Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/208

 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 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.;, 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 whither 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 demanded. Wyatt, however, escaped to Bologna.

On settling again in England Wyatt rejoined 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., 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 by 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. Archæologia, 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 [q. v.] and [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