Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
Poet, son of Sir Henry Wyatt, a servant of Henry VII, and educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, came to Court and was frequently employed by Henry VIII on diplomatic missions. He is said to have been an admirer of Anne Boleyn before her marriage, and on her disgrace was thrown into the Tower for a short time. In 1537 he was knighted, and two years later was sent on a mission to the Emperor Charles V
On Thomas Cromwell’s death in 1540, whose party he belonged to, Wyatt was accused of misdemeanours during his embassy and once more imprisoned in the Tower, where he wrote an important defence. In 1542 he was sent to meet the Spanish Ambassador at Falmouth, and conduct him to London, but on the way caught a bad chill, and died quite soon.
Wyatt shares with the Earl of Surrey the honour of being the first real successor of Chaucer, and also of having introduced the sonnet into England. In addition to his sonnets, which are in a more correct form than those of Surrey, Wyatt wrote many beautiful lyrics; in fact he may be regarded as the reviver of the lyrical spirit in English poetry that, emerged in the 13th century, had fallen into abeyance. The anthology known as Tottel’s Miscellany, first published in 1557, collects 96 pieces by Wyatt along with 40 by Surrey and others by different hands. Wyatt has less smoothness and sweetness than Surrey, but his form of the sonnet was much more difficult as well as more accurate than that invented by the latter, and afterwards adopted by Shakespeare.
From Biographical Dictionary of English Literature - the Everyman Edition of 1910

links:  - The San Antonio College LitWeb Sir Thomas Wyatt Page