Poetry, Patronage, and the Art of the Land-grab: A Newly Discovered Letter to Thomas Wyatt

Micha Lazarus, Susan Brigden

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Between early summer 1540 and the new year of 1541, Alexander Nowell composed the only surviving Latin letter from England to Sir Thomas Wyatt. On behalf of the Dean and Chapter of Norwich Cathedral, he asks Wyatt, Sir Francis Bryan, and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, to help the new foundation resist the expropriation of its properties. The letter fills in several biographical lacunae for this prominent trio of courtiers. It provides primary evidence of Wyatt’s membership and sponsorship of English humanist networks. It offers the first sure evidence of Wyatt’s contact with Surrey, corroborating the evidence of Surrey’s poetry. It reveals the association of Wyatt, Surrey, and Bryan with evangelical figures: Nowell, later Dean of St Paul’s, was already a central figure in Oxford reform. And it presents an intricate example of the chains of patronage that reached, in the wake of the dissolution, across the universities, the new fleet of cathedral foundations, and the heights of the Henrician court.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)546-561
Number of pages16
JournalReview of English Studies
Volume75
Issue number322
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Nov 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

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