Chaucer and the fourteenth century Englishman's knowledge of Wallachia
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Abstract
Because of distance and the difference in religion, Wallachia and indeed
the rest of what now forms Romania would seem to have been virtually unknown in England during the Middle Ages, only coming to the attention of
statesmen and theologians in the late fifteenth century as Ottoman incursions
into Europe proper evoke pious and political responses. However, in a version of “The Book of the Duchess” dating from the early 1390s, Geoffrey
Chaucer alludes to a distant place called “Walakye”. Examination of the literary and historical evidence shows that this place is probably Wallachia and
that Chaucer is aware of preparations for and the ultimate disaster at Nicopolis, that last crusading disaster on the boundaries of “ferthest Walakye”.
The lines of communication between southeastern and northwestern Europe
were not completely absent even at this relatively early period.
the rest of what now forms Romania would seem to have been virtually unknown in England during the Middle Ages, only coming to the attention of
statesmen and theologians in the late fifteenth century as Ottoman incursions
into Europe proper evoke pious and political responses. However, in a version of “The Book of the Duchess” dating from the early 1390s, Geoffrey
Chaucer alludes to a distant place called “Walakye”. Examination of the literary and historical evidence shows that this place is probably Wallachia and
that Chaucer is aware of preparations for and the ultimate disaster at Nicopolis, that last crusading disaster on the boundaries of “ferthest Walakye”.
The lines of communication between southeastern and northwestern Europe
were not completely absent even at this relatively early period.
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