Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

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The Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, also referred to as the (English or British) Poet Laureate, is the Poet Laureate appointed by the United Kingdom Government. Originally, laureates were of the Kingdom of England (to 1707), then of the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707-1801), then of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801-1922); and since 1922 of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

History
Medieval English kings included versifiers and minstrels in their retinues, and some appointed a Versificator Regis (Versifier to the King).

According to Wharton, Henry I paid 10 shillings a year to a Versificator Regis. Geoffrey Chaucer 1340-1400 was called Poet Laureate, being granted in 1389 an annual allowance of wine. Richard Coeur de Lion had a versificator Regis]]'' (King's Poet), Gulielmus Peregrinus. and Henry III had a versificator (Master Henry).

A royal degree in rhetoric, "poet laureate" was awarded at European universities in the Middle Ages. The term might also refer to the holder of such a degree, which recognised skill in areas of rhetoric, grammar and language. This might be the academic equivalent of a modern day doctorate of poetry.

John Skelton studied at Oxford University in the early 1480s, and was advanced to the degree of poet laureate in 1488. The title of laureate was also conferred on him by the University of Louvain in 1492, and by Cambridge University in 1492-3. He soon became famous for rhetoric, satire and translations. In 1488 Skelton joined the court of Henry VII, tutored Henry VIII and was the official royal poet for most of the next 40 years. He was held in high esteem: "But I pray mayster John Skelton, late created poete laureate in the unyversite of Oxenforde, to oversee and correct this sayd booke" &mdash; Caxton in the preface to The Boke of Eneydos compyled by Vargyle 1490.

In the 15th century, John Kay, also a "versifier", described himself as Edward IV's "humble poet laureate." Edmund Spenser was granted a pension by Elizabeth I.

W. Hamilton classes Chaucer, Gower, Kay, Bernard André, Skelton, Robert Whittington, Richard Edwards, Spenser, and Samuel Daniel as "volunteer Laureates".

From the more general use of the term "poet laureate" arose its restriction in England to an official office of Poet Laureate, the poet attached to the royal household. James I essentially created the position as it is known today for Ben Jonson in 1617, although Jonson's appointment does not seem to have been formally made.

The title of poet laureate was first conferred by letters patent on John Dryden in 1670, two years after Davenant's death. Dryden was removed from the post in 1688 because he refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the new king William III.

The post then became a regular institution; Dryden's successor Shadwell originated annual birthday and New Year odes. The poet laureate became traditionally responsible for writing occasional verse to commemorate occasions both personal, such as the monarch's birthday and royal births and marriages, and public, such as coronations and military victories. His activity in this respect has varied, according to circumstances, and the custom ceased to be obligatory after Pye's death.

The office fell into some contempt before Southey, but took on a new lustre from his personal distinction and that of Wordsworth and Tennyson. Wordsworth stipulated, before accepting the honour, that no formal effusions from him should be considered a necessity; but Tennyson was generally happy in his numerous poems of this class.

On Tennyson's death there was a considerable feeling that no possible successor was acceptable, William Morris and Swinburne being hardly suitable as court poets. Eventually, however, the undesirability of breaking with tradition for temporary reasons, and thus severing the one official link between literature and the state, prevailed over the protests against allowing anyone of inferior genius to follow Tennyson. It may be noted that abolition had been similarly advocated when Warton and Wordsworth died. Edward Gibbon had condemned the position's artificial approach to poetry:

"From Augustus to Louis, the muse has too often been false and venal: but I much doubt whether any age or court can produce a similar establishment of a stipendiary poet, who in every reign, and at all events, is bound to furnish twice a year a measure of praise and verse, such as may be sung in the chapel, and, I believe, in the presence, of the sovereign. I speak the more freely, as the best time for abolishing this ridiculous custom is while the prince is a man of virtue and the poet a man of genius."

- Gibbon: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Chapter LXX (footnote)

The post of Poet Laureate is traditionally rewarded with "a butt of sack", which in the modern day is approximately equivalent to 477 litres (105 gallons) of sherry. The Poet Laureate also receives an annual honorarium, currently set at GBÂ£5,750 (US$9,250). The salary has varied, but traditionally includes some alcohol. Ben Jonson first received a pension of 100 marks, and later an annual "terse of Canary wine". Dryden had a pension of Â£300 and a butt of Canary wine. Pye received Â£27 instead of the wine. Tennyson drew Â£72 a year from the Lord Chamberlain's department, and Â£27 from the Lord Steward's "in lieu of the butt of sack".

Starting with Andrew Motion in 1999, the appointment is now made for a fixed term of 10 years.

Carol Ann Duffy, designated in May 2009 official poet of the United Kingdom, is the first "royal bard" in the post's three centuries of existence to be a woman, and also the first to be openly bisexual.

Medieval England
Under the title versificator regis:
 * Richard Canonicus employed by Richard I (reigned 1189-1199)
 * Gulielmus Peregrinus (d. c. 1207) employed by Richard I
 * Master Henry employed by Henry III (reigned 1216-1272) (according to Thomas Warton)
 * Andrew Baston
 * Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)
 * John Kay in the reign of Edward IV, (1461-83).

1599 to present
Each "Appointed" year links to its corresponding "[year] in poetry" article.