SKETCHES OF THE LIFE OF
Sir Thomas Wyat
AD 1503–1542
(1)
Catherine Millsing (Oxford University), in Encyclopaedia Britanica (1972), v. 23, pp. 826f.
. Wyat, Sir Thomas (1503-1542), English poet and diplomatist, belonged to a family long settled
with some distinction in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In the time of Henry VII the family moved
to Kent and in 1493 the poet's father, Henry, bought the castle and estate of Allington near
Maidstone, where ten years later his elder son Thomas was born to his wife, Anne, daughter of
John Skinner of Reigate, Surrey. Henry Wyat maintained his family's standing; after being
imprisoned and according to his son tortured by Richard III, he became a privy councilor to
Henry VII, a knight of the Bath at the coronation of Henry VIII, knight banneret in 1513, and
treasurer of the King's Chamber in 1523. Till his death in 1536 he showed a practical,
affectionate, and trusting interest in his son's welfare, revealed in letters of 1536 to Thomas
Cromwell; his character is movingly commemorated by the poet in letters to his son, Thomas the
younger.
. Thomas the elder was entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1515. In 1520 he
married Elizabeth Brooke, daughter of Thomas Lord Cobham, apparently with unhappy results.
He was introduced at court, where he held several social offices, and seems to have been popular
and admired for his attractive appearance and skill in music, languages, and arms. He was one of
the challengers in the royal tournament at Greenwich at Christmas 1525. In 1526 and 1527 he
was sent on diplomatic missions to the French and papal courts, from 1528 to 1530 he was high
marshal at Calais, and till 1536 he was regularly employed in diplomatic missions, to the
satisfaction of Henry VIII. In that year, however, he was sent to the Tower, and it has been
thought that this was part of the movement against the queen. Wyat's acquaintance with Anne
Boleyn probably began when their families were neighbours in Kent; his admiration for her was
known at court, but there is no certain evidence of any more intimate relation between them than
loving friendship. The cause of his imprisonment was probably some mere folly, as his father's
letters to Cromwell suggest, for he returned to full royal favour on his release after a month's
imprisonment. He was knighted in 1537 and was sent on embassy to the emperor Charles V,
where again his services were found satisfactory in spite of complaints by Edmund Bonner
(archdeacon of Leicester and later bishop of London) who had been sent to join him.
Bonner's complaints were sent in a letter to Cromwell, who was too good a friend of
Wyat to take any notice of them. On Cromwell's fall and death, however, Bonner's charges of
disloyalty were renewed, and Wyat was also accused of treasonable relations with Cardinal
Reginald Pole. He answered the charges in his remarkable Defence (first published in 1816) and
was formally pardoned in March 1541. The pardon was almost immediately followed by grants of
land from the king, and in 1542 he represented the king when the emperor's ambassadors arrived
at Falmouth. He died at Sherborne on Oct. 6, 1542. Several elegies were written, of which
Surrey's —“Wyatt resteth here, that quick could never rest” — is the most famous. It
commemorates a personality that could draw out equally William Camden's phrase "splendide
doctus" and Cromwell's "gentle frank heart." Among Wyat's worst follies seems to be that of
leaving his own financial affairs in disorder when he went to serve the king. He speaks with
simple shame of his own follies in his two noble and loving letters of advice to his son.
. Any fuller impression of his personality must be drived from his poems, which are, in fact,
unusual for their time in carrying a strong, though undetailed, sense of individuality. They consist
of Certayne Psalmes . . . drawen into Engliyshe meter, published in 1549; three satires and a
number of "Songes and Sonettes" published by Richard Tottel in 1557 (in Songes and Sonettes,
written by the ryght honorable Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other, usually
known as Tottel's Miscellany); and other songs identified in manuscripts and printed in 19th- and
20th-century editions by Nott and Muir (see Bibliography). Variant readings between Tottel's
printing and manuscript versions, sometimes in Wyat's autograph, have caused disagreements
about Wyat's intentions and achievements as a metrist. Minor alterations in the most memorable
poems serve to satisfy the ear both of Tottel's readers and of 20th century lovers of syncopated
rhythms.
