Cavalier poets is a broad description of a school of poets, who came from the classes that supported King Charles I during the English Civil War. They were marked out by their lifestyle and religion from the Puritans on the Parliamentarian side; much of their poetry is light in style, and generally secular in subject.
The best known of the Cavalier poets are Robert Herrick and Andrew Marvell.
Most of the Cavalier Poets were courtiers, with notable exceptions: Robert Herrick, for example, was not a courtier but his style marks him as a Cavalier Poet.
