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" — 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.^[1] The Poet Laureate also receives an annual honorarium, currently set at GBÂ£5,750 (US$9,250).^[2] 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

Office holders[]

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^[4]
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400)
John Kay in the reign of Edward IV, (1461-83).^[5]

Tudor England[]

Poet Laureate	Portrait	Birth	Alma mater	Appointed	Notable poetry	Death
Bernard André		1450 Toulouse, France		by Henry VII		1522
John Skelton		c. 1460 possibly Diss, Norfolk	University of Cambridge	1513/1514 by Henry VIII	"Replycacion" "Speke, Parrot" "The Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe"	21 June 1529
Edmund Spenser	File:EdmundSpenser.jpg	c. 1552 London	Pembroke College, University of Cambridge	by Elizabeth I	"Epithalamium" "The Shepheardes Calender" "The Faerie Queene" Amoretti	13 January 1599 London

1599 to present[]

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

Poet Laureate	Portrait	Birth	Alma mater	Appointed	Notable poetry	Death
Samuel Daniel	File:Samuel Daniel.png	1562 Near Taunton, Somerset	Magdalen Hall, Oxford University	1599 by Elizabeth I	"Musophilus" "The Complaint of Rosamond" Epistles to Distinguished Persons	14 October 1619 Beckington, Somerset
Ben Jonson		c. 11 June 1572 Westminster, London	Westminster School (Did not attend university)	1616 by James I	"Epigrams" "On My First Son" "To Penshurst" "To Celia" Underwoods	6 August 1637 Westminster, London
William Davenant (also D'Avenant)	File:William Davenant.jpg	late February, 1606 Oxford	Lincoln College, Oxford University (Did not graduate)	1638 by Charles I	"A Discourse upon Gondibert, an heroick poem" "A Panegyric to his Excellency the Lord General Monck" "Poem, Upon His Sacred Majesties Most Happy Return to His Dominions"	7 April 1668 London
John Dryden		9 August 1631 Aldwincle, Northamptonshire	Trinity College, University of Cambridge	1668 by Charles II Dismissed by William III and Mary II in 1688	"Astraea Redux" "Annus Mirabilis" "Absalom and Achitophel"	12 May 1700 London
Thomas Shadwell	File:ShadwellT.jpg	c. 1642 Stanton Hall, Norfolk	Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge	1689 by William III and Mary II	"Dear Pretty Youth" "Love in their little veins inspires" "Nymphs and Shepherds"	19 November 1692 Chelsea, London
Nahum Tate		1652 Dublin, Ireland	Trinity College, Dublin	1692 by William III and Mary II	"Panacea, a poem on Tea"	30 July 1715 Southwark, London
Nicholas Rowe		20 June 1674 Little Barford, Bedfordshire	Middle Temple	1715 by George I	"A Poem upon the Late Glorious Successes of Her Majesty's Arms" Poems on Several Occasions Maecenas "Ode for the New Year MDCCXVI"	6 December 1718 London
Laurence Eusden	File:Eusden.JPG	6 September 1688 Spofforth, North Yorkshire	Trinity College, University of Cambridge	1718 by George I	"The Origin Of The Knights Of The Bath"	27 September 1730 Coningsby, Lincolnshire
Colley Cibber	File:Colley Cibber.jpg	11 June 1671 London	No formal education	1730 by George II		12 November 1757 London
William Whitehead	File:Whitehead.jpg	early February, 1715 Cambridge	Clare College, University of Cambridge	1757 by George II (on the refusal of Thomas Gray)	"On Ridicule" "The Enthusiast" "The Je Ne Scai Quoi"	14 April 1785 London
Thomas Warton		9 January 1728 Basingstoke, Hampshire	Trinity College, Oxford University	1785 by George III (on the refusal of William Mason)	"The Triumph of Isis" "To the River Lodon"	21 May 1790 Oxford
Henry James Pye		20 February 1745 London	Magdalen College, Oxford University	1790 by George III	Poems on Various Subjects "Alfred"	11 August 1813 Pinner, Middlesex
Robert Southey	File:Robert Southey - Project Gutenberg eText 13619.jpg	12 August 1774 Bristol	Balliol College, Oxford University	1813 by George III (on the refusal of Walter Scott)	"God's Judgement on a Wicked Bishop" "The Inchcape Rock" "After Blenheim" "Cataract of Lodore"	21 March 1843 Cumberland
William Wordsworth	File:William Wordsworth - Project Gutenberg eText 12933.jpg	7 April 1770 Cockermouth, Cumberland	St John's College, University of Cambridge	1843 by Victoria	"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" "The Prelude" "Tintern Abbey" The Lucy poems "The World Is Too Much with Us"	23 April 1850 Grasmere, Cumberland
Alfred, Lord Tennyson	File:Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson by George Frederic Watts.jpg	6 August 1809 Somersby, Lincolnshire	Trinity College, University of Cambridge	1850 by Victoria (on the refusal of Samuel Rogers)	"The Charge of the Light Brigade" "Tears, idle tears" "Crossing the Bar" In Memoriam A.H.H. "Ulysses" "Tithonus"	6 October 1892 Haslemere, Surrey
Alfred Austin	File:Alfredaustin.jpg	30 May 1835 Headingley, Leeds	University of London	1896 by Victoria (on the refusal of William Morris)	"The Season: a Satire" "To England"	2 June 1913 Ashford, Kent
Robert Bridges		23 October 1844 Walmer, Kent	Corpus Christi College, Oxford University	1913 by George V	"Melancholia" "The Evening Darkens Over" The Testament of Beauty	21 April 1930 Oxford
John Masefield	File:John Masefield.jpg	1 June 1878 Ledbury, Herefordshire	King's School, Warwick (Did not attend university)	1930 by George V	"The Everlasting Mercy" "Sea-Fever" "Reynard The Fox"	12 May 1967 Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Cecil Day-Lewis		27 April 1904 Ballintubber, Queen's County, Ireland	Wadham College, Oxford University	1968 by Elizabeth II	"Newsreel"	22 May 1972 Hadley Wood, Hertfordshire
John Betjeman	File:John Betjeman statue.jpg	28 August 1906 Hampstead, London	Magdalen College, Oxford University	1972 by Elizabeth II	"Christmas" "Slough" "The Conversion of St Paul"	19 May 1984 Trebetherick, Cornwall
Ted Hughes		17 August 1930 Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire	Pembroke College, University of Cambridge	1984 by Elizabeth II (on the refusal of Philip Larkin)	Crow Moortown Diary Wolfwatching Tales from Ovid Birthday Letters	28 October 1998 Devon
Andrew Motion		26 October 1952 London	University College, Oxford University	1 May 1999 by Elizabeth II Retired on 1 May 2009	"The Letter"	Still alive
Carol Ann Duffy		23 December 1955 Glasgow	University of Liverpool	1 May, 2009 by Elizabeth II	The World's Wife	Still alive