diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
deleted file mode 100644
index 1bb5a44356..0000000000
--- a/LICENSE
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
-of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to
-deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the
-rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
-sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
-furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
-
-The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
-all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
-
-THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
-IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
-FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
-AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
-LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
-FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS
-IN THE SOFTWARE.
diff --git a/newsfragments/4956.feature.rst b/newsfragments/4956.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e42aec415d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/4956.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Restored license declaration in package metadata. See jaraco/skeleton#171.
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0b8238e86a..507cdbaa0f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ classifiers = [
 	"Topic :: Utilities",
 ]
 requires-python = ">=3.9"
+license = "MIT"
 dependencies = [
 ]
 keywords = ["CPAN PyPI distutils eggs package management"]
diff --git a/setuptools/dist.py b/setuptools/dist.py
index 8d972cc49b..57aeb2579d 100644
--- a/setuptools/dist.py
+++ b/setuptools/dist.py
@@ -471,12 +471,13 @@ def _expand_patterns(
         cls, patterns: list[str], enforce_match: bool = True
     ) -> Iterator[str]:
         """
-        >>> list(Distribution._expand_patterns(['LICENSE']))
-        ['LICENSE']
+        >>> getfixture('sample_project_cwd')
+        >>> list(Distribution._expand_patterns(['LICENSE.txt']))
+        ['LICENSE.txt']
         >>> list(Distribution._expand_patterns(['pyproject.toml', 'LIC*']))
-        ['pyproject.toml', 'LICENSE']
-        >>> list(Distribution._expand_patterns(['setuptools/**/pyprojecttoml.py']))
-        ['setuptools/config/pyprojecttoml.py']
+        ['pyproject.toml', 'LICENSE.txt']
+        >>> list(Distribution._expand_patterns(['src/**/*.dat']))
+        ['src/sample/package_data.dat']
         """
         return (
             path.replace(os.sep, "/")
@@ -488,8 +489,9 @@ def _expand_patterns(
     @staticmethod
     def _find_pattern(pattern: str, enforce_match: bool = True) -> list[str]:
         r"""
-        >>> Distribution._find_pattern("LICENSE")
-        ['LICENSE']
+        >>> getfixture('sample_project_cwd')
+        >>> Distribution._find_pattern("LICENSE.txt")
+        ['LICENSE.txt']
         >>> Distribution._find_pattern("/LICENSE.MIT")
         Traceback (most recent call last):
         ...
diff --git a/setuptools/tests/fixtures.py b/setuptools/tests/fixtures.py
index a5472984b5..6ca42648bd 100644
--- a/setuptools/tests/fixtures.py
+++ b/setuptools/tests/fixtures.py
@@ -60,6 +60,12 @@ def sample_project(tmp_path):
     return tmp_path / 'sampleproject'
 
 
+@pytest.fixture
+def sample_project_cwd(sample_project):
+    with path.Path(sample_project):
+        yield
+
+
 # sdist and wheel artifacts should be stable across a round of tests
 # so we can build them once per session and use the files as "readonly"