ly after his return, he married a lady of the queen's chamber named Philippa Pan. Philippa had previously been in service with the Countess of Ulster. For his position in life at the time, Chaucer did very well in marrying Philippa. He was then able to receive income from the queen consort of Edward II for Philippa, and for himself, he received annuity from the king as a yeoman. Chaucer was then listed as one of the Kings squires (Chaucer 1).
             After about 1373, Chaucer was allowed to undertake certain diplomatic tasks in which he took two trips to Italy to negotiate commercial contracts for the king (Chaucer 3). It was during the time of Chaucer's Italian journeys that he probably came in contact with the writings of Dante, Petrarch, and other influential writers of the time. Some scholars believe it was then that Chaucer actually met Petrarch (Cunningham and Reich 257).
             Chaucer was able to gain a vast knowledge of the learning and culture of his time early in his life. He was able to speak and write French very fluently. From his writings, we can determine that he was also very skilled in Italian, by his borro
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