. Historically, Wyat's greatest achievements may have been his translations, the first in
English, of Italian sonnets, and his handling in the satires of terza rima with such free running
over the rhymes as to point to the later unrhymed use of the heroic line in blank verse.
Artistically, his finest achievement undoubtedly lies in his songs, where, though making occasional
use of French forms such as the rondeau, he relies mainly on the English lyric tradition and his
own skill as a lutenist. At his best, his sense of what is singable is exquisite; his failure to write
immediately recognizable English sonnets may be due partly to his instinct for the singable. The
English sonnet has outlined a weighty, concentrated structure with heavily marked rhymes;
Wyat's sonnet translations tend to the floating unstressed endings to which singers can give value.
"My galley charged with forgetfulness" is a poor sonnet; it is an attractive 14-line song.
Nearly all the songs, like the sonnets, are about love. Both songs and sonnets use the
Petrarchan theme of love-service, and the sonnets use the Petrarchan imagery of fire-ice, love-sieges, and so on; but the general effect is markedly un-Petrarchan. Wyat's poetry is singularly
lacking in colour-words, and his world is one of gray shadows and black-and-white; it may be this
that seems to transport a Petrarchan storm at sea to the English Channel. His images are rarely
richly decorative; sometimes they are of the kind usually ascribed to the Metaphysical poets:
images of process and becoming, where it is often impossible to lay a finger on the dividing line
between image and imaged. Many of the songs use no imagery; they make direct statements of
feeling in bare and commonplace language. Emotional or argumentative point and power are
communicated by grammatical means which look forward to Shakespeare's "had, having, and in
quest to have," as in the poem beginning "Forget not yet the tried intent":
| forget not this, |
| How long hath been, and is |
| The mind that never meant amiss, |
Poetical force is given to this bare clarity by the pulse of a mastered rhythm. In the best songs the
statement coincides magically with the repeated stanzaic form, and sometimes even refrains are
integrated syntactically and emotionally into the statement. In the worst work, the bareness is
baldness, and the form is flat.
The dramatic origin, in a real or imagined moment or act, of many of the poems has been
seen as a foreshadowing of Donne, as has Wyat's awareness of the revulsions as well as the
attractions of love. But Wyat's poetry allows his lady, however shadowy, more of independent
existence than Donne's; he and she can have relationships other than the passionate. It is also less
insistent on personal temperament, its formal structures merely indicating, rather than
proclaiming, the personality. The songs in which the lute is referred to or addressed (e.g., "Blame
not my Lute," "My Lute awake") clarify the relation of the poet to his hearers; the lute is
genuinely addressed, being endowed with that semblance of personality which men give to an
object loved through long association, and his talking to it may be overheard without intrusion, so
that the poems are neither all-private nor all-public.
George Puttenham, in his Arte of English Poesie (1589), describes Sir Thomas Wyat as
"deep-witted," and though this might seem to refer to his meditations in and on the Psalms, or to
his musings on private and public life in the satires, it also applies to the grave vitality of some of
the love poetry. By Surrey and others, Wyat was revered as an artistic innovator. For the
modern reader, he is an original poet whose worst work, awkward or tedious or both, is
outweighed by the fine balance between force and delicacy in his best.
Bibliography. — Wyat's Works were ed., with those of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, by G.
Sewell (1717) and G. F. Nott, 2 vol. (1815-16); with those of Surrey, Sackville, Grimald, and
Lord Vaux, by R. Bell (1854); and by G. Gilfillan (1858), A. K. Foxwell, 2 vol. (1913), and K.
Muir (1949); also in Unpublished Poems Edited from the Blage Manuscript, 1961). They are
also included in G. Bullett, Silver Poets of the 16th Century (1947). See also R. Alscher, Sir T.
