Father Chaucer and the Apologists: Cecily Chaumpaigne and 700 Years of Rape Culture

On May 4, 1380, Cecily Chaumpaigne filed a quitclaim with the Chancery in Westminster, releasing the poet Geoffrey Chaucer from any prosecution de raptu meo (on account of my rape). This legal document, lost for centuries, has haunted Chaucer studies since its rediscovery in 1873.

Over the past 150 years since it reemerged, many Chaucer scholars have sought to discount, sanitize, or excuse the release. Through a careful examination of the long Chaucer historiography, Sarah Baechle shows how...