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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The mystery of John Skelton's Howard connection has never been satisfactorily explained. Indeed, one usually thinks of the Tudor poet (1460?-1529) as a court poet and tutor to Henry VIII rather than as the protégé of the Howard Countess of Surrey who directed her daughters and gentlewomen to honor him with a laurel crown. Of course, the recitation of this apparently biographical incident in which eleven gentlewomen joyfully decked Skelton's brow with laurel, became the basis for Skelton's most autobiographical poem, The Garland of Laurel.
Published October 3, 1523, the usual assumption is that the Countess of Surrey is none other than Elizabeth Howard, née Stafford (d. 1558), the wife of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and in due course third Duke of Norfolk (d. 1554).
This article originally grew out of work on Howard literary patronage. I am deeply grateful for support from the Johnson Fund of the American Philosophical Society which enabled me to do research during the Summer of 1963, and for a Faculty Research Fellowship from the State University of New York Research Foundation which similarly freed me during the Summer of 1965.
1 See Edwards, H. L. R., Skelton: The Life and Times of an Early Tudor Poet (London, 1949), P- 226 Google ScholarS. and William, Nelson, John Skelton, Laureate (New York, 1946 [Orig. pub. 1939], P- 196 Google Scholar.
2 Melvin J., Tucker, ‘Skelton and Sheriff Hutton,’ ELN, IV (June, 1967), 254–259.Google Scholar
3 All citations (with i /j u /v modernized) are taken from the standard edition, Alexander, Dyce, The Poetical Works of John Skelton, 2 vols. (New York, 1965 Google Scholar [orig. ed., London, 1843]).
4 II, 321.
5 GEC, x, 139.
5 DNB article on Thomas Howard II.
7 Woodruff, C. E., ed., Sede Vacante Wills, Kent Arch. Soc, Records Branch, III (Canterbury, 1914), 127.Google Scholar
8 GEC, VIII, 61; CCR Henry VII, 1500-1509, 476.
9 Dyce, II, 322; GEC, IV, 9-10; CPR 1485-94, p. 336; LP, 1, 438.
10 Dyce 1, 398; 11, 322; William L., Rutton, Three Branches of Wentworth (London, 1891), pp. 17 Google Scholar, 138; John, Clay, ed., The Visitation of Cambridge, Harl. Soc. Pub., XII (London, 1897), 119.Google Scholar
11 Rutton, p. 16; GEC, xi, 570; DNB article on Jane Seymour; Test. Ebor., iv, 341. Though the name of Margery's husband-to-be is not listed on the curate's license to marry her, it seems a reasonable surmise that she married Seymour in 1494, if not in person, then by proxy, for her father was given on December 26,1493, not only the keeping of Seymour's lands during his minority, but also his wardship and marriage. CPR 1485- 94, p. 452. Once married, even by proxy, she would be addressed by her new surname. How soon the young couple began living together is uncertain. Seymour reached legal age in 1499, for he successfully sued his livery in that year and also made his first appearance as a justice of the peace for Wiltshire. Two years earlier, he had fought for Henry VII against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath. CCR 1485-1500, 1159; CPR 1494-1509, pp. 664- 665; Burke's Peerage, 102nd ed., pp. 2097-98. Pollard's article in the DNB on Edward Seymour, the Lord Protector, corrects in some details the one on Jane Seymour.
12 Dyce, 11, 322-323; R., Green, The History, Topography, and Antiquities of Framlingham … (London, 1834), p. 26 Google Scholar; LP, 1, 2651.
13 Philip, Morant, History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, 2 vols. (Chelmsford, 1816), 11 Google Scholar, 153; Green, p. 68. This Jane Blennerhasset could also be one of the two wives of John Blennerhasset since both were named Jane or she could be a daughter by his second marriage. Morant, 11, 153; Metcalfe, W. C., The Visitations of Suffolk (Exeter, 1882), p. 7.Google Scholar
14 Cal. Anc. Deeds, n, A 3355; LP, I, 257 (29), 1803, 2008, 2484 (17), 2617 (17), 2772 (4), 2829. For an example of his authority see LP, w, 959 and also LP, II, 4275.
15 Pishey, Thompson, The History and Antiquities of Boston… (Boston, England, 1856), p. 492 Google Scholar; Francis, Blomefield, Topographical History of… Norfolk, 11 vols. (London, 1805- 10), VII, 325 Google Scholar; B.M. Add. MS. 19152. Thomas Derham entered his lands on December 4, 1493; he and his wife Isabel were parents to Francis Derham, Catherine Howard's lover. CPR 1485-94, p. 458; Walter Rye, ed., The Visitations of Norfolk, Harl. Soc. Pub., XXXII (London, 1892), 105; Gerald, Brenan and Edward Phillips, Statham, The House of Howard, 2 vols. (New York, 1908), 1, 272 Google Scholar. For an example of difierent ways of spelling Paynelle see Lcland's Itinerary where he spells it five ways within the space of four pages. Lucy Toulmin, Smith, ed., The Itinerary of John Leland in or About the Years 1535-1543, 5 vols. (Carbondale, 1964 [orig. pub., 1907-10]), I, 23–26.Google Scholar
16 Payne Collier, J., ed., The Household Books of John, Duke of Norfolk and Thomas Earl of Surrey; Temp. 1481-1490, Roxburghe Club (London, 1844), p. 373 Google Scholar; LP, 1, 257 (48); Francis, Bickley, ed., Report on the Manuscripts of the Late Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Esq. of the Manor House, Asltby De La Zouche, HMC, 3 vols. (London, 1928-34), 1, 223.Google Scholar
