Henry Wyatt (courtier)

Sir Henry Wyatt
Portrait of Sir Henry Wyatt, Hans Holbein the Younger
Born	Henry Wyatt 1460
Died	10 November 1537 (aged 76–77)
Resting place	Milton, Kent
Occupation	English courtier
Spouse(s)	Anne Skinner
Children	Sir Thomas Wyatt Henry Margaret

Sir Henry Wyatt (1460–1537) was an English courtier.

A younger son of a Yorkshire family, little is known of Henry Wyatt before he adopted the cause of Henry Tudor, later to become king Henry VII. Many myths and assumptions have been woven around his privations in prison as a supporter of the Tudor party’s opposition to Richard III in the years 1483-85, and are still to be found recounted as facts. Some of them occur in the widely cited entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (c.1900, available online), s.v. Thomas Wyatt (poet), although the entry has since been modified by the 2004 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

The Wyatt family papers in the British Library contain material which provides the nearest that can be found to an authentic account of this period of his life. Recently transcribed and published in full, the relevant documents, although collated and written up in the 18th century, incorporate a self-contained narrative about Wyatt which can be dated to the mid 17th century. At this date the family was intent on reclaiming its former status after falling into disgrace with the execution and attainder of his grandson. The aim was to play up the glory days of Henry’s adherence to the Tudor cause, describing him inter alia as ‘his Country’s martyr’.

It is unknown why and in what precise capacity he came to act on behalf of the exiled Tudor, or how he came to be imprisoned. He appears to have had contacts among those close to the Scots king James III and may have been an intermediary in attempts to secure Scottish support for Henry Tudor’s invasion. Possibly he fell into the hands of ‘some Scottish baron with Yorkist sympathies, only to be released when Henry VII was securely on the throne, after a considerable period of cruel imprisonment, and on the promise of a huge ransom’.

His exploits in the Wyatt family papers include being ‘imprisoned often, once in a cold and narrow Tower’, where he would have starved but for the ministrations of a kindly cat who befriended him and brought him food. During his incarceration he suffered tortures involving the use of horse-barnacles and being force-fed mustard and vinegar. On one occasion ‘the Tyrant himself examined him’, trying unsuccessfully to persuade Wyatt to change sides. Eventually in 1485 he was released from imprisonment in Scotland and received the thanks of the newly crowned Henry VII. His first recorded grant was on 11 October 1485 when he was appointed keeper of Norwich castle and gaol. A grant of Henry VIII on 22 August 1515 confirms that Wyatt still needed money to pay off his remaining Scottish ransom.