The Cavalier poets of the 17th century, the courtiers clustered around King Charles I (1600–1649), descend from what we now call the English Silver Age poets. These earlier poets included the likes of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542) and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey (1517–1547): the courtier poets of the sixteenth century, when the court was that of Henry VIII (1491–1547).

Their literary generation, having imported the sonnet from Italy, began generally inventing a literature in modern English, all the while moving in and out of favor at court. Wyatt reputedly flirted with the queen, Anne Boleyn, which was tantamount to flirting with the headsman. Howard, cousin to both Anne Boleyn and her brief successor, Catherine Howard, did lose his head, largely for the crime of being related to both these queens.