WYATT, Sir THOMAS the younger (1521?–1554), conspirator, was the eldest and only surviving son of Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder [q. v.], by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Brooke, third lord Cobham. He was brought up as a catholic. He is described as ‘twenty-one years and upwards’ in the ‘inquisitio post mortem’ of his father, which was dated 8 Jan. 1542–3. The Duke of Norfolk was one of his godfathers. In boyhood he is said to have accompanied his father on an embassy to Spain, where the elder Sir Thomas Wyatt was threatened by the Inquisition. To this episode has been traced an irremovable detestation of the Spanish government, but the anecdote is probably apocryphal. All that is positively known of his relations with his father while the latter was in Spain is found in two letters which the elder Wyatt addressed from Spain to the younger, then fifteen years old. The letters give much sound moral advice. In 1537 young Wyatt married when barely sixteen. He succeeded on his father's death in 1542 to Allington Castle and Boxley Abbey in Kent, with much other property. But the estate was embarrassed, and he parted with some outlying lands on 30 Nov. 1543 to the king, receiving for them 3,669l. 8s. 2d. In 1542 he alienated, too, the estate of Tarrant in Dorset in favour of a natural son, Francis Wyatt, whose mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Darrel of Littlecote. Wyatt was of somewhat wild and impulsive temperament. At an early age he had made the acquaintance of his father's disciple, Henry Howard, earl of Surrey [q. v.], and during Lent 1543 he joined Surrey and other young men in breaking at night the windows of citizens' houses and of London churches. They were arrested and brought before the privy council on 1 April, and they were charged not merely with acts of violence, but with having eaten meat during Lent. Surrey explained that his efforts were directed to awakening the citizens of London to a sense of sin. Wyatt was inclined to deny the charges. He remained in the Tower till 3 May. In the autumn of 1543 Wyatt joined a regiment of volunteers which Surrey raised at his own expense to take part in the siege of Landrecies. Wyatt distinguished himself in the military operations, and was highly commended by Thomas Churchyard, who was present (cf. Churchyard, Pleasant Discourse of Court and of Wars, 1596). In 1544 Wyatt took part in the siege of Boulogne and was given responsible command next year. When Surrey became governor he joined the English council there (14 June 1545). Surrey, writing to Henry VIII, highly commended Wyatt's ‘hardiness, painfulness, circumspection, and natural disposition to the war.’ He seems to have remained abroad till the surrender of Boulogne in 1550. In November 1550 he was named a commissioner to delimit the English frontier in France, but owing to ill-health was unable to act. Subsequently he claimed to have served Queen Mary against the Duke of Northumberland when the duke attempted to secure the throne for his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey. But he took no well-defined part in public affairs at home until he learned of Queen Mary's resolve to marry Philip of Spain. He regarded the step as an outrage on the nation's honour, but, according to his own account, never thought of publicly protesting against it until he received an invitation from Edward Courtenay [q. v.], earl of Devonshire, to join in a general insurrection throughout the country for the purpose of preventing the accomplishment of the queen's plan. He cheerfully undertook to raise Kent. Help was vaguely promised him by the French ambassador.
The official announcement of the marriage was published on 15 Jan. 1553–4. Seven days later Wyatt summoned his friends and neighbours to meet at Allington Castle to discuss means of resistance. He offered, if they would attempt an armed rebellion, to lead the insurgent force. Like endeavours made by Courtenay, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir James Crofts, and Sir Peter Carew, to excite rebellion in other counties failed [see Carew, Sir Peter]. The instigators elsewhere were all arrested before they had time to mature their designs. Wyatt was thus forced into the position of chief actor in the attack on the government of the queen. He straightway published a proclamation at Maidstone which was addressed ‘unto the commons’ of
