[2] This phase of her life began with the households of Elizabeth of Ulster and Queen Philippa, and ended with Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster.
[4] These associations proved to be valuable, as Philippa began to receive annuities from Edward III, Richard II, and John of Gaunt, Costanza's husband.
[5] "Pan" may have been an abbreviation of "Panetaria", meaning mistress of the pantry, which is most likely where Philippa worked in the Ulster household.
[1] As a result of this marriage, Queen Philippa and King Edward III granted a lifetime annuity to the couple in 1366.
[6] After the death of the queen, Philippa went to the service of Costanza of Castile and John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster.
A lurid conspiracy theory was put forth, first by Mary Eliza Haweis in the late nineteenth-century, and then again more influentially by Russell Kraus in 1932, that "one or two" of these children had been illicitly fathered by John of Gaunt.
[8] Many scholars, including almost all modern Chaucerians have argued against this theory; H. A. Kelly, for example, has effectively demonstrated that this belief is likely false as John of Gaunt having sexual relations with two sisters would have been considered incest and would have required additional papal dispensation for him to marry Katherine.
She is likely the Elizabeth Chaucer who, along with a Margaret Swynford, was nominated a nun by royal privilege at the accession of Richard II in 1377, thus she may have been born as early as 1364.
She may have been a nun in Barking Abbey; there are records of an "Elizabeth Chausier"[6] and her nickname being "Chaucy"[10] which leads historians to believe that she was their daughter.
[6] There is a tomb in the church of St Mary, East Worldham in Hampshire, that is thought to be Philippa's.