Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0198217129, Hardcover)

The fourteenth century in England was a turbulent, complex age: two of the century's monarchs were murdered by rivals, nearly half the population of England was wiped out by the Black Death and the Great Famine, and many more died in conflict with Scotland and in The Hundred Years War against France. During this time, the Great Schism divided the church which led to the establishment of the papacy in Avignon and an unpopular poll-tax provided the spark which ignited the Peasants' Revolt. Yet it was also a period of developments in parliamentary, administrative, and legal system, and one which witnessed the development of English literature, including Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.