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[passicncte]

ladywyatt​:

@passicncte​  / 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒓.

        It was warm by the fireside, the countess’ fingertips slick as she flipped the pages of a religious volume that rested neatly upon her lap, splayed open like a cadaver.  One of the Dowager’s irreconcilable tempers had given Cecily leave to her own apartments early that evening, those lush, spacious rooms that granted her both quiet and solitude.  It would not be long before the Wyatt brood, their bellies rounded by feasting and drinking, plowed into their chambers, their fleet slapping against the floors, their laughter rattling the windows.  Yet for a few hours, it had simply been Cecily, and the mound of linens needing mending heaped at her side, growing taller by the day.  

At the sound of keys chiming, the countess turns her coin-white face to the darkened figure that slips through the doorframe.  Tall, dark-haired, light-eyed.  Appearing a little portly, perhaps in preparation of the impending autumn.  Thomas.  Cecily resumes, just as briskly as she had been diverted, to her reading, not sparing a glance to him as she remarks: ‘it surprises me to see you, Thomas.  The Dowager is in one of her moods, so I thought no one better but you or the king to relieve her of it.’  

She beckons for him to join her – an apathetic gesture of the arm toward an empty, high-backed chair.  ‘You must pardon me for not bowing, my lord.  My feet ache after the long day.  Some wine?’

He had taken his sons out on a hunt that day, riding their loaned mares from the King’s own stables to hunt down whatever it was that they could around Hampton Court’s jade coloured, lucious lands. He urged his two, born by his scandalous relationship with perhaps the one woman he had truly loved, to take the first prize - watching with pride as they returned with fattened hares and pheasants. He’d have them roasted that evening, a gift to their step-mother and his wife who had been named as such for ten years.

When finally done for the day, Thomas followed his sons back to their chambers smelling of dew and the stench of blood that had stained itself between the hairs of his coat, pushing aside the heavy oak doors to reveal the very image of a well kept woman, of a wife who worked tirelessly for the Dowager Queen and Thomas’ own old friend. With a grimace hidden by the roll of his neck, the poet covered his mouth to yawn slowly, stretching out the day’s aches before shifting from his coat to instead sit before Cecily in his white linen. With his feet strapped by leather, Thomas finally felt the day’s weight drift from his shoulders, sliding off his toes as he listened to the snap of embers and the flick of Cecily’s pages. 

“Some wine? Yes, yes indeed,” he answered, staring into the bed of the hearth, watching as the colour flickered from the brightest crimson to the palest of oranges. “Well, I certainly would do little for Anne’s mood swings - if anything I would just make it worse,” Thomas mused gesturing for a servant to fetch him the usual set of journals and fountain pens for his work, the books that were full to the brim with sonnets based upon the women and livelihood of court. He didn’t think, of course, to name Anne by her title as Cecily did - informality and intimacy afresh in his mind, for not even a man like Wyatt could forget the whispers shared with thee Anne Boleyn. 

“What are you reading, dear Cecily?

[passicncte]

the poet who survives, who conquers and uses charm to escape the most dire of situations. a hostage, a courtier, an ambassador and father to many - here he comes, thomas wyatt. tudor loyalist and boleyn supporter 

STATS.

name: thomas wyatt age/dob: fifty-five / 12th july, 1503 status/rank: earl of allington country of origin: england place of birth: allington castle, kent birth order: first born mother & father: sir henry wyatt ✟ & anne skinner ✟ siblings: henry wyatt ✟, margaret wyatt-lee ✟ sexuality: bisexual horoscope: cancer virtues: passionate, sympathetic, eloquent vices: disloyal, over-imaginative, perverse marital status: married to cecily heydon (m. 1549), elizabeth brooke (m. 1520. separated in 1521. divorced by 1537), elizabeth darrell (common law wife from 1529, d. 1535) issue: thomas wyatt the younger (by e. brooke, 1521), utp wyatt (by e. darrell, 1529), utp wyatt (by e. darrell, 1530), utp wyatt (by. e. darrell, 1533), various illegitimate offspring around the world lmao alliance(s): king william iii, the reformation, the tudors, the boleyns adversaries: the seymour loyalists, the pope’s supporters, the holy roman empire

more here.

