Biographical Overview & Key Facts

Subject:

John Lydgate

Role / Field:

Prodigious English monk and poet, master of epic and genre.

Born:

1370

Died:

1450

Century / Era:

1370s Historical Era

Database Source:

2Day Chrono-Wiki & Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Origins & Early Life

John Lydgate of Bury (c. 1370 – c. 1451) was an English monk and poet, born in Lidgate, near Haverhill, Suffolk, England. Lydgate's poetic output is prodigious, amounting, at a conservative count, to about 145,000 lines.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He explored and established every major Chaucerian genre, except such as were manifestly unsuited to his profession, like the fabliau. In the Troy Book (30,117 lines), an amplified translation of the Trojan history of the thirteenth-century Latin writer Guido delle Colonne, commissioned by Prince Henry (later Henry V), he moved deliberately beyond Chaucer's Knight's Tale and his Troilus, to provide a full-scale epic. The Siege of Thebes (4716 lines) is a shorter excursion in the same field of chivalric epic. Chaucer's The Monk's Tale, a brief catalog of the vicissitudes of Fortune, gives a hint of what is to come in Lydgate's massive Fall of Princes (36,365 lines), which is also derived, though not directly, from Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium. The Man of Law's Tale, with its rhetorical elaboration of apostrophe, invocation, and digression in what is essentially a saint's legend, is the model for Lydgate's legends of St Edmund (3693 lines) and St Alban (4734...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

• Antipope John XXIII — Contemporary (Born in 1370) (1370): Pisan antipope during the Western Schism, recognized by some as an opponent of Pope Gregory XII.
• Casimir III the Great — Contemporary (Died in 1370) (1370): Last Piast King of Poland; reformed law and expanded state influence.
• Gao Ming — Contemporary (Died in 1370) (1370): Poet and playwright of the Yuan Dynasty, known for his literary contributions.
• Agnès Sorel — Contemporary (Died in 1450) (1450): The celebrated and first officially recognized royal mistress of Charles VII of France.
• Ahuitzotl — Contemporary (Born in 1450) (1450): Eighth Aztec ruler and Huey Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan, key to Aztec expansion.
• Francisco de Almeida — Contemporary (Born in 1450) (1450): Portuguese nobleman, soldier, and key architect of Portuguese power in the Indian Ocean.
• Gentile da Fabriano — Historical peer (Born in 1370) (1370): Master of International Gothic style, pivotal to early Renaissance art.
• Jadwiga of Poland — Historical peer (Born in 1370) (1370): Last hereditary ruler of Poland; Queen of Poland (1384-1399)
• Christopher Columbus — Historical peer (Born in 1451) (1451): Italian explorer whose voyages opened the Americas to European contact.
• Isabella I of Castile — Historical peer (Born in 1451) (1451): Queen of Castile and León; architect of the unified Spanish Empire.
• 1370 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1370
• 1450 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1450

Frequently Asked Questions about John Lydgate