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‘The shadow that you know’: Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir Francis Bryan at Court and in embassy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Susan Brigden
Susan Brigden
Affiliation:
Lincoln College, Oxford
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Abstract

From prison Sir Thomas Wyatt wrote a poem to Sir Francis Bryan, warning him to keep the secrets they shared. This article seeks to discover what the secrets were, and from whom they must be kept. The secrets concerned their lives as courtiers and ambassadors at times of great suspicion and insecurity at home and abroad, c. 1536–41. As diplomats, Wyatt and Bryan were charged to mediate between Henry VIII, Francis I, and Emperor Charles V, but they also had more sinister undercover missions. They were sent to spy upon, and even to assassinate the papal legate, Cardinal Pole. Poetry reveals much about these men which other sources cannot.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 1 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 The best edition of Wyatt' s poems, with a valuable commentary, is Sir Thomas Wyatt: the complete poems, ed. Rebholz, R. A. (1978)Google Scholar (hereafter cited Wyatt: poems). The works indubitably addressed to Bryan are LXII, CLI; XXXIV almost certainly is. For Wyatt' s life and work, see Nott, G. F., The works of Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, and of Sir Thomas Wyatt (2 vols., 1815–1816), IIGoogle Scholar (hereafter cited Nott, Works); Muir, K., The life and letters of Sir Thomas Wyatt (Liverpool, 1963)Google Scholar (hereafter cited Life and letters); Thomson, P., Sir Thomas Wyatt and his background (Stanford, 1964)Google Scholar; Foley, S. M., Sir Thomas Wyatt (Boston, Mass., 1990)Google Scholar. The relationship between Wyatt and Bryan is explored by David, Starkey: ‘The Court: Castiglione's ideal and Tudor reality, being a discussion of Sir Thomas Wyatt's “Satire addressed to Sir Francis Bryan”’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XIV (1982), 232–9.Google Scholar

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3 Ibid. LXXI.

4 Ibid. LXII.

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6 Wyatt: poems, XXXIV, 11. 13–14. See below, p. 20. He also referred to that proverb later in his own defence: Life and letters, p. 193.

7 Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus Son or Sirach, ch. 27 (from Matthew's Bible, 1537, which Bryan possessed; see below, p. 10). The identification was first made by Reverend G. F. Nott, but has not been noticed since: Nott, Works, 1, 359.

8 Wyatt: poems, CLI, 1. 78.

9 Life and letters, p. 184.

10 Life and letters of Thomas Cromwell, ed. Merriman, R. B. (2 vols., Cambridge, 1902Google Scholar; hereafter Letters of Cromwell), 11, 222, 229. (Reference is to document numbers, unless otherwise stated. ) Life and letters, p. 194.

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14 Public Record Office (hereafter PRO), SP 1/54, fos. 244–52 (Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII, ed. Brewer, J. S., Gairdner, J. and Brodie, R. H. (1862–1932Google Scholar; hereafter L. & P. ), IV(3), 5750. (Reference is to document numbers, unless otherwise stated.) Starkey, D., ‘The King's Privy Chamber, 1485–1547’ (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1973), pp. 89–95, 112, 161Google Scholar; Starkey, D., ‘Intimacy and innovation: the rise of the Privy Chamber, 1485–1547’ in Starkey, D. et al. , The English court from the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War (1987), pp. 79–82, 103–7Google Scholar. For Bryan's career, see The House of commons, 1509–1558, ed. Bindoff, S. T. (3 vols., 1982).Google Scholar

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16 State papers, published under the authority of his majesty's commission, King Henry VIII (11 vols., 1830–1852Google Scholar; hereafter State papers), VII, 145; Ives, E. W., Anne Boleyn (Oxford, 1986), p. 128.Google Scholar

17 Wyatt: poems, XI; Ives, , Anne Boleyn, pp. 87–99.Google Scholar

18 For the coup, see Ives, Anne Boleyn, part IV.

19 British Library (hereafter B. L.), Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fo. 110 (L. & P. XIII(I), 981 (2)). Bryan had withdrawn from the court to the country before 28 April: Lisle letters, 3, 671, 686; L. & P. X, 653.