Wyatt und seine Stellung in der Entwickelungsgeschichte (1886); H. B. Lathrop, "The Sonnet
Forms in Wyatt and Surrey," in Modern Philology, vol. ii (1904); A. K. Foxwell, A Study of Sir
Thomas Wyatt's Poems (1911); E. K. Chambers, Sir Thomas Wyatt and . . . Collected Studies
(1933); C. M. Ing, Elizabethan Lyrics (1951); H. A. Mason, "Wyatt and the Psalms," in the
Times Literary Supplement (Feb. 27 and March 6, 1953); K. Muir, Life and Letters of Sir
Thomas Wyatt (1963); R. Southall, The Courtly Maker: an Essay on the Poetry of Wyatt and His
Contemporaries (1964); P. Thomson, Sir Thomas Wyatt and His Background (1965).
(2)
Sidney Lee, in Leslie Stephan & Sidney Lee, ed., Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 1885-1901[reprint 1993]), v. 21, pp. 1098-1102
WYATT, SIR THOMAS (1503?–1542), poet, only son of Sir Henry Wyatt and Anne, daughter of John Skinner of Reigate, Surrey,
was born about 1503, at his father's residence, Allington Castle, Kent. The 'inquisitio post mortem' of his father, dated
1537, inaccurately describes him as then aged 'twenty-eight years and upwards.'
A Sketch of Thomas' Father's Life
SIR HENRY WYATT (d. 1537), the father of the poet, resisted the pretensions of Richard III to the throne, and was in
consequence arrested and imprisoned in the Tower for two years. According to his son's statement he was racked in Richard's
presence, and vinegar and mustard were forced down his throat.
. There is an old tradition in the family that while in the Tower a cat brought him a pigeon every day from a neighbouring
dovecot and thus saved him from starvation. There is no contemporary confirmation of the legend. The Earl of Romney, who
is directly descended in the female line from the Wyatts, possesses a curious half-length portrait of Sir Henry seated in a
prison cell with a cat drawing towards him a pigeon through the grating of a window. Lord Romney also possesses a second
picture of 'The cat that fed Sir Henry Wyatt,' besides a small bust portrait of Sir Henry. The pictures, illustrating the
tradition of the cat (now at Lord Romney's house, 4 Upper Belgrave Street, London), represent Sir Henry Wyatt in advanced
years, and were obviously painted on hearsay evidence very long after the date of the alleged events they claim to depict.
The Wyatt patters, drawn up in 1727, relate that Sir Henry on his release from the Tower 'would ever make much of cats, as
other men will of their spaniels or hounds.'
. On the accession of Henry VII Wyatt was not merely liberated but was admitted to the privy council, and remained high in
the royal favour. He was one of Henry VII's executors, and one of Henry VIII's guardians. Henry VIII treated him with no
less consideration than his father had shown him. He was admitted to the privy council of the new king in April 1509, and
became a knight of the Bath on 23 July following. In 1511 he was made jointly with Sir Thomas Bolyn [q.v.] constable of
Norwich castle (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, i. No. 3008), and on 29 July of the same year was granted an estate
called Maidencote, at Estgarstone in Berkshire. At the battle of the Spurs he served in the vanguard (16 Aug. 1513). He
became treasurer to the king's chamber in 1524, but resigned that office to Sir Brian Tuke on 23 April 1528. He had
purchased in 1492 the castle and estate of Allington near Maidstone in Kent, and made the place his principal residence.
Henry VIII visited him there in 1527 to meet Wolsey on his return from the continent. Wyatt remained friendly with Sir
Thomas Boleyn (the father of Queen Anne Boleyn), who had been his colleague at Norwich, and resided at Hever Castle in Kent.
. Sir Henry died on 10 Nov. 1537 (Inq. post mort. 28 Hen. VIII, m. 5), and, in accordance with the directions in
his will, which was proved on 21 Feb. 1537/8 (Cromwell, f. 7), was buried at Milton, near Gravesend.
