Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400?) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is credited by some scholars as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language.

Geoffrey Chaucer in In High Places
In an alternate where the Black Plague wiped out most of Europe, Geoffrey Chaucer was killed by the epidemic before he could write The Caterbury Tales, one of the many factors that contributed to England's status was the backwater of Europe (which was the backwater of the world).