From a modern perspective, misogyny was rife in late Medieval and early Tudor writing, however it could be argued that even in the context of attitudes towards women of the time, the lyric of Wyatt and Skelton had antifeminist undertones. Despite the rise of humanism, their contemporary and influence, the Italian Castiglione, said ‘there are few men of worth who have much respect for women, though occasionally for their own purposes they pretend the contrary’. Elizabeth Heale suggests that the reason for ‘the popularity of anti feminist topic in the early years of the sixteenth century may have had to do with change in the nature and conditions of royal service in the early Tudor court’. Physical vigour in hunting and jousting, along with military prowess, were vital in climbing the social hierarchy of the Henrican court. Despite there also being a need for verbal eloquence and charisma, and the nature of many lyrics being to ‘entertain the ladies’, a backlash against effeminacy in men can be seen in the writings of Skelton and Wyatt. As two satirical writers, their scathing analysis cannot simply be referred only to women, and numerous men also came under attack. Wyatt demonstrates violent misogyny in the poem ‘She sat and sewed’. Although courtly love poems often described a loved one as a ‘foe’, the speaker describes the lady as ‘that hath done me the wrong’ despite her actions seeming very passive. The tone of the poem is frustration and vengeance against the sewing lady, as the speaker seems to take enjoyment and amusement from the injury which she inflicts upon herself. Heale sees this injury as even more violent, as it ‘miniaturises a obliquely implied virginal rape-‘pricking’ makes the lady bleed’ From a modern perspective this is horrendously misogynistic, however in context this ‘violence should be understood in terms of deep seated resentments and frustrations for which the woman and her decorous power are merely ciphers’ in the Henrican court. In this version on the Italian strambotto, this is a model of fashionable wit and sophistication of the time. Ultimately however, although the woman ‘exerts a resented but glamorous charisma and control in the present, but the poet fantasises about reasserting his own potency through victimising her in the future’. The main focus of the poem is therefore male desire and male power. The poem ‘They flee from me’ takes a different attitude to the nature of women. Instead of the heartless women of ‘They sit and sewed’,women are shown to be fickle lovers, like wild things which