What is the social religious and political background of the Age of Chaucer

Chaucer's time was a time of change. The Church was immensely powerful and dictated every little thing in their lives. Socially there were haves and have nots and the middle class was only beginning to take hold. Politically, the crown and the cross were 'in bed' together, but with the onset of the plague that ensued, all playing fields would be leveled.