Biography

Thomas Wyatt was born at Allington Castle in Kent and was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He spent most of his life as a courtier and diplomat, serving King Henry VIII as clerk of the king's jewels and as ambassador to Spain and to Emperor Charles V. He was also a member of various missions to France and Italy. He spent much of his adult life abroad; his interest in foreign literature, especially Italian, is evident from his translations and imitations of poems by the Italian sonneteers Petrarch, Sannazaro, Alamanni, and others. The life of a courtier under Henry VIII was not calm: Wyatt was twice arrested and imprisoned, once in 1536, after a quarrel with the duke of Suffolk, and again in 1541, when he was charged with treason, lodged in the Tower of London, and stripped of all his property. On both occasions he was fortunate enough to regain the king's favor and receive a pardon. His praise of quiet retired life in the country and the cynical comments about foreign courts in his verse epistle to John Poins derive from his own experience. Thomas Wyatt died in 1542.

To see a portrait of Thomas Wyatt, click below.