Henry Wyatt

Sir Henry Wyatt KB (1460–1537) was an English nobleman, knight, courtier, and politician. Early life to 1485 A younger son of a Yorkshire family, little is known of Henry Wyatt before he adopted the cause of Henry Tudor, later to become king Henry VII. Many myths and assumptions have been woven around his privations in prison as a supporter of the Tudor party's opposition to Richard III in the years 1483–85, and are still to be found recounted as facts. Some of them occur in the widely cited entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (c. 1900, available online), s.v. Sir Thomas Wyatt (poet), although the entry has since been modified by the 2004 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The Wyatt family papers in the British Library contain material which provides the nearest that can be found to an authentic account of this period of his life. Recently transcribed and published in full, the relevant documents, although collated and written up in the 18th century, incorporate a self-contained narrative about Wyatt which can be dated to the mid 17th century. At this date the family was intent on reclaiming its former status after falling into disgrace with the execution and attainder of his grandson. The aim was to play up the glory days of Henry's adherence to the Tudor cause, describing him inter alia as "his Country's martyr".