Wyatt
Wyatt names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Wyatt SIR THOMAS, an English courtier and poet
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR THOMAS, an English courtier and poet; born in Allington Castle, Kent, England, in 1503; son of Sir Henry Wyatt, who stood high in favor with Henry VII., and later with his son. In 1515 he was entered at St. John's College, Cambridge, where 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 honor and integrity. In 1536 he was knighted, and the next year he was made high sheriff of Kent. He contrived to retain the hazardous favor 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 He had now very much withdrawn himself from public life, and lived for the most part retired at Allington. Among the other accomplishments of Wyatt was that of verse, which he seems to have begun to cultivate early, and continued through life to practice. During his life he had acquired considerable reputation as a poet; and in 1557 his poems, with those of Surrey, were published in "Tottel's Miscellany" (ed. by Arber, 1870). As marking a stage in the progress of early English literature they hold a permanent place. He died in Sherborne, Oct. 11, 1542.
Wyatt SIR THOMAS, surnamed THE YOUNGER (to distinguish him from the preceding
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR THOMAS, surnamed THE YOUNGER (to distinguish him from the preceding, of whom he was the only son), an English soldier; born about 1520. After a wild and riotous youth, he raised a body of men at his own expense, and did good service at the siege of Landrecies (1544), displaying considerable military talent; and he continued in honorable service on the Continent till 1550. In 1554, when the Spanish match was in agitation, Wyatt, in co-operation with Lady Jane Grey's father, led the Kentish men to Southwark, after gaining considerable successes over the royalists; but failing to capture Ludgate, he became separated from the main body of his followers, was taken prisoner, and soon after executed in London, April 11, 1554.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 account of the elder Sir Thomas Wyatt still fits the documented life, but his standing as a poet has been transformed. Where Collier's grants him only "a stage in the progress of early English literature," he is now read as the man who brought the Petrarchan sonnet into English and as a major lyric voice in his own right; editors since the twentieth century have worked from his own manuscript, British Library Egerton MS 2711, rather than from Tottel's Miscellany of 1557, whose editor smoothed Wyatt's deliberately rough metre into regularity. Collier's picture of a courtier "of spotless honor and integrity" also passes over his two spells in the Tower, in 1536 and 1541, and the long-argued question of his relationship with Anne Boleyn, which modern biographers treat as unresolved rather than absent. The younger Wyatt's rebellion of 1554 and his execution are recounted much as historians recount them today.
Written for this edition, 2026.