A king's esquire normally married one of the inmates of the Queen. Geoffrey Chaucer married Philippa Roet, a lady-in-waiting in the Queen's household. Philippa left her work and both of them resided in London. Geoffrey Chaucer became a father in 1367 with his first son being born. He chose the name of Thomas. Later he had another son, whom he named Lewis. .
He was very ambitious and enjoyed traveling and was away quite often on diplomatic missions. This I believe would leave him very little time to spend with his children. He was made the Comptroller of Customs at Aldgate. He and Philippa settled in their Aldgate house. He did not look at this house as a place to play with his children, but a place to read his many books. As soon as he finished his daily work, he would rush home, not to rest and spend time with his kids, but to read another book.
Their mother Phillipa died in 1386, leaving him to raise his two boys. This did not bring him any closer to his sons. The first love of his life was not his children or wife, it was his books. One of the closest things he did for his son Lewis was to write a book for him called The Treatise of the Astrolabe. .
Insofar as his influence on his writings, I believe that his traveling had the most influence on his style. He began by following the French trends in writing. After being influenced by different Italian authors, mainly Boccaccio he changed to the Italian style of writing. His visit to Florence introduced him to a totally new style of literature, which is considered to have influenced his writing to quite an extent.
Geoffrey Chaucer may have been a success in his writings, but his quality of life did not seem to me to be such a big success. As he lay dying on his death bed, his only thoughts were not of his family, but of a feeling of sin against his moral ethics that he felt because of his poetry dealing with the love of man and woman.