20 Ibid. 3, 695; Letters of Cromwell, II, 147; L. & P. VII, 1554.

21 L. & P. X, 908, p. 379.

22 B. L., Cotton MS Otho C X, fo. 174 (L. & P. X, 1134(4)).

23 Starkey, , ‘Intimacy and innovation’, p. 112.Google Scholar

24 PRO, SP I/III, fos. 133, 153V–4; SP 1/112, fos. 39, 133 (L. & P. XI, 1079, 1103, 1196, 1242).

25 PRO, SP I/III, fo. 153V (L. & P. XI, 1103). Bryan had lost an eye while jousting.

26 Starkey, , ‘The King's Privy Chamber’, pp. 239–42.Google Scholar

27 Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 861, p. 359; B. L., Cotton MS Otho C X, fo. 222 (L. & P. X, 798).

28 Lisle Letters, 3, 694, 695, 698.

29 Wyatt: poems, CXXIII.

30 Ibid. XLIX.

31 This suggestion is David, Starkey's: The reign of Henry VIII: personalities and politics (1985), pp. 112–13Google Scholar. By 10 May Wyatt's father had already received ‘comfortable articles’ from Cromwell, assuring him that his son would be freed: PRO, SP 1/103, fo. 254 (L. & P. X, 840).

32 L. & P. XII(I), 637, 865, 869.

33 Life and letters, pp. 200– 1.

34 Starkey, D., ‘Representation through intimacy: a study in the symbolism of monarchy and court office in early-modern England’, in loan, Lewis (ed.), Symbols and sentiments (1977), pp. 201–3.Google Scholar

35 Life and letters, p. 202.

36 B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fo. 109 (L. & P. XIII(I), 981(2)).

37 PRO, SP 1/111, fo. 142v (L. & P. XI, 1086).

38 Life and letters, p. 69.

39 The papers of George Wyatt, esquire, ed. Loades, D. M. (Camden Soc, fourth series, 5, 1968), p. 27.Google Scholar

40 L. & P. XVI, 488.

41 Wyatt: poems, CXLIX, 11. 19–21.

42 Henry Howard, earl of Surrey: poems, ed. Emrys, Jones (Oxford, 1964Google Scholar; hereafter Henry Howard: poems), 28.

43 Wyatt: poems, CLI, 11. 87–8.

44 Ibid. CLI, 11. 37–8.

45 For Wyatt and diplomacy, see Greenblatt, , Renaissance self-fashioning, pp. 139–45.Google Scholar

46 Letters of Cromwell, 11, p. 12; John, Milton, Areopagitica, complete prose works of John Milton, ed. Wolfe, D. M. et al. (8 vols., New Haven, 1953–1982), 11, 518Google Scholar; Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R. 3. 33, fos. 22V–23.

47 Lisle letters, 2, 260.

48 Life and letters, p. 207. See below, pp. 8–9, 14.

49 Life and letters, p. 184.

50 Letters of Cromwell, 11, 222.

61 B. L., Harleian MS 282, fo. 28IV; Nott, Works, II, 422. Wriothesley's letters to Wyatt in embassy are found in B. L., Harleian MS 282, fos. 266–85, and printed in Nott, Works, II, 421–9.

52 Lisle letters, 4, p. 207. Elton, G. R., The Tudor revolution in government (Cambridge, 1953), pp. 307–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar; House of commons, 1509–1558 (Wriothesley); Potter, D. L., ‘Diplomacy in the mid-sixteenth century: England and France, 1536–1550’ (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1973), pp. 286–7Google Scholar. For the ciphers of Wyatt's embassy, see L. & P. XII(I), 637 (3–4); B. L., Harleian MS 282, fo. 11.

53 See, for example, L. & P. XII(I), 1009.

54 State papers, VIII, 52.

55 B. L., Harleian MS 282, fo. 281; Nott, Works, II, 422.

56 Slavin, A. J., ‘Lord Chancellor Wriothesley and reform of Augmentations’ in Slavin, (ed.), Tudor men and institutions: studies in English law and government (Baton Rouge, 1972), p. 51.Google Scholar