. At twelve years of age the son Thomas was admitted of St. John's College, Cambridge. He graduated there B.A. in 1518, and
M.A. in in 1520. There is a vague tradition that he also studied at Oxford. He married early — in 1520, when not more than
seventeen — but as a boy he had made the acquaintance of Anne Boleyn, and long after the date of his marriage Wyatt was regarded
as her lover. He soon sought official employment, and became esquire of the body to the king. In 1524 he was appointed
clerk of the king's jewels, but the statement that he succeeded his father as treasurer to the king's chamber is an invention
of J. P. Collier, who forged entries in official papers in support of it (Trevelyan Papers, Camd. Soc.; SIMONDS,
Sir Thomas Wyatt and his Poems). At Christmas 1525 he distinguished himself at a court tournament. Next year he
accompanied Sir Thomas Cheney on a diplomatic mission to France.
. In January 1526/7 he accompanied Sir John Russell, the ambassador, to the papal court. The story is told that Russell in
his journey down the Thames encountered Wyatt, and , 'after salutations, was demanded of him shither he went, and had answer,
"To Italy, sent by the king." "And I," said Wyatt, "will, if you please, ask leave, get money, and go with you." "No man more
welcome," answered the ambassador, So, this accordingly done, they passed in post together' (Wyatt MSS.) While abroad
at this time, Wyatt visited Venice, Ferrara, Bologna, Florence, and Rome. Russell broke his leg at Rome, and Wyatt undertook
to negotiate on his behalf with the Venetian republic. On his return journey towards Rome he was taken captive by the imperial
forces under the constable Bourbon, and a ransom of three thousand ducats was damanded. Wyatt, however, escaped to Bologna.
. On settling again in England Wyatt refoined the court, but in 1529 and 1530 he chiefly spent his time at Calais, where he
accepted the post of high-marshal. His relations with Anne Boleyn continued close until her favours were sought by Henry VIII.
Then it is said that he frankly confessed to Henry the character of his intimacy with her (cf. HARPSFIELD, Pretended Divorce),
and warned him against marrying a woman of blemished character. In 1533 he was sworn of the privy council, and at Anne's
coronation on Whit Sunday of that year he acted as chief 'ewerer' in place of his father, and poured scented water over the
queen's hands. The story of the Spanish chronicler that Henry afterwards banished Wyatt from court for two years is
uncorroborated. In the spring of 1535 he was engaged in a heated controversy with Elizabeth Rede, abbess of West Malling, who
declined to obey the orders of the government to admit Wyatt to confiscated property of the abbey. He was in attendance on the
king early in 1536, but soon afterwards the discovery of Anne's post-nuptial infidelities created at court an atmosphere of
suspicion, which threatened to overwhelm Wyatt. On 5 May 1536 he was committed to the Tower, but it was only intended to employ
him as a witness against the queen. Cromwell wrote to Wyatt's father on 11 May that his life was to be spared. No legal
proceedings were taken against him, and he was released on 14 June. His sister Mary attended Queen Anne on the scaffold. A
miniature manuscript book of prayers on vellum bound in gold (enamelled black), which now belongs to Lord Romney, is said to
have been given to the queen to a lady of Wyatt's family. (A very similar volume and binding is among the Ashburnham MSS. at
the British Museum; cf. Archaeologia, xliv. 259-70).
. Wyatt made allusion to the fatal month of May in one of his sonnets; but he had not forfeited the king's favour, and the minister
Cromwell thenceforth treated him with marked confidence. In October 1536 he was given a command against the rebels in Lincolnshire,
and he was knighted on 18 March 1536/7. In 1537 he became sheriff of Kent. In April of the same year he was appointed ambassador
to the emperor, in succession to Richard Pate, and he remained abroad, mostly in Spain, till April 1539. The negotiations in
which he was engaged were aimed at securing friendly relations between the emperor and Henry VIII. The diplomacy proved intricate,
and although Wyatt displayed in its conduct sagacity and foresight, he achieved no substantial success. He found time in 1537
to send interesting letters of moral advice to his son (printed by Nott). In May 1538 Edmund Bonner [q.v.] and Simon Heynes
[q.v.] were ordered under a special commission to Nice, where the emperor was staying, to join Wyatt in dissuading him from taking
part in a general council convened by the pope at Vicenza. Wyatt entertained Bonner and his companion at Villa Franca, where the
English embassy had secured apartments remote from the heat and crowd of Nice; but Wyatt resented the presence of coadjutors and
treated them with apparent contempt. Bonner retaliated by writing to Cromwell (from Blois, 2 Sept. 1538) that Wyatt was engaged
in traitorous correspondence with Reginald Pole, lived loosely, and used disrespectful language to the king (cf. Inner Temple Petyt
MS. No. 47, f. 9; printed in Gent. Mag. 1850, i. 563-70). Cromwell, a staunch friend of Wyatt, ignored the accusation,
and on 27 Nov. 1538 wrote to him in terms of confidence. Wyatt was recalled to England in April 1539.
