Roistering and Writing (1542–1543)

This chapter takes up the narrative of Churchyard’s life once he leaves Shrewsbury in c.1542 or 1543 and heads towards the Tudor court in search of cultural and/or material enrichment. It considers the question of what it meant to go to court in the Tudor period and compares Churchyard’s representation of his youthful experiences at Henry VIII’s court to contemporary poetry about court by John Skelton, Stephen Hawes, Francis Bryan, and Alexander Barclay. The chapter focuses on the moment at which Churchyard enters the employ of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and considers the nature of their relationship and the kinds of experiences they may have shared. It examines Churchyard’s earliest literary activities and proposes that the author made twelve contributions to Richard Tottel’s Miscellany that may offer insight into what this early literary material looked like.