57 A dispraise of the life of a courtier, sig. k viii.

58 State papers, VIII, 51.

59 Lisle letters, 5, 1244.

60 B. L., Harleian MS 282, fos. 267–77; Letters of Cromwell, II, 253.

61 For English foreign policy and diplomacy in these years, see the introductions to L. & P. XII(I); XII(2); XIII(I); XIII(2); Mattingley, G., Renaissance diplomacy (1988 edn)Google Scholar; Potter, , ’Diplomacy in the mid-sixteenth century’Google Scholar; Scarisbrick, J. J., Henry VIII (1968), ch. 6, 11Google Scholar; Gunn, S., ‘The French wars of Henry VIII’ in Black, J. (ed.), The origins of war in early modem Europe (Edinburgh, 1987), pp. 28–51.Google Scholar

62 State papers, VIII, 166.

63 Life and letters, p. 90.

64 L. & P. XIII(I), 1310–11; XII(2), 844, 850, 1001; XIII(I), 756; Letters of Cromwell, 11, 218.

65 Christoph, Hollger, ‘Reginald Pole and the legations of 1537 and 1539; diplomatic and polemical responses to the break with Rome’ (unpublished D. Phil. dissertation, University of Oxford, 1989).Google Scholar

66 See Mayer, T. F., ‘A Diet for Henry VIII: the failure of Reginald Pole's 1537 Legation’, Journal of British Studies, XXVI (1987), 305–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 While in Paris, Wyatt wrote, in philosophical mood, to his son: Life and letters, pp. 38–43, 207.

68 Hollger, , ‘Pole and the legations of 1537 and 1539’Google Scholar; Mayer, , ‘A Diet for Henry VIII’.Google Scholar

69 B. L., Add. MS 25, 114, fo. 263 (L. & P. XII(I), 1032).

70 PRO, SP 1/138, fos. 199V–200 (L. & P. XIII(2), 797).

71 L. & P. XII(I), 996.

72 Redworth, G., In defence of the church catholic: the life of Stephen Gardiner (Oxford, 1990), p. 79.Google Scholar

73 PRO, SP 1/139, fo. 72 (L. & P. XIII(2), 830); SP 1/138, fos. 217V–218 (L. & P. XIII(2), 804).

74 L. & P. V, p. 319; VII, 134; X, 40; B. L., Cotton MS Otho X, fo. 174 (L. & P. X, 1134(4).

75 PRO, SP 1/138, fo. 34 (L. & P. XIII(2), 702).

76 PRO, SP 1/137, fo. 203 (L. & P. XIII(2), 615); Life and letters, p. 179. Wyatt sent ‘tidings of Mr Pole’ to the king on 10 Apr.: Nott, Works, 11, 449.

77 Richard, Rex, Henry VIII and the English Reformation (1993), pp. 36, 179.Google Scholar

78 B. L., Cotton MS Caligula E II, fo. 233 (L. & P. XII(I), 953).

79 See below, p. 19.

80 Starkey, , Reign of Henry VIII, p. 113.Google Scholar

81 Wyatt: poems, CLI, 1. 83.

82 B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fo. 109 (L. & P. XIII(I), 981 (2)); St Luke 22: VV. 17 & 19. It is likely that the ‘goodly’ edition which Bryan possessed was Matthew's bible of 1537, the first English bible published with royal licence: Bodleian Library, Bib. Eng. 1537 c. Ia.

83 Because he did not understand Latin, Bryan had been joined in embassy in 1531 by Edward Foxe: L. & P. v, 548. Bryan's household was ‘in its way as much a seminary for the rising generation as Cambridge’: Starkey, , Reign of Henry VIII, p. 133.Google Scholar

84 PRO, SP 1/134, fos. 188–93 (L. & P. XIII(I), 1402–3). I could not understand it either, until Nigel Wilson deciphered and translated it, for which I am extremely grateful. We are preparing an edition of the letter for publication.

85 PRO, SP 1/134, fo. 217 (L. & P. XIII(I), 1428 (3)).

86 B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fo. 107V (L. & P. XIII(I), 981 (2)); Lisle letters, 5, 1137.

87 PRO, SP 1/134, fo. 217V (L. & P. XIII(I), 1428(2)).

88 B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fos. 107V–108 (L. & P. XIII(I), 981 (2)).

89 Ibid. XIII(I), 1403; XIII(2), 1280, fo. 31V; XIV(I), 867, cap. 15. We know of his condemnation, but not of his execution.

90 John, Foxe, Acts and monuments, ed. Cattley, S. R. and Townsend, G. (8 vols., 1837–1841Google Scholar; hereafter Foxe), V, 550–2.

