The glorious Prize upon my Lance I bare,
By Herald's Voyce proclaim'd to be thy share.
The Duke of Florence for his approved Valour, offered him large Proffers to stay with him; which he refused: intending, as he had done in Florence, to proceed through all the chief Cities in Italy; but this his Purpose was frustrated, by Letters sent to him from his Master King Henry the 8th. which commanded him to return as speedily as possibly he could into England.
Our famous English Antiquary John Leland, speaking much in the praise of Sir Thomas Wiat the Elder, as well for his Learning, as other excellent Qualities, meet for a man of his Calling; calls this Earl the conscript enrolled Heir of the said Sir Thomas Wiat: writing to him in these words;
Accipe Regnorum Comes illustrissime Carmen,
Quo mea Musa tuum laudavit moesta Viallum.
And again, in another place,
Perge, Houerde, tuum virtute referre Viallum,
Dicerisque tuæ clarissima Gloria stirpis.
A certain Treatise called The Art of English Poetry, alledges, That Sir Thomas Wiat the Elder, and Henry Earl of Surrey were the two Chieftains, who having travelled into Italy, and there tasted the sweet and stately Measures and Style of the Italian Poesie, greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar Poesie from what it had been before; and may therefore justly be shewed to be the Reformers of our English Meeter and Style.