WANTED CONNECTIONS.

though now fifty-five, thomas continues to take lovers. and his children - oh, all of the children hes made around the world from his role of acting as ambassador for the late king. wild oats sowed in france, italy, spain and germany lmao.. 

TIMELINE.

1503 - born in allington castle to henry wyatt & anne skinner 1506 - henry wyatt is born and dies in the same year 1508 - margaret wyatt is born 1515 - henry wyatt brings his son to court, king henry viii gives him the title “sewer extraordinary”, meaning that he waits at the king’s table  1516 - enrolled into st john’s college, cambridge  1518 - graduated with a bachelor's degree & moves in and out of court 1520 - married elizabeth brooke 1521 - thomas wyatt (the younger) is born, the same year the couple separate informally and begin their own affairs 1524 - henry viii makes thomas an ambassador for england, and grants him the courtly title of “keeper of the king’s jewels”... he begins to become known for his poetry, and margaret marries sir anthony lee 1525 - wyatt meets anne boleyn for the first time, but has often been a friend of her brother george, early in the year he sets off to spain as the english ambassador, where he meets lovers and other poets. december, he takes part in the christmastime tournament at greenwich palace.  1526 - accompanied by sir john russell (earl of bedford), he leaves for rome to petition for the divorce of henry tudor & catherine of aragon. towardss the end of the year he leaves to negotiate with the republic of venice 1527 - is captured by the holy roman empire (charles v) in rome alongside the pope in the middle of the year, manages to escape by christmas, hiding in the countryside before getting aboard a ship to return to england 1528 - is granted high marshal of calais where he lives for two years  1529 - meets elizabeth darrell (former maid of honour to catherine of aragon) she becomes his live-in mistress and common law wife - he escapes prosecution due to his status and relationship with the king 1530 - given leave of calais, where he returns to court in london 1532 - wyatt is a member of the party that accompanies king henry viii and anne boleyn to calais 1533 - attends anne boleyn’s coronation at westminster abbey  1535 - knighted by king henry viii.  elizabeth darrell dies suddenly and unexpectedly 1536 - created high sheriff of kent where he resides with his illegitimate children 1537 - finally wyatt and elizabeth brooke formally divorce on the grounds of adultery.  1538 - sent to the court of charles v, the holy roman empire, as an english ambassador. he is mistreated, becomes miserable put results in some of his greatest poetry  1540 - called back to england at last, where he is given the site of boxley abbey for his work 1541 - elected member of parliament for kent. before being arrested on charge of treason (being rude about/to king henry viii and for having dealing with regenald pole), later released due to the interception of anne boleyn 1549 - with his poetry now being published far and wide, a new match is made. he marries cecily heydon (a distant relative of his first wife, with permission from the king) 1557 - his greatest collection of works, “songes and sonnettes: a collection of 96 songs” is published. king henry viii dies and king william iii is crowned, wyatt attends 1558 - king william iii creates the earl of allington and grants it to thomas 1559 - wyatt attends court with his wife and known-grown children, excluding thomas wyatt the younger who seeks a rebellion of his own 

BIOGRAPHY.

A polymath in a number of skills, Thomas Wyatt (the poet) was always a wonder in a flock of English men. His story is long and detailed, with many complex sudden turns that lead the man into worlds previously unknown. From a family originally from the wilds of Yorkshire that were quickly named black sheep after their deflection to the Lancastrian side in the War of the Roses, Thomas Wyatt was meant to be unsuspecting, to be normal. 

