Nothing is known with absolute certainty about William Langland. Scholars think that Langland is the author of Piers Plowman because of a note attached to an early manuscript which is housed at Trinity College in Dublin, and an attribution in a printed edition from 1550. Other than these traces, everything known about Langland comes from assuming that the character of the speaker in Piers Plowman is autobiographical. No other writing has been attributed definitively to William Langland, although there is some evidence that he wrote some other earlier poems.
This is what can best be surmised about Langland’s life, which is the subject of scholarly debate: According to Peter Sutton, who...
