Thomas Wyatt (poet)

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Thomas Wyatt (poet)

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542) was a 16th century English lyrical poet

Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics , contrasted lyric poetry with drama and epic poetry....
.

t was born at Allington Castle

Allington Castle

Allington Castle is a stone built moated castle in Allington, Kent, just north of Maidstone, Kent. It is a Grade I listed building.The manor house on the site was fortified by Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports Stephen de Pencester in 1281 after a licence to crenellate was issued by Edward I of England....
, near Maidstone

Maidstone

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary....
in Kent

Kent

Kent is a Counties of England in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary....
, though his family was originally from Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a Historic counties of England of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Because of its great size, over time functions were increasingly undertaken by its subdivisions, which have been subject to History of local government in Yorkshire....
. His father, Henry Wyatt

Henry Wyatt

File:Hans Holbein d. J. 058.jpgHenry Wyatt father of Thomas Wyatt . He had been one of Henry VII of England?s Privy Councillors and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509....
, had been one of Henry VII

Henry VII of England

Henry VII was the Kingdom of England and Lordship of Ireland from his usurpation of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty....
's Privy Councillors, and remained a trusted advisor when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509.

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Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542) was a 16th century English lyrical poet

Lyric poetry

Biography

Wyatt was born at Allington Castle

Allington Castle

Maidstone

Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary....
in Kent

Kent

Yorkshire

Henry Wyatt

Henry VII of England

Cambridge

The city status in the United Kingdom of Cambridge is a College town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about 50 miles north of London....
.

Wyatt was a poet and Ambassador in the service of Henry VIII. He first entered Henry's service in 1516 as 'Sewer Extraordinary', and the same year he began studying at St John's College

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College, an institution known formally as The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort in 1511....
of the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge , located in Cambridge, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation university in the Anglosphere....
. He married Elizabeth Brooke

Elizabeth Brooke, Lady Wyatt

Elizabeth Brooke was the wife of Thomas Wyat , the poet, and the mother of Thomas Wyatt the younger who led Wyatt's Rebellion against Mary I of England....
(the sister of George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham

George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham

George Brooke, 9th Baron Cobham was an aristocrat during the early Tudor dynasty in England. A soldier and magnate, he participated in the English wars of his days and in the political turmoil following the death of Henry VIII of England....
) in 1521, and a year later she gave birth to a son, Thomas Wyatt, the younger, who led Wyatt's rebellion

Wyatt's rebellion

Wyatt's Rebellion was a Popular revolt in late medieval Europe in Kingdom of England in 1554, named after Thomas Wyatt the younger, one of its leaders....
. In 1524 Henry VIII assigned Wyatt to be an Ambassador at home and abroad, and some time soon after he separated from his wife on the grounds of adultery

Adultery

Adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse between a marriage and another person who is not his or her spouse, though in many places it is only considered adultery when a married woman has sexual relations with someone who is not her husband and in others it is only considered adultery when a married woman has sexual relations with someon...
.

Wyatt fell violently in love with the young Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn was List of English consorts as the Wives of Henry VIII of Henry VIII of England. She was also Earl of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation....
in the early-to-mid 1520s. His grandson later recollected that the moment he had seen "this new beauty" on her return from France in winter 1522 he had fallen in love with her. He wrote several love poems and became one of Anne's many suitors; gossips would later allege the two had been lovers. It is possible that one of his poems in particular, Whoso list to hunt (a reinterpretation of Petrarch

Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English language as Petrarch, was an Italy scholar, poet and one of the earliest Renaissance humanism. Petrarch is often popularly called the "Father of Humanism"....
's Rime 190), refers to this indirectly. The poet refers to a ‘hind’ whom the poet ‘may no more’ hunt, because around her neck is written in diamond letters Noli me tangere for Caesar’s I am. However, there is no direct evidence that they were physically intimate, and it has been suggested that this was why Wyatt’s life was spared during the hurly-burly of adultery accusations and executions in 1536. Furthermore, Anne was ambitious and had learned from her sister Mary Boleyn

Mary Boleyn

Mary Boleyn was a member of the English Boleyn family, which enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII of England. Mary was the sister of Queen consort Anne Boleyn; some historians claim she was the younger sister, but her children believed Mary was the elder sister, as do most historians today....
's example, and was discreet and chaste when it came to handling her male suitors. She unwittingly attracted King Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lordship of Ireland and claimant to the Early Modern France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII of England....
's attentions sometime around 1524, and Wyatt was the last of Anne's other suitors to be ousted by the king. After an argument over her during a game of bowls

Bowls

Bowls is a sport in which the goal is to roll slightly asymmetric balls, called bowls, closest to a smaller—normally white—bowl called the "jack" or "kitty"....
, Wyatt was sent on a diplomatic mission to Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
.

He accompanied Sir John Russell to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
to help petition Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
Clement VII to annul the marriage of Henry VIII to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon

Catherine of Aragon also known as Katherine or Katharine; was the List of English consorts as the Wives of Henry VIII of Henry VIII of England, and Princess of Wales by her first marriage to Arthur, Prince of Wales....
. Wyatt was captured by the armies of Emperor Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I of Spain, of the Spanish realms from 1516 until his abdication in 1556....
when they captured Rome and imprisoned the Pope in 1527. Wyatt managed to escape, however, and made it back to England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
.

