Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom office. Dryden's successor, Thomas Shadwell, was appointed in 1689 for life. He introduced the custom of producing poems for the new year and the monarch's birthday, which became one of the key duties of the position. After the appointment of William Wordsworth in 1843 the duties settled into an expectation, not requirement, for major court and national occasions. Alfred, Lord Tennyson held the post between November 1850 and October 1892. According to Andrew Motion and Hilary Laurie, Tennyson "gave the poet laureateship new status and significance" with works such as "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and
Poet laureate of the office of Poet Laureate of England. The office developed from earlier practice when minstrels and versifiers were members of the king's retinue. Richard Cœur-de-Lion had a "versificator regis" (English: "king's poet"), Gulielmus Peregrinus (William the Pilgrim), and Henry III had a "versificator" named Master Henry. In the fifteenth century, John Kay, a versifier, described himself as Edward IV's "humble poet laureate". According to Wharton, King Henry I paid 10 shillings a year to a "versificator regis". Geoffrey Chaucer (1340–1400) was called Poet Laureate, being granted in 1389 an annual allowance of wine. W. Hamilton describes Chaucer, Gower, Kay,