Namangan davlat universiteti jahon tillari fakulteti Ingliz tili va adabiyoti kafedrasi

2.3Career and Downfall
In 1374 he was appointed customs inspector for the export of wool, fur and leather. At that time wool was England’s most important export article. From the year 1380 a court document is handed down, in which Chaucer is absolved of the reproach of having perpetrated raptus on a baker’s daughter. Researchers are still arguing about whether this crime can be translated as “rape” or “kidnapping”. After 1382 he increasingly delegated the work in the customs house to his deputies, and in 1385 he moved to Kent. Already one year later he represented this county in the House of Commons, the English House of Commons.
However, his close ties to the royal court became his downfall in 1386, when the parliamentary opposition prevailed against King Richard II and John of Gaunt; all his offices were revoked. In 1387 Chaucer’s wife died, and despite his previous commode income, he now accumulated debts. In 1390 Richard II appointed him clerk of the works, i.e. supervisor of the royal building projects. In this function he was robbed by brigands in September of the same year; some researchers suspect that Chaucer staged the robbery in order to settle his debts with the allegedly robbed money. After only one year, his office was revoked. Instead, he was appointed forest supervisor of the royal forests in North Petherton, Somerset County, and maintained contacts with the royal court in the following years. During this time, most of the Canterbury Tales also emerged.