Why was Geoffrey Chaucer buried in Westminster Abbey?

Geoffrey Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1400 primarily due to his service as the clerk of the king’s works, rather than his literary achievements at the time of his death.1

While he is now celebrated as one of the first great English poets and the author of The Canterbury Tales, his burial in the abbey was a recognition of his professional role as a civil servant and courtier who served three successive kings. It was not until approximately 200 years later, when the poet Edmund Spenser was interred nearby, that the area became known as Poets’ Corner.231