The Ladies in Skelton's `Garland of Laurel'

Abstract

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).

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