Wyatt, Sir Thomas

(?1503-1542)

   He was born at Allington Castle, Kent, the only son of Sir Henry Wyatt. He graduated B.A. (1518), and M.A. (1520) from St. John's College, Cambridge. Although he married at seventeen, he was the lover of Anne Boleyn before she married Henry VIII. He had a distinguished career: clerk of the king's jewels (1524); a diplomat in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and France; high marshal of Calais; knighted in 1536; sheriff of Kent. He was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London, mainly as a result of accusations of treason by his enemies, but he never lost the favor of the king. He died at Sherborn, Dorset. Wyatt was one of Henry VIII's court circle and was admired for his skill in music, languages, knowledge of foreign literature, and his composition of English verse. It was he who introduced the sonnet from Italy into England, a form that was developed by Henry Howard, earl of Surrey (see entry). Some of his poems: "All Hevy Myndes," "From Thes Hye Hilles as When a Spryng Doth Fall," "O Goodely Hand," "Tagus, Fare Well, That Westward with Thy Stremes," "You That in Love Finde Lucke and Habundance."

   Sources: A Book of Love Poetry. Jon Stallworthy, ed. Oxford University Press, 1974. A Treasury of Great Poems: English and American. Louis Untermeyer, ed. Simon and Schuster, 1955. Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt. R.A. Rebholz, ed. Penguin Books, 1978. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Moods of the Sea: Masterworks of Sea Poetry. George C. Solley and Eric Steinbaugh, eds. Naval Institute Press, 1981. Poetry in English: An Anthology. M.L. Rosenthal, ed. Oxford University Press, 1987. Silver Poets of the Sixteenth Century. Gerald Bullett, ed. J.M. Dent, 1947. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.