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WYAT, SIR THOMAS (1503—1542)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 862 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WYAT, See also:SIR See also:THOMAS (1503—1542) , See also:English poet and states-See also:man, See also:elder son of See also:Henry Wyat, or Wiat, afterwards knighted, and his wife See also:Anne, daughter of See also:John See also:Skinner of See also:Reigate, See also:Surrey, was See also:born at Allington See also:Castle, near See also:Maidstone, See also:Kent, in 1503. His See also:father (1460—1537) belonged to a See also:Yorkshire See also:family, but bought Allington about 1493. He was an adherent of the Lancastrian party, and was imprisoned and put to the See also:torture by See also:Richard III. The family records (in the See also:possession of the See also:earl of See also:Romney) relate that during his imprisonment he was saved from See also:starvation by a See also:cat that brought him pigeons. At the See also:accession of Henry VII. he became See also:knight of the See also:Bath (1509), knight See also:banneret (1513) and held various offices at See also:court. His son, Thomas Wyat, was admitted at St John's See also:College,See also:Cambridge, when about twelve years of See also:age, took his B.A. degree in 1518, and proceeded M.A. in 1522. The vague statement of See also:Anthony a See also:Wood (Athen. Oxon. i. 124), that he was transferred to See also:Oxford to attend See also:Wolsey's new college there, has no See also:foundation in fact. He married very See also:early See also:Elizabeth See also:Brooke, daughter of the 3rd See also:Lord See also:Cobham. The See also:marriage was an unhappy one, for a See also:letter (29th See also:March 1537) from the See also:lady's See also:brother to Thomas See also:Cromwell complains that Wyat had gone abroad and made no See also:provision for his wife, and a letter from the See also:Spanish See also:ambassador Chapuys to See also:Charles V. (9th Feb.

1542) speaks of her having been repudiated by her See also:

husband. As early as 1516 Wyat was server extraordinary to the See also:king, and in 1524 he was at court as keeper of the king's jewels. He was one of the champions in the See also:Christmas See also:tournament of 1525. His father had been associated with Sir Thomas See also:Boleyn as See also:constable of See also:Norwich Castle, and he had thus been early acquainted with Anne Boleyn. He appears to have been generally regarded as her See also:lover, but it is possible that the relations between them were merely of the fashionable poetic sort. In 1526 he was sent with Sir Thomas Cheney to congratulate See also:Francis I. on his safe return from See also:Spain; in 1527 he accompanied Sir John See also:Russell, afterwards 1st earl of See also:Bedford, on an See also:embassy to the papal court. He was sent by Russell, who was incapacitated by a broken See also:leg, to negotiate with the Venetian See also:republic. On his return See also:journey to See also:Rome he was taken prisoner by the Spanish troops, who demanded 3obo ducats for his See also:ransom, but he contrived to See also:escape. In 1528 he was acting as high See also:marshal at See also:Calais with a See also:salary of two shillings per See also:day, and was only superseded in See also:November 1530. During the following years he was constantly employed in Henry's service, and was apparently high in his favour. He was, however, sent to the See also:Tower in 1536, perhaps because it was desired that he should incriminate the See also:queen. His father's See also:correspondence with Cromwell does not suggest that his See also:arrest had anything to do with the proceedings against Anne Boleyn, but the connexion is assumed (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. vol. x.

No. 919) in the letters of John Hussey to Lord See also:

Lisle, See also:deputy of Calais. The See also:Roman See also:Catholic writer, See also:Nicholas Harpsfield, makes a circumstantial statement (Pretended See also:Divorce . . . See also:Camden See also:Soc. p. 253) that Wyat had confessed his intimacy with Anne to Henry VIII. and warned him against marrying her; but this, in view of his continued favour, seems highly improbable. He was released after a See also:month's imprisonment, and in the autumn of that See also:year took See also:part in the suppression of the See also:Lincolnshire rising. In March 1537 he was knighted, and a month later was sent abroad as ambassador to Charles V., whose See also:ill-will had been revived by the See also:declaration of the See also:illegitimacy of the princess See also:Mary. In 1J38 he was joined by See also:Edmund See also:Bonner, then a See also:simple See also:priest, and one See also:Simon Haynes, and seems to have been ashamed of their See also:bad See also:manners, and to have offended them in various ways. Bonner had evidently been desired by Thomas Cromwell to send his own See also:account of the negotiations. He wrote to Cromwell (2nd See also:Sept. 1538) a See also:long letter (Petyt MS.