91 House of commons, 1509–1558 (Denny, Sharington)Google Scholar; for Loveday, see Lisle letters, 5, 1169, 1598, 1621.

92 Ives, , Anne Boleyn, pp. 320–1, 330–1Google Scholar; Borbonius, N., Paedagogion (Lyons, 1536), p. 28.Google Scholar

93 Lisle letters, 6.

94 Foxe, V, 159.

95 B. L., Cotton MS Otho X, fo. 174 (L. & P. X, 1134(4); State papers, 1, 472; Lisle letters, 2, 131.

96 B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fo. 109V (L. & P. XIII(I), 981(2)); XIII(2), 828–9.

97 B. L., Cotton MS Nero B VI, fo. 56V (L. & P. XIV(I), 1353).

98 G., Scott Thomson, ‘Woburn abbey and the dissolution of the monasteries’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, XVI (1934), 129–60.Google Scholar

99 Wyatt: poems, CLI, 11. 22–3; Lisle letters, 1, 66a.

100 B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fos. 107, 109 (L. & P. XIII(I), 981(2)).

101 Rex, , Henry VIII and the English Reformation, pp. 173–5.Google Scholar

102 Life and letters, p. 205.

103 B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fo. 105 (L. & P. XIII(I), 981 (3); Hatfield House, MS 332 (unfoliated). I am grateful to the marquess of Salisbury for his kind permission to cite this manuscript.

104 Life and letters, p. 181.

105 L. & P. XIII(I), 274.

106 Ibid, XIII(I), 279, 386.

107 Ibid, XIII(I), 116–18; Calendar of state papers, Spanish, ed. de Gayangos, P., Mattingly, G., Hume, M. A. S. and Tyler, R. (1862–1954Google Scholar; hereafter C. S. P. Span.) v(2), 182, p. 432.

108 L. & P. XIII(I), 155, 338; B. L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E IV, fo. 108V (L. & P. XIII(I), 981 (2)). A new lodge was being built for Bryan, as keeper of Ampthill, that summer: Thurley, S., The royal palaces of Tudor England: architecture and court life, 1460–1547 (New Haven and London, 1993), p. 83.Google Scholar

109 L. & P. XIII(I), 273, 279, 1133.

110 Nott, Works, 11, 471–4; L. & P. XIII(I), 281.

111 Letters of Cromwell, II, 238–9.

112 Wyatt: poems, XL VI, pp. 368–9.

113 Letters of Cromwell, II, 244.

114 L. & P. XIII(I), 458.

115 Ibid. XIII(I), 447, 562.

116 L. & P. XIII(I), 756, 623, 659; Letters of Cromwell, II, 250.

117 Life and letters, p. 198.

118 Ibid. p. 189. That was the allegation against him. He may have said something which differed by a syllable. See below, p. 29.

119 L. & P. XIII(I), 688, 695, 696, 756; XIII(2), 1280 fo. 13V; State papers, VIII, 23– 7.

120 B. L., Harleian MS 282, fo. 28IV; The letters of Stephen Gardiner, ed. Muller, J. A. (Cambridge, 1933), P. 79Google Scholar; Letters of Cromwell, II, 250.

