Thomas Wyatt

unobtainable and that's part of the the attractiveness that you actually can't marry this person you can't be with that person it doesn't mean you can't love them deeply and desire them it's fascinating what that says about aspects of humanity what you can't obtain is almost more valuable than what you can obtain

yeah i think it says quite a lot about male sexuality and the thrill of the chase i mean it's certainly still a thing in the 16th century the courtly love culture and You know, I did an interview the other day with Susan Brigden, who wrote a brilliant book about Sir Thomas Wyatt, one of the most brilliant poets at the court of Henry VIII.

And his poems, many of them do conform to that courtly love convention of the suffering lover and the scornful, dismissive beloved.

And, you know, they're sort of continually moaning and complaining about her not paying him the necessary attention.

There are probably a number of reasons there.

I think there's a historical cultural reason because of the first half of the 16th century, English ambassadors went to the continent, just to name two of them, Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey.

And they brought back the sonnets with them, the Italian sonnet tradition.

And that's probably something that we might talk about at a later point in this interview.

But we're talking about the history of London, which means we only care about the one that worked.

The Rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt.

Thomas Wyatt was the son of a poet and he was, in his youth, well, he'd gained a degree of infamy in London.

He was one of those rakish nobles who'd been charged with eating meat during Lent and prowling London streets at night, firing stones from crossbows at citizens' windows, church windows and the stews of Bankside from a boat in the river.

However, since those days, Wyatt had served as a soldier for long, where his natural inclination towards war was had been recognised, he knew his stuff, and he had boldly supported Mary after Edward's death.

The following Thursday, then and now, It was market day in Maidstone.

But amidst the haggling over butter and cheese, a usual cacophony of voices, was suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the local church bell and a roll of drums.

As people crowded and jostled to witness, Thomas Wyatt of Ellington and Sir Henry Isley, both well known to the townsfolk, read out a proclamation and then set it up for further reading.

And over the next few years, they would each try to outdo the other.

And Ralph Sadler, for instance, found himself in prison in the Tower of London the following year in a coup against the Cromwellians, actually there with Thomas Wyatt.

They managed to talk themselves out, but it was a hairy moment.

But in terms of what Thomas Cromwell had done to arm his family against his own fall, the greatest act he'd done was to marry Gregory to Jane Seymour's sister, Elizabeth Seymour, which was a wonderful future-proofing gift.

So Anne appears to have a different skin color, maybe a little bit olive skinned, perhaps.

There is a poem by Thomas Wyatt.

a very famous poem by Thomas Wyatt, where he talks about a brunette.

And this has been, some people consider this to be a poem about Anne Boleyn.

I should just say that not every scholar agrees that Thomas Wyatt's poems are about Anne Boleyn.

So there's our first problem.

But anyway, if he is talking about Anne and he calls her brunette, Immediately, we think of like brunettes, you know, as we would call it, dark hair of some description.

You know, it's farcical.