Canterbury Tales: Pilgrims' Professions

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

Do you know what a Squire did? Was a Merchant as fancy as he sounds?

Gone Medieval continues our week of pilgrimage as Matt Lewis is joined by Professor Robert Mayer Lee to explore the diverse jobs and social status' of the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

They discuss how Chaucer's work reflects the fluidity and complexities of social mobility in 14th century England and the motivations and messages behind these timeless stories.

Geoffrey Chaucer, Father of English Literature

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3TMGrNTfPS5wwOqspKNfK3

How to Dress in the Middle Ages

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7JOjrPdijf3VD2eT9iCrgS

Gone Medieval is presented by Matt Lewis. It was edited by Amy Haddow, the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.

Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Matt Lewis.
0:02.6	And I'm Dr. Eleanor Yonaga.
0:04.2	And we're just popping up here to tell you some insider info.
0:08.0	If you would like to listen to Gone Medieval ad-free and get early access and bonus episodes,
0:13.3	sign up to History Hit.
0:14.5	With the History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries.
0:20.6	Such as my new series on everyone's favorite
0:22.8	conquerors, the Normans, or my recent exploration of the castles that made Britain. There's a new
0:29.9	release to enjoy every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe, or find a link in the show notes for this episode.
0:45.0	Hello, I'm Matt Lewis. Welcome to Gone Medieval from History Hit, the podcast that delves into the
0:52.8	greatest millennium in human history.
0:55.6	We've got the most intriguing mysteries, the gobsmacking details and latest groundbreaking research
1:02.0	from the Vikings to the printing press, from kings to popes to the crusades.
1:06.7	We cross centuries and continents to delve into rebellions, plots and murders, to find the
1:12.9	stories big and small that tell us how we got here. Find out who we really were with Gone Medieval.
1:24.6	Welcome to this episode of Gone Medieval. I'm Matt Lewis. If you enjoyed Eleanor's last episode
1:29.2	all about the wife of Bath, then you're in for a treat as we stick with Chaucer and his pilgrims.
1:35.4	People's jobs in the medieval period can sometimes feel obscure, hard to pin down, and it can be
1:40.9	difficult to be clear exactly what they did and where that placed them socially.
1:45.5	So we're going to take a look at a few more of Chaucer's pilgrims to help us understand who they were and what they bring to the story.
1:52.9	And I'm delighted to be joined by Professor Robert Meyer Lee, whose books include literary value and social identity in the Canterbury Tales. Bobby is going to get us
2:03.0	better acquainted with four of Chaucer's pilgrims. Welcome to Gone Medieval, Bobby. It's great to have
	...

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