121 Life and letters, p. 207.

122 Foxe, v, 159.

123 Letters of Cromwell, II, 257.

124 B. L., Cotton MS Caligula D X, fo. 389 (L. & P. XIII(I), 842).

125 L. & P. XIII(I), 967, 1163.

126 L. & P. XIII(I), 241, 273; B. L., Harleian MS 282, fos. 167, 159.

127 L. & P. XIII(I), 843.

128 Scarisbrick, , Henry VIII, pp. 355–9Google Scholar; L. & P. XIII(I), 583.

129 B. L., Harleian MS 282, fos. 54– 6 (Nott, Works, II, 490–4). This letter was received on 17 May.

130 B. L., Add. MS 25, 114, fos. 297–300 (L. & P. XIII(I), 917).

131 B. L., Cotton MS Vitellius B XIV, fo. 28 (L. & P. XIII(I), 1165).

132 Life and letters, p. 181; Lisle letters, 5, 1169.

133 Foxe, v, 157.

134 Henry Howard: poems, 28, 1. 1; Life and letters, p. 181.

135 Wyatt: poems, CLI, II. 11–12.

136 Life and letters, p. 181.

137 L. & P. XIII(I), 1077, 1215; XIII(2), 1280, fos. 17–18.

138 C. S. P. Span. v(2), 224, L. & P. XIII(I), 1062.

139 State papers, VIII, pp. 34–8; Nott, Works, II, 485–9; L. & P. XIII(I), 1132–4.

140 Life and letters, pp. 182, 67.

141 Nott, Works, II, 485–9; Letters of Cromwell, II, 265.

142 C. S. P. Span. v(2), 225.

143 Life and letters, p. 65.

144 PRO, SP 1/138, fo. 34V (L. & P. XIII(2), 702).

145 Wyatt: poems, CLI.

146 Lisle letters, 5, 1175.

147 Starkey, , ‘The Court: Castiglione's ideal and Tudor reality’, p. 236Google Scholar. Both Bryan and Wyatt were listed in Edward Seymour's accounts of his gaming debts: L. & P. VII, 1672(2); Longleat House, Seymour papers, XVII, fo. 77V. I am grateful to the marquess of Bath for his kind permission to cite this manuscript. Among Francis Weston's creditors in 1536 had been Bryan and Domingo: L. & P. X, 869.

148 Letters of Cromwell, II, 281, 285; B. L., Harleian MS 282, fo. 273; L. & P. XII(2), 1048; XIII(2), 1120. On 2 June Hutton wrote from Antwerp, making an implicit comparison: ‘ther can no man acewsse me that…I spent anny exces in gamyng’; State papers, VIII, 33.

149 L. & P. XIII(I), 1228.

150 Nott, Works, II, 485–9; L. & P. XIII(I), 1133–5, 1147. 1156.

151 L. & P. XIII(I), 1165, 1211, 1213, 1215; Lisle letters, 5, 1175.

152 C. S. P. Span. VI(I), p. 6.

153 L. & P. XIII(I), 1254.

154 Ibid. XIII(I), 1332, 1374.

155 The courier sent from England to Bryan expected to find him between Avignon and Lyons, not at Aigues Mortes: L. & P. XIV(2), 1280, fo. 28V.

156 Nott, Works, II, 449.

157 Life and letters, pp. 183, 65.

158 Their letters, sent on about 17 July from Aigues Mortes, are lost; L. & P. XIII(I), 1404.

159 Ibid. XIII(I), 1102, 1355, 1356, 1405, 1451, 1452, 1486.

160 Ibid. XIII(2), 77.

161 Ibid, XIII(I), 1217; C. S. P. Span. VI(I), p. 10.

162 L & P. XIII(I), 1405, 1415, 1451.

163 Ibid. XIII(I), 1451; XIII(2), 23.

164 Ibid. XIII(I), 1102, 1135.

165 C. S. P. Span. VI(I), 4; Life and letters, p. 69.

166 L. & P. XIII(I), 1451; XIII(2), 8, 77, 78, 1120.

167 Ibid. XIII(2), 280.

168 Ibid. XIII(2), 77.

169 Kinsman, , ‘“The proverbes of Salmon do playnly declare’“, p. 285.Google Scholar

170 PRO, SP 1/136, fo. 32; L. & P. XIII(2), 210, 258, 277, 280, 312.

171 PRO, SP 1/136, fo. 7 (L. & P. XIII(2), 233).

172 B. L., Cotton MS Titus B I, fos. 94V– 95; printed in Nott, Works, 1, appendix XXXVIII; Foxe, VI, 66.

173 Life and letters, p. 207.

174 Barnaby's supplication to William Cecil, 1552: B. L., Lansdowne MS 2, fos. 187–190V.

175 State papers, VIII, 52.

176 Life and letters, p. 207.

177 L. & P. XIII(2), 1120, 1163; XIV(I), 37.

178 Wyatt: poems, XXXIV.

179 Lisle letters, 5, 1230.

180 L. & P. XIII(2), 77.

181 Bonner's report to Cromwell, 2 Sept.: Inner Temple Library, Petyt MS 47, fos. 9ff., printed in Life and letters, pp. 65–9; L. & P. XIII(2), 270.

