Michael Chaucer

Michael John Chaucer
1st President of Libertas Omnium Maximus
In office January 1, 1841 – January 1, 1845
Chancellor	Steven Gant
Vice President	James Duncan
Succeeded by	James Duncan
Personal details
Born	Michael John Chaucer (1794-03-01)March 1, 1794 Veillia, Royal Colony of Iustitia, Kingdom of Valahandia
Died	November 28, 1871(1871-11-28) (aged 77) Litudinem, Libertas Omnium Maximus
Cause of death	Lung disease (possibly tuberculosis)
Citizenship	Libertas Omnium Maximus
Nationality	Maximusian
Political party	Partia Democratia (1820s-1837)
Spouse(s)	Andrea Chaucer
Children	Anna Chaucer-Dawson, John Chaucer
Known for	Leadership in the Iustitian Civil War; becoming the first President of Libertas Omnium Maximus
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Michael Chaucer (March 1, 1794 - November 28, 1871) was a Maximusian printer, political theorist, and revolutionary leader who became a central figure in the Democratic Iustitia Movement in the 1830s. Following the Iustitian Civil War, Chaucer was elected as the first President of Libertas Omnium Maximus.

Early Life

Michael John Chaucer was born to David and Sarah Chaucer on April 3rd, 1794. He spent the early years of his life in Veillia, a small village in northern Iustitia, at the time a part of the Royal Colony of Iustitia. His father, a poorly educated but head-strong tailor, had Michael tutored starting at a young age.

Early Career

Around 1810, Chaucer found work as a typesetter in Iustitia City and taught himself to read Latin. During his time in the city, Chaucer joined the Society of Free Printers in Iustita, a short-lived fraternal order of printers that fought against censorship imposed on their papers and journals by the Provisional Iustitian Government. On the suggestion of a fellow society member, Chaucer familiarized himself with the history and inner workings of antiquity's classical republics. He became convinced that the nation would need to undergo a popular uprising and establish a democratic central government in place of the Provisional Government if it was to thrive.

Troubled by his apparent advocation for treason and inciting a civil war, the society ejected Chaucer from their ranks in 1816, believing subtle reform to be a better method of dealing with the Provisional Government's inadequacies. Somewhat put off by his expulsion from the group, Chaucer threw himself into his work for many years. He settled in Poplar Ridge, a town west of Iustitia City, and was employed full-time as a printer for Poplar Ridge Gazette by 1825.

Involvement with Partia Democratica

Emerging from his decade long hiatus from political activism sometime between 1825 and 1827, Chaucer became involved with Partia Democratia, an underground radical political party founded in the late 1810s. Like Chaucer, the faction advocated for the eradication of the Provisional Government in favor of a republican governing body. Chaucer aided in the secret distribution of the party's official newsletters from 1829 until the outbreak of civil war in 1837. On two occasions, Chaucer was arrested for his alleged involvement with Partia Democratia, but was exonerated in both cases.

In 1833, Chaucer contributed a lengthy article, which he claimed to have been drafting sporadically since 1818, to Partia's spring pamphlet. It provided an indelibly concrete and vivid explanation of what a republican government might look like when implemented after the removal of the present regime in Iustitia. The article was well received, drawing many new faces to the cause. More importantly, Chaucer's contribution would go on to serve as the rough groundwork for the Maximusian Constitution in 1840.

Teetering on the brink of civil war by 1835, the Provisional Government made the decision to force all privately held papers to suspend distribution. Chaucer, at that point a junior editor of the Poplar Ridge Gazette, and Francis Copper, the paper's editor-in-chief, began allowing republican partisans to stockpile rifles and smoothbore firearms in their now-closed shop's storehouse. Disaster soon struck, however, when the storehouse and property was raided by Provisional Government soldiers. Copper was arrested, remaining in prison until the end of the war, and Chaucer was forced to collect his family and flee to the small fishing village of Passarelle, where he remained in hiding until the onset of open conflict.