. In the following December he was despatched to Flanders to interview the emperor, who was on the point of paying a visit to
the king of France in Paris. Thither Wyatt followed the emperor. In January 1540 Wyatt was especially requested to procure
from the French court the arrest of a Welshman named Brancetor, an ally of Cardinal Pole, who had taken service in the household
of the emperor, and was with him in Paris. Wyatt failed to secure the arrest of the man, who appealed to the emperor and to the
French government for protection. Wyatt pressed the matter in an audience of the emperor, but he proved unconciliatory. Henry
VIII, on hearing from Wyatt of his difficulties, instructed him to remain firm. Wyatt followed the emperor to Brussels and boldly
renewed his entreaties without result. Wyatt's inability to improve the relations between Henry VIII and the emperor were in
part responsible for Cromwell's fall. In 1540 he returned from the Low Countries.
. After Cromwell’s execution Bonner and Heynes renewed their old attack upon Wyatt. Their charges were now treated seriously,
and Wyatt was sent to the Tower at the same time as another innocent ally of Cromwell, Sir John Wallop [q.v.] Wyatt was privately
informed of the accusation, and sent an elaborate paper of explanations, denying with much spirit that any treasonable intent
could be deduced from any reports of his conversation (cf. Harl. MS. 78, arts. 6, 7; first printed by Horace Walpole in
Miscellaneous Antiquities, 1772, ii. 21-54, from a transcript made by the poet Gray). But according to a letter sent by the
lords of the council to Sir William Howard on 26 Mar 1541, Wyatt 'confessed uppon his examination, all the thinges objected unto
him, in a like lamentable and pitifull sorte as Wallop did, whiche surely were grevous, delyvering his submission in writing,
declaring thole history of his offences, but with a like protestation, that the same proceeded from him in his rage and folishe
vaynglorios fantazie without spott of malice; yelding himself only to his majesties marcy, without the whiche he sawe he might
and must needes be justely condempned. And the contemplation of which submission, and at the greate and contynual sute of the
Quenes Majestie, His Highnes, being of his owne most godly nature enclyned to pitie and mercy, hathe given him his pardon in as
large and ample sorte as his grace gave thother to Sir John Wallop, whiche pardons be delyvered, and they sent for to come hither
to Highnes at Dover.' Thenceforth the king's favour was secure. He had added the estate of Boxley to his large Kentish property,
and now elsewhere, exchanging some of his land in Kent for other estates in Dorset and Somerset. He was made high steward of the
manor of Maidstone, and early in 1542 he was returned to parliament as knight of the shire for Kent. In the summer of 1542 he was
sent to Falmouth to conduct the imperial ambassador to London. The heat of the weather and the fatigue of the journey brought on
a violent fever, which compelled him to halt at Sherborne in Dorset. There Wyatt died, and on 11 Oct. 1542 he was buried in the
great church of Sherborne. The register describes him as 'vir venerabilis.' The 'inquisitio post mortem,' dated 8 Jan. 1542/3,
enumerates vast estates in Kent (34 Hen. VIII, Kent, m. 90).