182 Life and letters, p. 68.

183 L. & P. XIII(2), 348; PRO, SP 1/137, fos. 203–5 (L. & P. XIII(2), 615(2)).

184 Life and letters, pp. 193, 201.

185 PRO, SP 1/137, fo. 203r–v (L. & P. XIII(2), 615(1)).

186 Life and letters, p. 183.

187 L. & P. XIII(2), 615(1); Letters of Cromwell, II, 276.

188 L. & P. XVI, 461, 466, 467; Slavin, A. J., Politics and profit: a study of Sir Ralph Sadler, 1507–1547 (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 141ff.Google Scholar

189 Wyatt: poems, LXVIII.

190 Life and letters, p. 180.

191 Ibid. pp. 187–209.

192 Ibid. p. 208.

193 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 168 (unfoliated).

194 Wyatt's sonnet, ‘The pillar perished is whereto I leant’ may have been written at Cromwell's death; if so, his self reproach is unmistakable. His translation of Seneca, ‘Stand whoso list’ might also be a chilling evocation of the horror of the scene: Wyatt: poems, XXIX, XLIX.

195 B. L., Lansdowne MS 2, fo. 190.

196 L. & P. XVI, 467.

197 Ibid, XVI, 466.

198 Ibid, XVI, 469, 473–4, 482.

199 Ibid, XVI, 420–1, 430, 433, 438, 450, 460, 461.

200 Ibid. XVI, 479.

201 Life and letters, p. 201.

202 Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R. 3.33, fo. 23; printed in Janelle, P., ‘An unpublished poem on Bishop Stephen Gardiner’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, VI (1993), 22.Google Scholar

203 Elton, G. R., ‘Thomas Cromwell's decline and fall’, Studies in Tudor and Stuart politics and government (4 vols., Cambridge, 1974–), 1, 191.Google Scholar

204 See above, p. 19.

205 PRO, SP 1/143, fo. 35V (L. & P. XIV(I), 247).

206 B. L., Harleian MS 282, fo. 59; Nott, Works, 11, 499; L. & P. XIII(2), 923; State papers, VIII, pp. 102– 6.

207 Life and letters, p. 72.

208 PRO, sp 1/138, fo. 215V (L. & P. XIII(2), 804). For the meaning of ‘cockney’, see Thomas, Fuller, The Worthies of England (1952 edn), p. 349.Google Scholar

209 Life and letters, p. 82.

210 Ibid. pp. 86–7.

211 L. & P. XIV(I), 142, 561, 603.

212 C. S. P. Span. VI(I), 33.

213 Life and letters, p. 81.

214 L. & P. XIV(I), 37.

215 Ibid, XIV(I), 14.

216 Life and letters, pp. 184, 194–5.

217 State papers, VIII, 128; L. & P. XIV(I), 115.

218 PRO, sp 1/143, fos. 106–12 (L. & P. XIV(I), 321).

219 State papers, VIII, 155.

220 Ibid, VIII, 17 I n.; Life and letters, p. 184; Hollger, , ‘Reginald Pole and the Legations of 1537 and 1539’, pp. 153–8.Google Scholar

221 State papers, VIII, 159–67, 173–5, 182.

222 Letters of Cromwell, II, 294.

223 B. L., Cotton MS Galba B X, fos 124–125V (L. & P. XIV(I), 768, where the recipient is not named). Wriothesley's servant, Parker, had been despatched to England on 7 March: State papers, VIII, 159. The schoolmaster was Thomas Knight, proctor of Oxford, 1537–8, who was Wriothesley's brother-in-law and sent with him in embassy: Emden, A. B., A biographical register of the University of Oxford, A. D. 1501–1540 (Oxford, 1974)Google Scholar. He wrote letters of a relentless pedantry, hence the nickname: for example, PRO, SP 1/241, fo. 54 (L. & P. Addenda 1, 1215).

224 PRO, SP 1/150, fos. 124–5 (L. & P. XIV(I), 757).

225 B. L., Cotton MS Vespasian C VII, fos. 24ff. (L. & P. XIV(I), 560; Life and letters, pp. 89–94). These are the passages which Godsalve transcribed.

