Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Poet
Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Poet
Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Poet
The date is January 1541. King Henry VIII is on the throne.
Wyatt has just been arrested (for the second time!) and is sitting in prison awaiting his fate.
He makes friends with a chap in the next cell who appears to be a poet. And a terrible one at that.
The Facts
It's true that Wyatt wrote all the poems that he reads in the episode. He did get dreadful headaches and the way he describes poems as being tangible things to be folded or left somewhere are true concepts. He really was the first englishman to write a sonnet.
Catherine Aragon did ask him to translate a latin text even though she had better latin than he did. He is being truthful when he says that translation work was all political. He was also arrested as being involved with Anne Boleyn but he wasn't charged. He did give evidence against Anne.
He did become a Sheriff of Kent and was knighted. His story about Bishop Bonner and his catalogue about how much he disliked Wyatt is all true! His poems did sail a bit close to the wind at times and was considered a minion of Cromwell and so was arrested and in the Tower at the same time. He did watch his walk to the scaffold and Cromwell did cry out to him at the end.
He really didn't know exactly why he was in the Tower but he did get Catherine Howard's favour by writing her a poem which did get him out of prison.
Other Sources
If you want to find out more about Wyatt, check out the sources and places below:
Books:
Thomas Wyatt: The Heart's Forest - Susan Brigden
Graven with Diamonds: The Secret Lives of Thomas Wyatt: Courtier, Assassin, Poet, Spy - Nicola Shulman