. Sir Thomas Wyatt's (bust) portrait (with flowing black beard and bald head) on panel is in the picture gallery at the Bodleian
Library, Oxford. The Earl of Romney (at his London residence) owns a portrait (small bust) on panel by Lucas Cornelisz. Two other
similar portraits were exhibited at South Kensington in 1866. Two drawings by Holbein are in the Royal Library at Windsor; one was
engraved for Leland's tract in 1542, and is said to have been drawn on wood by Holbein. A painting after one of Holbein's sketches
is in the National Portrait Gallery, London. According to Vertue, a full-length portrait was at Ditchley, the present seat of
Viscount Dillon; it has long been missing. The Bodleian portrait has often been engraved (cf. Dr. Nott's edition of Wyatt's 'Works,'
frontispiece).
. Wyatt married about 1520 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Brooke, lord Cobham, and had by her an only surviving son, Sir Thomas Wyatt
[q.v.] His widow married Sir Edward Warner [q.v.]
. Wyatt's unexpected death was widely mourned. John Leland, the antiquary, published in 1542 a Latin elegy of much merit, 'Naenia
in mortem Thomae Viati equitis incomparabilis,' which was dedicated to the Earl of Surrey (with woodcut of Wyatt). There followed
an interesting anonymous effort: "The Excellent Epitaffe of Syr Thomas Wyat, with two other compendious dytties, wherin are touchyd,
and set furth the state of mannes lyfe. (Imprynted at London by John Herforde for Roberte Toye [1542],' 4to, 4 leaves): the portrait
of Wyatt, in a circle, is reproduced from Leland's 'Naenia;' a partial reissue was entitled 'A compendious dittie, wherein the state
of mans lyfe is briefely touched,' London, by Thomas Berthelet, 3 Jan. 1547/8. but the most interesting poetic tributes to Wyatt
were paid by Surrey in two poems — one a sonnet and the other an elegy in forty-eight lines which were first published by Tottel in
'Songes and Sonettes' (1557).
. Wyatt belonged to the cultivated circle of Henry VIII's court. He closely studied foreign literature, and acquired a high reputation
as a writer of English verse. He ordinarily shares with Henry Howard, earl of Surrey [q.v.], the honour of having introduced the sonnet
from Italy into this country. He is better entitled to be treated as the pioneer. Wyatt was Surrey's senior by fifteen years. At
Wyatt's death Surrey was only twenty-four. When Wyatt first studied Petrarch's sonnets in Italy, Surrey was barely nine. Surrey may
be fairly regarded as Wyatt's disciple. Wyatt wrote both sacred and secular verse, but none of his compositions were published in his
lifetime. His sacred poems, in which he shows the influence of Dante and Alamanni, appeared in 1549 as 'Certayne Psalmes chosen out of
the Psalter of Dauid commonly called the vij penytentiall Psalmes, drawen into Englyshe meter by Sir Thomas Wyat, knyght, whereunto is
added a prologe of the auctore before every Psalma very pleasant and profettable to the godly reader. Imprinted at London by Thomas
Raynald and John Harryngton, MDXLIX, 4to.' A sonnet in praise of the book by Surrey is prefixed, and is reprinted in Tottel's 'Songes
and Sonettes' (ed. Arber, p. 28). The work is dedicated by the printer Harryngton to William Parr, marquis of Northampton.
. Many of Wyatt’s secular poems were first printed in 1557, with those of Surrey and some anonymous contemporaries, by Richard Tottel,
in the volume called 'Songes and Sonettes,' which is commonly quoted as 'Tottel's Miscellany.' Ninety-six poems are there assigned to
Wyatt out of a total of 310. In Nott's edittion of the works of surrey and Wyatt (1815-16) important additions to the collection of
Tottel were made from manuscript sources. The most historically interesting of Wyatt's surviving poems are thirty-one regular sonnets;
of these ten are direct translations of Petrarch, and many others betray his influence. The metre is simplified from the Italian model,
and the two concluding lines usually form a rhymed couplet. The rest of Wyatt's poems consist of rondeaus, epigrams, lyrics in various
short metres, and satires in heroic couplets. His muse was largely imitative, and French and Spanish verse was laid under contribution
as well as Italian. His epigrams often imitate the strabotti of Serafino dell'Aquila. His satires are inspired by a study of
Horace of Persius. Wyatt's poetic efforts often lack grace, his versification is at times curiously uncouth, his sonnets are strained
and artificial in style as well as in sentiment; but he knew the value of metrical rules and musical rhythm, as the 'Address to his Lute'
amply attests. Despite his persistent imitation of foreign models, too, he displays at all points an individual energy of thought, which
his disciple surrey never attained. As a whole his work evinces a robuster taste and intellect than Surrey's.