226 See, for example, State papers, VII, 696–9.

227 Letters of Cromwell, II, 253; PRO, SP 1/132, fos. 208–11 (L. & P. XIII(I), 1104). For the picaresque life of Brancester, see Life and letters, pp. 114–30; Scarisbrick, J. J., ‘The first Englishman round the Cape of Good Hope?’, B. I. H. R., XXXIV (1961), 165–77.Google Scholar

228 Life and letters, pp. 89, 180, 182, 194.

229 Scarisbrick, , ‘The first Englishman round the Cape of Good Hope?’, pp. 172–7.Google Scholar

230 PRO, SP 1/143, fos. 13–17, 34–7, 54–61 (L. & P. XIV(I), 233, 247, 248, 249, 257, 264, 308, 321). Mayer, T. F., ‘If martyrs are to be exchanged with martyrs’, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, LXXXI (1990), 293–4.Google Scholar

231 PRO, SP 1/143, fos. 34, 16 (L. & P. XIV(I), 247, 233).

232 Life and letters, p. 141.

233 Wyatt: poems, CXXIII.

234 The Arundel Harington manuscript of Tudor poetry, ed. Hughey, R. (2 vols., Columbus, Ohio, 1960), 1, 295.Google Scholar

235 Henry Howard: poems, 28–30, pp. 124–5.

236 Ibid. 34; Susan, Brigden, ‘Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, and the conjured league’, Historical Journal, XXXVII (1994), 533–4.Google Scholar

237 Life and letters, p. 93.

238 B. L., Add. MS 5498, fos. 13–14V (L. & P. XIII(2), 974(2)).

239 L. & P. XIV(I), 37.

240 Ibid. XIII(2), 693, 813, 949.

241 B. L., Cotton MS Nero B VII, fo. 121 (L. & P. XIII(2), 1047).

242 Ibid, XIV(I), 72.

243 B. L., Cotton MS Vitellius B XIV, fo. 25V (L. & P. XIII(2), 1068).

244 B. L., Harleian MS 282, fos. 44–5 (L. & P. XIV(I), 92).

245 L. & P. XIV(I), 561.

246 Life and letters, p. 92. For Wyatt's purposes, see L. & P. XIV(I), vii–xi.

247 State papers, VIII, 182.

248 Life and letters, p. 89; L. & P. XIV(I), 560.

249 L. & P. XIV(2), 212. Hollger, , ‘Pole and the legations of 1537 and 1539’, p. 156.Google Scholar

250 Letters of Cromwell, II, 306.

251 Wyatt: poems, LX; L. & P. XIV(2), 782, p. 341.

252 Wyatt: poems, CXLIX, 11. 100–1.

253 L. & P. XIV(2), 212.

254 Life and letters, p. 195.

255 Wyatt: poems, IX.

256 Life and letters, pp. 195–6.

257 Ibid. 196, 204; L. & P. XVI, 488.

258 Life and letters, p. 180.

259 Wyatt: poems, CXLIX, II. 97–8; Life and letters, pp. 6–8.

260 ibid. p. 167.

261 Wyatt: poems, CLII, 1. 461.

262 Henry Howard: poems, 28, 1. 35. For discussions of Wyatt's Psalms, see Wyatt: poems, pp. 452–89; Greenblatt, , Renaissance self-fashioning, pp. 115–28Google Scholar; Foley, , Sir Thomas Wyatt, pp. 84–91.Google Scholar

263 Henry Howard: poems, 31.

264 L. & P. XIII(I), 1215.

265 Life and letters, p. 198. Greenblatt, , Renaissance self-fashioning, pp. 144–5.Google Scholar

266 Life and letters, pp. 197– 9.

267 Ibid. p. 126.

268 Wyatt: poems, CXLIX, II. 34–5, 37–40, pp. 441–2.

269 John, Leland, Naeniae in mortem T. Viati, equitis incomparabilis (1542)Google Scholar; RSTC 18446; Foley, , Sir Thomas Wyatt, p. 97.Google Scholar

270 Life and letters, p. 208.

271 Wyatt: poems, LII.

272 Life and letters, p. 192.

273 L. & P. XVI, 430.

274 Wyatt: poems, LXII; see also XXXIV, II. 13–14.

275 L. & P. XVI, 589, 650.

276 ‘The letters of Richard Scudamore to Sir Philip Hoby’, ed. Brigden, S., Camden Miscellany, XXX (Camden Soc., 4th ser., 39, 1990), 121–2.Google Scholar