Lydgate's "Kings of England" and Another Verse Chronicle of the Kings

Abstract

"Lydgate's 'Kings of England' and Another Verse Chronicle of the Kings."John Lydgate's "Kings of England sithen William Conqueror" and other verses on the kings of England formerly confused with it are shown to be distinct compositions, the latter by an anonymous poet writing one or two decades after Lydgate. Content and manuscript evidence suggest that Lydgate wrote his poem for the occasion of Henry VI's knighting in May 1426, and that the anonymous verses may have been written for his marriage in 1445. Furthermore, manuscript evidence for the context and presentation of the two works, as well as scribal addition or alteration in the surviving manuscripts, suggest that both were written as political propaganda, and that Lydgate's verses continued to be viewed as and used for political propaganda by both Lancastrian and Yorkist rulers up to the reign of Henry VIII.