John Masefield was poet laureate from 1930 to his death in 1967. He was a prolific poet and fiction writer, and by the end of his life his volume of 'Collected Poems' had sold over 200,000 copies. This was an unprecedented figure for a modern poet, and spoke to his popularity with readers. Today, however, he is perhaps most well known as a children's writer, having authored such classics as The Midnight Folk (1927) and The Box of Delights (1935).

This poem was written as continuation of Masefield's poetic celebrations of King George V's Silver Jubilee. King George V and Queen Mary drove to the Palace of Westminster on 13 May 1935, where the King delivered a speech on the occasion of his jubilee to both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall. Masefield recalls this event, but not before remembering a prevous royal occasion in that space, the trial of Charles I.