ABSTRACT
Richard II was probably the most genuinely pious of the later medieval kings of England, and his devotion to the Blessed Virgin is particularly well known. The iconographie examination of the Wilton Diptych and its backgrounds in a study will suffice to show how almost every important event in his life is dated in contemporary records by its proximity to a saint’s day. One may infer with some confidence the reasons for Chaucer’s having received two patents embodying essentially the same grant from Richard in 1398. In the first place, it is clear that in the later 1390s Chaucer was somewhat less provident or at least in more modest circumstances than his admirers have cared to admit. Probably Chaucer himself called discreet attention to the fact that, magnanimous though the gift was, it would be even more so if dated on the feast of one of Richard’s patron saints.
