Why are the Canterbury Tales a good source of information for historians?

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales refers to a collection of short stories that is respected, studied and referenced not only in a literary context, but also as a valued historical collection for a variety of reasons summarized below.

Much like Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey, Canterbury Tales has become an important collection that depicts historical events, culture, and attitudes of its time. Notably, Chaucer lived and wrote during a time of war shrouded in religious, political and social unrest. England was in the midst of the Hundred Years War with France. Chaucer fought in the war, and his first-hand knowledge and experiences bleed through multiple areas of the texts. Paper had just recently been invented. In a purely semantical and technical context, Chaucer's work details verse, dialect, and English words never before recorded. Literacy was an uncommon luxury during the Middle Ages, predominately reserved to those holding a position within clergy, the Royal Court, or those holding an official governmental position.

The characters within the Canterbury Tales revolve around various social classes of people in England. The accounts and storylines are specific and detailed enough to give a bird's eye view into the Middle Ages; its people, culture, and church. There are very few works that account for the social structures, beliefs, and attitudes of the period. The majority of Chaucer's contemporaries gave little attention to the problems of commoners and peasants whom made up the majority of England's populous during the Middle Ages. Chaucer had an insider view of the English Royal court and held several appointments throughout his lifetime. As such, his first-hand knowledge of diplomacy, the state of the church and its clergy, courtly life, and the monarchy is vast and intimate.

The Canterbury Tales provides an insider's glimpse into England during the Middle Ages with an unprecedented depth and detail not previously recorded by Chaucer's contemporaries, making it a valued historical reference.