By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
1. John Skelton was King Henry VIII’s Poet Laureate.
Although the role of Poet Laureate only came into being officially in the late seventeenth century, when John Dryden was appointed King Charles II’s Poet Laureate in 1668, John Skelton (c. 1463-1529) held the same post in all but name, some 150 years earlier during the reign of Henry VIII. He was, if you will, English literature’s first de facto Poet Laureate – that is, he held the office in fact if not in name.