness of this alliance between humble worth and noblebirth. Arveragus’s emotional commitment and capacity for service is con-structed by the Franklin as a primary natural asset which he brings to theunion. Service in love, both performed in the past and promised for thefuture, is a resource of