Philip de la Vache ""The Canterbury Tales"". However, the reference to Vache in Chaucer's poem may on good grounds also be a pun on his own name. The phrase Vache, leve! in the first line of the Envoy corresponds to medieval French Vache, reïs!, 'cow, leave!'. The French phase reïs, Vache!, (REISVACHE), when reversed, becomes CHAVSIER, the French form of the poet's name (this is a so-called palindrome). In the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament, the cows on their way to Beth Shemesh are likened to holy men, or monks on their way to the Heavenly Jerusalem. Chaucer may have regarded
Philip de la Vache II. He is generally supposed to have been the Vache referred to in Chaucer's poem "Truth" which says " Therfore, thou Vache, leve thine olde wrechednesse; Unto the world leve now to be thral.". It supposedly refers to a period between 1386 and 1389 when Vache was out of favour at court and had temporarily lost his positions there. His father-in-law, Sir Lewis Clifford, was a close friend of Chaucer's and Chaucer knew Sir Philip well. A country gentleman with a reputation for lavish hospitality, he may also have been the model for the Franklin in the General Prologue to