page_title: Thomas Wyatt (poet)
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Wyatt (poet)
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt. Oil on panel, 47 cm diameter, National Portrait Gallery, London. This oil portrait of Wyatt á l'antique, wearing an antique drape in a medallic composition, derives from a lost drawing or painting by Hans Holbein the Younger of about 1540. Holbein's woodcut for Leland's Naenia, in which Wyatt also wears an antique drape, presumably follows the original version. Four 16th-century copies by other hands survive, of which this is one of two at the National Portrait Gallery (for the other, see "Other versions" below). Thomas Wyatt (1503?–42) was a diplomat and a gifted poet who introduced the Italian sonnet form to England. He was arrested after the fall of Anne Boleyn, whom he had admired in poetry, but he recovered to become ambassador to the Emperor Charles V before being arrested again in 1541. Holbein also designed goldsmiths' work for Wyatt. References Susan Foister, Holbein in England, London: Tate, 2006, ISBN&#160;1854376454, p. 56. K. T. Parker, The Drawings of Hans Holbein at Windsor Castle, Oxford: Phaidon, 1945, OCLC 822974, p. 54. Roy Strong, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, London: HMSO, 1969, p. 339.
context_page_description: Sir Thomas Wyatt was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was originally from Yorkshire. His family adopted the Lancastrian side in the Wars of Roses. His mother was Anne Skinner, and his father Henry had been a Privy Councillor of Henry VII and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509. Thomas followed his father to court after his education at St John's College, Cambridge. Entering the King's service, he was entrusted with many important diplomatic missions. In public life his principal patron was Thomas Cromwell, after whose death he was recalled from abroad and imprisoned. Though subsequently acquitted and released, shortly thereafter he died. His poems were circulated at court and may have been published anonymously in the anthology The Court of Venus during his lifetime, but were not published under his name until after his death; the first major book to feature and attribute his verse was Tottel's Miscellany, printed 15 years after his death.
context_section_description: Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503 – 11 October 1542) was a 16th-century English politician, ambassador, and lyric poet credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature. He was born at Allington Castle near Maidstone in Kent, though the family was originally from Yorkshire. His family adopted the Lancastrian side in the Wars of Roses. His mother was Anne Skinner, and his father Henry had been a Privy Councillor of Henry VII and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII ascended the throne in 1509. Thomas followed his father to court after his education at St John's College, Cambridge. Entering the King's service, he was entrusted with many important diplomatic missions. In public life his principal patron was Thomas Cromwell, after whose death he was recalled from abroad and imprisoned (1541). Though subsequently acquitted and released, shortly thereafter he died.  His poems were circulated at court and may have been published anonymously in the anthology The Court of Venus (earliest edition c.1537) during his lifetime, but were not published under his name until after his death; the first major book to feature and attribute his verse was Tottel's Miscellany (1557), printed 15 years after his death.
caption: (Based on a lost drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger)
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