. ‘Tottel’s Miscellany’ was constantly reprinted [see HOWARD, HENRY, EARL OF SURREY; TOTTEL, RICHARD]. Wyatt's poems were separately
reprinted from 'Tottel's Miscellany' twice in 1717; in Bell's 'Annotated Edition of English Poets' in 1854; by the Rev. George Gilfillan,
Edinburgh, in 1858; and by James Yeowell in the 'Aldine Poets,' 1863.
The poetical works of Wyatt and Surrey have often been edited together, notably in 1815-16, by George Frederick Nott [q.v.], who printed
many new poems by Wyatt for the first time from the Harington MSS. and the Duke of Devonshire's manuscript collections (2 vols. 4to), and
again in 1831 by Sir Harris Nicolas.
. [An elaborate memoir by Nott is prefixed to his edition of Wyatt's works (1816); a few additions are made by Nicolas and Yeowell in
their respective editions of Wyatt's poems. John Bruce, in Gent. Mag. 1850, ii. 235 seq., gave a series of valuable extracts touching
Sir Thomas's career from the Wyatt manuscripts, a remnant of a collection of family papers made in 1727 by a descendant, Richard Wyatt
(1673-1753); in 1850, when Bruce used them, these papers were in the possession of the Rev. B. D. Hawkins of Rivenhall, Essex, but they
were made over in 1872 to the earl of Romney, in whose ancestors' possession they had formerly been; they are now the property of the
present earl (information kindly given by the Hon. R. Marsham-Townshend). Mr. Cave Browne in his History of Boxley Parish, Maidstone,
1892, pp. 134 seq., made some use of the Wyatt MSS. See also Arber's preface to his reprint of Tottel's Miscellany, 1870; Cooper's
Athenae Cantabr.; Froude's History, Miss Strickland's Queens of England; Bapst's Deux Gentilhommes-Poetes de la Cour de Henry VIII, 1891;
Thomas's Historical Notes; Miscell. geneal. et Heraldica, new ser. ii. 107; Brewer and Gairdner's Letters and Papers of Henry VIII; Cal.
State Papers, Spanish, v.-vi.; Friedmann's Anne Boleyn; George Wyat's Account of Anne Boleigne, 1817; Brewer's Henry VIII; Warton's Hist.
of English Poetry; Professor Courthope's Hist. of English Poetry, ii. 44-67 (an important critical study); Mr. Churton Collins in T. H.
Ward's English Poets; Rudolf Alsher's Sir Thomas Wyatt und seine Stellung in der Entwickelungsgeschichte der englischen Literatur und
Verskunst, Vienna, 1886 (chiefly dealing with Wyatt's metres); W. E. Simonds's Sir Thomas Wyatt and his Poems (Boston, 1889).]
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Since the painting has been painted over, it is not possible to determine for sure that the artist was Hans Holbein. This portrait
comes from the collection of Louis XIV and is located in the Arundel Collection under the title "Il ritratto del Cavaglier Wyat." There
are numerous copies in England. The copy in the National Gallery in Dublin is not as good as the picture in Paris. The person portrayed
was formerly in error thought to be Thomas More. Syr Henry Wyat of Allington Castle was a counselor to and friend of Thomas More. We may
confirm the identification by comparing it to ancient signed copies. It would date from its style to 1528.
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A.
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B. William Bruce Bannerman, The Visitations of Kent taken in the years 1530-1 by Thomas Bendte.
Harlean Society Publications, vol. 74 (1923), p. 22 [FHL 016076 item 2]
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