John Skelton

John Skelton, Court poet, writer and playwright, was buried in the chancel of St Margaret's church Westminster on 21st June 1529. There were no burial registers at this time but expenses for his funeral are recorded in the Churchwardens' accounts. He has no monument or inscription today but Weever, writing in 1631, recorded that he had a short inscription in Latin. This can be translated as: 

John Skelton, poet of the Muses, is sited here. Breathed out his soul 21 June 1529

Life of John Skelton

It is thought he was born around 1460 (some sources say 2nd May 1463), possibly in Yorkshire or in Norfolk. But nothing is known about his family. It seems he was educated at Cambridge university but he got a degree at Oxford. He may have been in the Percy household, as he wrote an elegy on the death of the 4th Earl of Northumberland, whose seat is Alnwick Castle. He was poet and servant in the household of the Howard family, the most powerful Catholic family in northern England. His poems include Philip Sparrow, The Garland of Laurel and The Bowge of Courte. England's first printer William Caxton praised his work, and Cardinal Wolsey commissioned some poems from him.

In about 1496 he became tutor to Prince Henry, later Henry VIII, and was ordained in 1498, serving at the abbey of St Mary of Graces, and then as rector of Diss in Norfolk. Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, may have been his patron.  As well as many poems and a few plays he translated various works into English. One extant play is Magnificence, an attack on Wolsey. In about 1513 he was made orator regius.

In 1511 he was in London and a record remains of his dining with the Prior of Westminster. By 1518 he was living in a tenement south of the great belfry within the Sanctuary of the monastery at Westminster, having incurred the wrath of Wolsey by writing a satire attacking him. 

During this time he composed epitaphs for some royal tombs in the Abbey which were set up on wooden boards near the monuments of Lady Margaret Beaufort and Henry VII, for example. The texts on these were printed in John Dart's history of the abbey but disappeared centuries ago.

He died in London so was buried in St Margaret's, near his lodging.

Further reading

"Skelton, the life and times of an early Tudor poet" by H.L.R. Edwards, 1949

"The poetical works of John Skelton" edited by A. Dyce, 1864

"Westmonasterium" by John Dart, 1723

A poem set to music by William Cornish survives in the British Library.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004

Poem Hunter