Wyatt, SIR THOMAS, courtier and poet, was born in 1503 at Allington Castle in Kent, son of Sir Henry Wyatt, who stood high in favour with Henry VII., and later with his son. In 1515 he was entered at St John's College, Cambridge, where in due time he took his degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. He was warmly received at court, for he was one of the most accomplished men of his day, of a noble presence and fine manners, dexterous and subtle in the management of affairs, yet of spotless honour and integrity. In 1536 he was knighted, and the next year he was made high sheriff of Kent. He contrived to retain the hazardous favour of the king, and was frequently employed by him in positions of trust, as in missions to Spain, to the imperial court. In 1541 he was rewarded with a grant of lands at Lambeth, and the year after he was named high steward of the king's manor at Maidstone. He had now very much withdrawn himself from public life, and lived for the most part retired at Allington. On the 11th October 1542 he died of fever at Sherborne. Among the other accomplishments of Wyatt was that of verse, which he seems to have begun to cultivate early, and continued through life to practise. During his life he had acquired considerable reputation as a poet; and in 1557 his poems, along with those of Surrey, were published in Tottel's Miscellany (ed. by Arber, 1870). As marking a stage in the progress of our early literature they hold a permanent place. His love poetry is somewhat overrun with conceits derived from the study of Italian models; but some of the shorter pieces are models of grace and elegance. His satires also possess considerable merit.
His poems, together with those of Surrey, were edited by Dr G. F. Nott (2 vols. 4to, 1815-16), and there is an American edition (Bourbon, 1889), whose editor seeks to show that Anne Boleyn was the object of Wyatt's love. See also a monograph by Rudolf Alscher (Vienna, 1886).