47, See also:

Middle See also:Temple; first printed in the See also:Gentleman's See also:Magazine, See also:June 185o) in which he accused Wyat of disloyalty to the king's interests, and of many See also:personal slights to himself. Wyat was unsuccessful in the difficult affairs entrusted to him, but so long as Cromwell ruled he had a See also:firm friend at court, and no See also:notice was taken of Bonner's allegations. Cromwell even seems to have taken some care of his private affairs, which were See also:left in considerable disorder. He was recalled in See also:April 1539, but later in the same year he was employed on another embassy to the See also:emperor, who was on his way to the See also:Low Countries. After Cromwell's See also:death Wyat's enemies renewed their attacks, and he was imprisoned (17th See also:Jan. 1541) in the Tower on the old charges, with the additional See also:accusation of treasonable correspondence with See also:Cardinal Reginald See also:Pole. Being privately informed of the nature of the charges, he prepared an eloquent and manly See also:defence of his conduct in two documents addressed to the Privy See also:Council and to his See also:judges, in which he cleared himself effectually and exposed his accusers' motives. He was -released at the intercession of the queen, See also:Catherine See also:Howard, on See also:condition that he confessed his See also:guilt and took back his wife, from whom he had been separated for fifteen years, on See also:pain of death if he were thenceforth untrue to her (see Chapuys to Charles V., March 1541). He received a formal See also:pardon on the 21st of March, and received during the year substantial marks of the king's favour. In the summer of the next year he was sent to See also:Falmouth to meet the ambassadors of the emperor. The See also:heat brought on a See also:fever to which he succumbed at See also:Sherborne, See also:Dorset, on the 11th of See also:October. A Latin See also:elegy on his death was written by his friend John See also:Leland, " Naenia in mortem Thomae Viati equitis incomparabilis "; and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, celebrated his memory in some well-known lines beginning " Wyat resteth here, that See also:quick could never See also:rest," and in two sonnets.

Wyat's See also:

work falls readily into two divisions: the sonnets, rondeaus, and lyric poems dealing with love; and the satires and the version of the See also:penitential See also:psalms. The love poems probably date from before his first imprisonment. A large number were published in 1557 in Songes and Sonettes (Tottel's See also:Miscellany). Wyat's contributions number 96 out of a See also:total of 310. These have been supplemented from See also:MSS. He was the See also:pioneer of the See also:sonnet in See also:England, and the acknowledged See also:leader of the " See also:company of courtly makers who . . . having travailed in Italie and there tasted the sweet and stately See also:measures and See also:stile of the Italiwn Poesie, as novices newly crept out of the schooles of See also:Dante, Arioste and Petrarche, greatly pollished our See also:rude and homely maner of vulgar Poesie, from that it had been before " (See also:Puttenham's See also:Art of English Poesie, 1589).1 Wyat wrote in all See also:thirty-one sonnets, ten of which are See also:direct See also:translations of See also:Petrarch. The sentiment is strained and artificial.. Wyat shows to greater See also:advantage in his lyrical metres, in his epigrams and songs, especiaily in those written for See also:music,2 where he is less hampered by the conventions of the Petrarcan tradition, to which his singularly robust and See also:frank nature was ill-fitted. His thought is generally far in advance of his technical skill, and his See also:disciple Surrey has been far more widely recognized, chiefly because of the See also:superior smoothness of his versification. His See also:works are preserved in a MS. in possession of the See also:Harrington family, which originally belonged to Wyat himself, and in another belonging to the See also:duke of See also:Devonshire in which are inscribed the names of Wyat's See also:sister, See also:Margaret See also:Lee, and of the duchess of See also:Richmond, Surrey's sister. The See also:text differs considerably from Tottel's, which has been generally adopted.

Wyat wrote three excellent satires—" On the mean and sure See also:

estate," dedicated to John Poins, " Of the Courtier's See also:Life," to the same, and " How to use the court and himself." They are written in terza rima and in See also:form and See also:matter owe much to See also:Luigi See also:Alamanni. In the " Penitential Psalms " each is preceded by a See also:prologue describing the circumstances under which the psalmist wrote, and the psalms them-selves are very freely paraphrased, with much See also:original matter from the author. They were published in 1549 by Thomas Raynald and John Harrington as Certayne Psalmes . . . drawen into English See also:meter by Sir Thomas Wyat Knyght. None of Wyat's other poems were printed until fifteen years after his death, in Songes and Sonettes. The See also:standard edition of his works is that by Dr G. F. See also:Nott, forming the second See also:volume (1816) of The Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and of Sir Thomas Wyat the Elder, with an exhaustive memoir. Some family papers, now in the possession of the earl of Romney, were collected by Richard Wyat in 1727. Some use of these is made in The See also:History of Botley See also:Parish (1892), by J. See also:Cave See also:Browne. See also See also:Brewer and See also:Gairdner, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.

(especially from 1536 to 1542); The Poetical Works of Sir Thomas See also:

Wyatt (1866), with a memoir in the Aldine Edition of the See also:British Poets ; See also:Professor E. See also:Arber's See also:introductory matter to the edition of Songes and Sonnettes (187o) in his English Reprints; R. Alscher, " Sir Thomas Wyatt . . " (1886), in Wiener Beitrdge zur deutschen u. engl. Philologie, giving a full account of Wyat's metrical practice; W. E. Simonds, Sir Thomas Wyatt (See also:Boston, 1889) ; W. J. See also:Courthope, Hist. of Eng. See also:Poetry, vol. ii. (1897), the second See also:chapter of which is devoted to a See also:critical study of Wyat; E. Fliigel, " See also:Die handschriftliche Llberlieferung der Gedichte von Sir Thomas Wyat," in Anglia, vol. xviii.; F.

M. Padelford, Early Sixteenth See also:

Century Lyrics (1907).

End of Article: WYAT, SIR THOMAS (1503—1542)

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