Thomas Wyatt in Italy *

This article follows a young Thomas Wyatt (ca. 1503-42) —the Henrician poet and courtier —on his journeys to France and especially to Italy in 152-627. It finds him at the greatest courts of Europe at a climacteric in European affairs, during which, by default, he had a part to play. It discovers the dramatic circumstances of his kidnap, ransom, and release. The article conjectures upon the ways in which Wyatt's Italian journey was formative for his political and poetic career, and upon the brilliance with which he transmuted the events of a life lived so intensely, so restlessly, into art.