Thomas Wyatt (poet)

Sir Thomas Wyatt
Thomas Wyatt, Drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger
Born	Thomas Wyatt 1503 Allington Castle, Kent
Died	11 October 1542 (aged 38–39) Clifton Maybank House, Dorset
Resting place	Sherborne Abbey, Dorset
Occupation	English ambassador and poet
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Brooke
Children	Sir Thomas Wyatt Henry Francis Edward
Parent(s)	Sir Henry Wyatt Anne Skinner

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542) 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:

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.