Henry Wyatt, who had been earlier imprisoned and tortured by Richard III, had been a Privy Councillor of Henry VII and remained a trusted adviser when Henry VIII ascended to the throne in 1509. Married to Anne Skinner, the daughter of John Skinner of Surrey, they welcomed Thomas in 1503 but were cursed with a stillborn son only a few years later, a sadness that plagued the family until the birth of their last child, Margaret. Whilst his childhood was peaceful at best, he nurtured an artistic personality. He’d often brood over life’s most important questions, swoon over the ladies in his life and spend many hours taken to his bed writing poems that would be the starting point of what was to become his published works.

It was at thirteen years old when everything changed for the young lad, whilst following his father to the court of Henry VIII, he caught the eye of many courtiers with his love for the arts, leading the King to bestow upon Thomas the role of a “Sewer Extraordinary”, which meant he waited the King’s table. Court itself influenced the boy to adopt a way of speaking that frequented the royal household and ultimately left him to observe the many goings on of romance, foreign ambassadors and the ladies in waiting who very obviously caught his eye. He remained there until 1518, where he was enrolled into a prestigious Cambridge University. Though school was a good and fulfilling experience, Thomas often yearned for what was to come - for the glory of court and the King who seemed benevolent and a master one would do anything for. But it was there, in the final years of his Bachelor’s degree ,that Thomas fell hopelessly in love with Elizabeth Brooke, the daughter of Baron Cobham, Thomas Brooke, and Dorothy Heydon, daughter of Sir Henry Heydon. 

This so-called love soon manifested itself into spite once the usual honeymoon phase burnt itself out. By the time Thomas grew bored with his wife, Elizabeth had given him a son named after his father - but that was not to fix the marriage. With both partners growing dispatched, especially with Thomas’ new position at court as a diplomatic ambassador for England, they both fell into the realm of adultery. Both furiously unhappy, they two separated from one another on the grounds of adultery, leaving them scandalised but not unsuccessful. Where his career triumphed, she remarried and had her second set of sons, but she mostly cared for her firstborn, leaving the first Thomas separated from his firstborn son. 

Whilst travelling Europe with a keen eye, he divulged himself with poetry, art and music. Influenced by Italian, Spanish and German couplets, Thomas would send work back to the King and his court for evaluation and eventual praise. Nurturing a love for various stanza forms (rondeau, epigrams, terza rima & ottava rima), Thomas’ fame grew steadily along with his various conquests. Whilst he wrote poems for many women he admired, none stuck so heavily as the one that fell on Anne Boleyn’s doorstep. 

And now I follow the  coals that be quent, From Dover to Calais  against my mind.  //  Graven in diamonds with letters plain, There is written her fair neck round about,  “Noli me tangere [Do not touch me], Caesar’s, I am.” 

It was this poem that the Seymour Loyalists strove to use against Thomas Wyatt and Anne Boleyn, and which caused his first bout in the Tower of London for a mere few months by lay of Thomas Cromwell and Boleyn herself. Released without charge, Thomas sought life by the horns, writing many poems that strung on heartstrings - eventually finding peace in the arms of Elizabeth Darrell, who was Catherine of Aragon’s former maid of honour. This love affair, still strained by adultery, resulted in three illegitimate sons and finally forced Thomas to finalize a divorce with the help of the King between himself and his first wife. 

Many things occurred between these times set in stone including hostage situations, audiences with the Pope and many, many women due to his youthful complexion. But time had done its work on Thomas Wyatt, who was once the most handsome of his kind. By 1549, after the death of Elizabeth Darrell and finally of Elizabeth Brooke, Thomas Wyatt remarried with his sons in tow to Lady Heydon, a relative of his first wife. With the King’s permission, the union was made and ever since they have lived in peace despite not one arrival of a child. Though the death of Henry Tudor brought a mix of emotion to the poet, Thomas hopes that this new dawn will bring forth new adventure - even if that means living amongst the ghosts he once knew so very well.

[passicncte]