Where and when did the position poet laureate originate?
• 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 office was a development from the practice of earlier times when minstrels and versifiers formed part of the King’s retinue. Richard Coeur de Lion had a versificator Regis (King’s Poet), Gulielmus Peregrinus, and Henry III had a versificator named (Master Henry). In the 15th century, John Kay, also a “versifier”, described himself as Edward IV’s “humble poet laureate”. No single authentic definitive record exists of the office of Poet Laureate of England. 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. W. Hamilton classes Chaucer, Gower, Kay, Andrew Bernard, Skelton, Robert Whittington, Richard Edwards, Spenser and Samuel Daniel, as “volunteer Laureates”. http://en.wikipedia.
• 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 office was a development from the practice of earlier times when minstrels and versifiers formed part of the King’s retinue. Richard Coeur de Lion had a versificator Regis (King’s Poet), Gulielmus Peregrinus, and Henry III had a versificator named (Master Henry). In the 15th century, John Kay, also a “versifier”, described himself as Edward IV’s “humble poet laureate”. No single authentic definitive record exists of the office of Poet Laureate of England. 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. W. Hamilton classes Chaucer, Gower, Kay, Andrew Bernard, Skelton, Robert Whittington, Richard Edwards, Spenser and Samuel Daniel, as “volunteer Laureates”.
