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Sir Thomas Wyatt was born circa 1503 in England to Henry Wyatt (1460-1537) and Anne Skinner (-c1537) and died 11 October 1542 England of unspecified causes. He married Elizabeth Brooke (c1503-aft1550) .

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542)[1] was a 16th-century English ambassador and lyrical poet. He is credited with introducing the sonnet into English literature. He was born at Allington Castle, near Maidstone in Kent, though his family was originally from Yorkshire. His mother was Anne Skinner and his father, Henry Wyatt, had been one of Henry VII's Privy Councillors, and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII came to the throne in 1509. In his turn, Thomas Wyatt followed his father to court after his education at St John's College, Cambridge. None of Wyatt's poems were published during his lifetime—the first book to feature his verse, Tottel's Miscellany of 1557, was printed a full fifteen years after his death.

Thomas Wyatt, born at Allington, Kent, in 1503, was the son of Sir Henry Wyatt by Anne Skinner, the daughter of John Skinner of Reigate, Surrey. He had a brother and sister:

  • Henry Wyatt, assumed to have died an infant.
  • Margaret Wyatt, who married Sir Anthony Lee (died 1549), by whom she was the mother of Queen Elizabeth's champion, Sir Henry Lee

Wyatt was over six feet tall, reportedly both handsome and physically strong. Wyatt was not only a poet, but also an ambassador in the service of Henry VIII. He first entered Henry's service in 1515 as "Sewer Extraordinary", and the same year he began studying at St John's College of the University of Cambridge.

He accompanied Sir John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, to Rome to help petition Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage of Henry VIII to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, an embassy whose goal was to make Henry free to marry Anne Boleyn. According to some, Wyatt was captured by the armies of Emperor Charles V when they captured Rome and imprisoned the Pope in 1527 but managed to escape and then made it back to England. In 1535 Wyatt was knighted and appointed High Sheriff of Kent for 1536.

In December 1541 he was elected knight of the shire (M.P.) for Kent.

In 1520, Wyatt married Elizabeth Brooke, (1503–1550), the daughter of Thomas Brooke, 8th Baron Cobham, by Dorothy Heydon, daughter of Sir Henry Heydon and Elizabeth or Anne Boleyn, daughter of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn. A year later, the couple had a son:

  • Sir Thomas Wyatt, (1521–1554), who led Wyatt's rebellion many years after his father's death.

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 her alleged adultery.



Children


Offspring of Sir Thomas Wyatt and Elizabeth Brooke (c1503-aft1550)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Thomas Wyatt (c1521-1554) 1521 11 April 1554 Jane Hawte (c1522-)



Siblings


Offspring of Henry Wyatt (1460-1537) and Anne Skinner (-c1537)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Thomas Wyatt (c1503-1542) 1503 England 11 October 1542 England Elizabeth Brooke (c1503-aft1550)
Henry Wyatt
Margaret Wyatt (-c1549)

Residences

Footnotes (including sources)

‡ General



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