The English poet and humanist John Skelton (ca. 1460-1529) is chiefly remembered for his satires on the court and the clergy.

Little is known of John Skelton's youth except that he may have come from Yorkshire and that he attended Cambridge. His earliest works, which included a translation of Cicero's Familiar Letters and another of Deguileville's Pèlerinage de la vie humaine, do not survive. Skelton was declared poet laureate by Oxford in 1488, by Louvain shortly thereafter, and by Cambridge in 1493. These degrees, partly honorary, were also given in recognition of his achievement in grammar. Skelton's earliest poetry is occasional, including, for example, the poem The Dolorous Death and Most Lamentable Chance of the Most Honorable Earl of Northumberland (1489). About 1495 Skelton became tutor to Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), a position he held for about 7 years. He was ordained a priest in 1498.

Skelton's first satire, The Bowge...