An Interview with Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Elder. II

Wendy:

Sir Tom:

Aye...I suppose that would have been when the Spaniards captured me in 1527, just before the sacking of Rome.

Wendy:

I remember you telling me about this. At that time, you were on a mission to the Pope...?

Sir Tom:

Aye.. I went with Sir John Russel as his esquire and equerry, when King Harry sent him to give aid to Pope Clement VII. Sir John had the misfortune to fall from his horse and break his leg at Narni, a small town not far from Florence. His injury meant I had to act in his stead to best serve the King. I was captured on my return to Narni and Sir John. I knew the soldiers planned to ransom me, but I made my escape before any money changed hands. Not long after that, Sir John and I escaped from Rome when the Duc of Borbon's army began its bloody assault on the Holy city. Never was I more relieved to make my return to English soil. The following year I went to Calais, where I served the King as his Marshal until 1532.

Wendy:

There was an important event that happened in Calais, at the end of 1532...?

Sir Tom:

You refer to when the King and the Lady Marquess of Pembroke came to Calais for a meeting with François, the King of France?

Wendy:

Yes- you knew the Lady Marquess of Pembroke well, did you not?

Sir Tom:

Aye. But you know full well who she was, Wendy...

Wendy:

Could you please tell my readers...?

Sir Tom:

My cousin, Anne Boleyn. Not long after this she became Queen to King Harry. What good that did her I know not...

Wendy:

You had an important part to play at her Coronation?

Sir Tom:

My father was ill- so I took his part as Ewer to the King. By the time of her coronation, Anne was big-bellied with a girl-child. No one knew that then. All our hopes were for a Prince. I do not believe the King ever forgave Anne for giving him yet another daughter. When he executed her three years later...the grief broke my heart. Not only Anne dead, but also so many of my close friends. You know her last thoughts were of me? She gifted to me her own treasured prayer book...No doubt she wondered if I too would follow her to the execution block. God knows my poor father worried himself ill because he so feared for me. It the Duke of Suffolk had had his way I know my blood would have flowed too that May.