Lute music apparently thrived in the English courts, from the time of the Wars of the Roses. Both the nobility, now freed from internal strife, and the emerging and wealthy middle class, enjoyed the artistic leisure of singing and plucking the strings of this courtly instrument. Monarchs such as Henry VII and Elizabeth I even established official jobs for royal court lutenists. John Dowland, arguably the best performer on the lute alive in his time, strove for years to obtain one of these posts. Not only did he campaign for appointments, he also carefully worked the courtly network with musical dedications and command performances. All his efforts, however, were to no avail. It is thus particularly surprising to find the frustrated composer offering homage to the Queen after her death (and after her ability to hire him had ceased). Dowland apparently composed a galliard (an arrangement of a courtly dance melody) on behalf of one Katherine Darcy in the 1490s, but he published it as music dedicated to "The Most Sacred Queen Elizabeth" after the Queen's death. At the same time, contemporary manuscript copies intended for a variety of instruments suggest Dowland may have had the Queen in mind when composing.

Whatever the circumstances of Dowland's courtly ties, the galliard he dedicated thus twice both follows, and subtly tweaks the expectations of his listeners. The galliard, as an Elizabethan courtly dance, adopted a reasonably jaunty triple meter, to which the dancers would enact a skipping dance. Instrumentalists setting such dances often would compose (or improvise) versions in which they first played each strain "straight," and then embellished them. Dowland, characteristically, gives a somewhat more virtuosic rendition. His repeat of the first strain predictably ornaments the melody with extra passing notes. But immediately at the beginning of the second strain, he diverges from the simple courtly plan. One rich harmony that at first had merely strengthened the cadence of the first strain becomes the aurally rich language of the second strain and he completely alters the rhythmic structure of the second strain. Courtly dancers should beware! Both Lady Darcy and posthumously, the Queen, enjoyed the homage of a piece of conventionally courtly dance music, which, in the hands of the great lutenist, clearly surpasses known conventions.

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