Difficult as it is to identify English literary works that date precisely from 1517, a plausible candidate is a poem by John Skelton: The Tunning of Elynour Rummyng. But what has this apparently parochial poem about alcohol to do with political life in England in 1517, and with Erasmus’ Querela Pacis (Complaint of Peace), from the same year?
Mishtooni Bose is Christopher Tower Student and Tutor in Medieval Poetry in English at Christ Church, and Associate Professor in the Faculty of English, Oxford. Much of her published work focuses on the Wycliffite controversies and their aftermath.