17 Dyce, 1, 402.
18 CIPM, Henry VII, 1, no. 869. GEC, VII, 15-17. There is a discrepancy between GEC, which says she was alive in 1509, and the Inquisition. Since the IMP definitely identifies her as a Blount, its evidence is better. Perhaps Hussey married another woman named Margaret and so had three instead of two wives. The Husseys had as one of their tenants Thomas Howard I's sister Joan. CIPM Henry VII, III, 303.
19 See especially Robert S. Kinsman and Theodore Yonge, John Skelton: Canon And Census (n.p., 1967), pp. 3-4, 9, as well as the discussion of Why Come Ye Nat to Courte in Nelson, pp. 135-136.
20 Edwards, pp. 31, 301-302; CPR 1485-94, p. 182; Edward, Hailstone Jr., The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Bottisham and the Priory of Anglesey in Cambridgeshire, Cambridge Antiquarian Soc, Octavo Pub., XIV (Cambridge, 1873), 112 Google Scholar, 311; Cambridge Antiquarian Soc, Communications, I (1859), 238.
21 Collier, pp. 206, 223; Edwards, p. 236. Both Collier and Ramsay think that Skelton may have been in the employ of Thomas I's father, John Howard, first Duke of Norfolk. Collier, p. 466; Robert Lee Ramsay, ed., ‘Introduction,’ Magnyfycense, A Morality, EETS, E.S. xcvIII (London, 1908), p. cxxvii.
22 Thomas, Burton, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hemingbrough in the County of York, ed. by James, Raine (York, 1888)Google Scholar, Pedigree of Gascoigne, Knight, and Fawkes facing p. 219; CPR 1485-94, p . 395; William, Campbell, ed., Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, 2 vols. (London, 1873-77)Google Scholar, II 482J Angelo Raine, York Civic Records, 8 vols. (Wakefield, 1939-52), n, 55; LP, 1, 1494 (18), 2484 (17). For Knight's career as a justice see also CPR 1485-94, pp. 277, 284, 325, 350, 358-359, 395, 416, 476- 480. One might add that John Howard had an auditor, John Knight, and this lady could be connected to him, Collier, p. 480.
23 California MS. AC. 523, fols. 2V-4V. This evidence is circumstantial but by no means conclusive. One might add that the first portion of the manuscript, which usually contains a list of all household retainers, is missing and these names are derived from a list of all those who visited the Countess during the year. There is also the possibility that Skelton translated ‘Of Marines Lyfe the Peregrynacioun’ for one of the Countesses of Surrey. Friedrich Brie thought so, and it is entirely possible; however, the notation that he translated this work ‘Of my ladys grace’ (1. 1219) may mean, as Edwards surmises, that the lady in question is a duchess, probably Agnes, Duchess of Norfolk. Friedrich, Brie, ‘Skelton-Studien,’ Englische Studien, XXXVII (1906-07), 9: Edwards, p. 207.Google Scholar
24 For a discussion of these matters see Owen, Gingerich and Melvin J., Tucker, ‘The Astronomical Dating of Skelton's Garland of Laurel,’ HLQ, XXXII (May, 1969), 207–220 Google Scholar, and ch. 4, Melvin J., Tucker, The Life of Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey and Second Duke of Norfolk, 1443-1524 (Hague, 1964)Google Scholar.
25 Salter, F. M., ‘Skelton's Speculum Principis,’ Speculum, IX (1934), 28–29.Google Scholar
26 Gingerich and Tucker, loc. cit.
27 William O., Harris, ‘Wolsey and Skelton's Magnyfycense; A Re-evaluation,’ SP, IVII (April, 1966), 101.Google Scholar See also the excellent thesis, William G. Glassco, ‘Against Wolsey; A Critical Edition of John Skelton's Why Come Ye Nat to Courte and Colyn Cloute,’ unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Toronto, 1966, for an extended analysis and criticism of Professor Harris's views.
28 Poulet, p. 107. Admittedly this subject deserves an article.
29 P. 37.
30 Rotuli Parliamentomm, VI, 437-449.
31 For details of Barclay's career see the DNB article, and for his relationship to Thomas Howard see Melvin J. Tucker, The Life of Thomas Howard, pp. 134-125, 142.
32 For a discussion of Skelton's place of birth see Maurice Pollet, ‘Skelton et le Yorkshire,’ Etudes Anglaises, v (1952), 11-16, where a case is made that the poet may have come from Yorkshire.
33 John M. Berdan, for example, thinks that Skelton ‘had no definite connection with the court…’ Early Tudor Poetry, 1485-1547 (New York, 1920), p. 94.
