Men of Kent and Kentishmen/Sir Thomas Wyatt, Courtier and Poet
Sir Thomas Wyatt,
COURTIER AND POET,
Was a member of an ancient family possessing the manor of Allington, where he was born in 1503. His father Sir Henry Wyatt had been knighted and made Privy Councillor by Henry VII. Thomas was "accounted a most acomplished gentleman and well esteemed for his learning and poetry." Soon after his father's death he was knighted, and made privy councillor, and sent ambassador to Charles V. Anthony Wood calls him "the delight of the Muses and of mankind;" and Leland, in a poem on his death, styles him "incomparabilis." He was a great favourite of Henry VIII, and a bon mot of his, to the effect that it was a hard thing that a man could not repent without the Pope's leave, is said to have encouraged that monarch to proceed with the Reformation. He died in the year 1541 at Sherborne in Dorset, where he was buried.
[See his Life in Lord Orford's Works, also the Edition of his Works by Nott, and "Wood's Athenæ Oxon."]