In January 1533, Anne Boleyn is said to have told Wyatt, in front of other courtiers, that she had a 'hankering for apples' and that the King thought she might be pregnant. This was how the shocked court discovered that Henry and Anne were already married.

In 1535 he was knighted, and in 1536 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames....
for quarrelling with the Duke of Suffolk

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk

Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk , was the son of William Brandon and Elizabeth Bruyn. Through his third wife Mary Tudor he was brother-in-law to Henry VIII of England....
, and also under suspicion of being one of Anne Boleyn's lovers. He was released from the Tower later that year, thanks to his friendship with Thomas Cromwell, and he returned to his duties. During his stay in the Tower he witnessed the execution of Anne Boleyn, and he wrote a poem inspired by the experience (http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/innocent.htm). Like most of his contemporaries, Wyatt believed that Anne had been innocent of the charges for which she was put to death.

In the 1530s, he wrote poetry in the Devonshire MS declaring his love for a woman; the first letter on each line spelt out SHELTUN. A reply is written underneath it, signed by Mary Shelton

Mary Shelton

Margaret Shelton and Mary Shelton were two sisters in Tudor period, one of whom may have been a Mistress of Henry VIII of England.Mary was a maid-of-honour and poet....
, rejecting him. Mary, Anne Boleyn's first cousin, had been the mistress of Henry VIII between February and August 1535.

In 1540 he was again in favour, as evident by the fact that he was granted the site and many of the manorial estates of the dissolved Boxley Abbey

Boxley Abbey

Boxley Abbey in Kent, was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1143-46 by William Ypres, Earl of Kent, and colonised by monks from Clairvaux Abbey in France....
. However, in 1541 he was charged again with treason and the charges were again lifted - though only thanks to the intervention of Queen Catherine Howard

Catherine Howard

Katherine Howard , also spelled Catherine or Katheryn, was the fifth Wives of Henry VIII of Henry VIII of England , and sometimes known by his reference to her as his "rose without a thorn"....
, and upon the condition of reconciling with his adulterous wife. He was granted a full pardon and restored once again to his duties as Ambassador

Ambassador

An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents their country. They are usually accredited to a Sovereignty or government, or to an international organization, to serve as the official representative of their country....
. He became ill not long after, and died on 11 October 1542 around the age of 39.

None of Wyatt's poems were published during his lifetime - the first book to feature his verse was printed a full fifteen years after his death. He and Lord Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey Order of the Garter was an England aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry....
were the first poets to use the form of the sonnet

Sonnet

The sonnet is one of the Poetry that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe.The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian language word sonetto, both meaning "little song"....
in English. One of his sonnets, Whoso list to hunt, thought to be about Anne Boleyn, is posted at Wikisource:Author:Thomas Wyatt (poet).

His sister Margaret Wyatt

Margaret Lee

Lady Margaret Lee was a sister of poet Thomas Wyatt , and favourite of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII of England of England....
was the mother of Henry Lee of Ditchley

Henry Lee of Ditchley

File:Gheeraerts Elizabeth I The Ditchley Portrait c1592.jpgSir Henry Lee Order of the Garter of Ditchley was Master of the Ordnance under Queen Elizabeth I of England....
.

His only son, Thomas Wyatt the younger, led a thwarted rebellion against Henry's daughter, Queen Mary I.

His great grandson was Virgina Governor Francis Wyatt

Francis Wyatt

Sir Francis Wyatt, , the first English colonial governor of Virginia. He became governor in 1621, shortly after his arrival in October, taking with him the first written constitution for an English colony....
.

He is buried in Sherborne Abbey

Sherborne Abbey

The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin at Sherborne in the English county of Dorset, is usually called Sherborne Abbey. It has been an Anglo-Saxons cathedral , a Benedictine abbey and is now a parish church....
, in Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a Counties of England in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester, Dorset, situated in the south of the county at ....
.

Wyatt's poetry

Wyatt is credited with introducing the sonnet

Sonnet

The sonnet is one of the Poetry that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe.The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian language word sonetto, both meaning "little song"....
into English poetry. As well as translating several sonnets by the Italian poet Petrarch

Petrarch

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Ancient Rome Stoicism philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature....
and Horace

Horace

This article is about the Roman poet Horace. For other uses, see Horace .Quintus Horatius Flaccus, , known in the English language world as Horace, was the leading Roman Empire Lyric poetry during the time of Augustus....
, he experimented with other poetic forms such as the rondeau

Rondeau

Rondeau may mean:*Rondeau , a form of French poetry*Rondo, a musical form from the 18th century to the present, also spelt 'rondeau'*Rondeau , a medieval and early Renaissance musical form distinct from the 18th century rondo...
, and wrote epigrams, songs and satires. However, as well as looking towards classical and Italian models, he also admired the work of Chaucer and his vocabulary reflects Chaucer’s (for example his use of Chaucer’s word newfangleness, meaning fickle, in They flee from me that sometime did me seek). His best-known poems are those that deal with the trials of romantic love.

Critical opinions of his work have varied widely. C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist....
called him ‘the father of the Drab Age’, but others see his love poetry, with its complex use of literary conceit

Conceit

Aside from its common usage, signifying "excessive pride", in literature terms, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs an entire poem or poetic passage....
s, as anticipating that of the metaphysical poets

Metaphysical poets

The metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in Metaphysics concerns and a common way of investigating them....
in the next century.