BRYANT, SIR FRANCIS, a soldier, statesman, and a poet of no inconsiderable fame in his time. In the year 1522, the 14th of Henry VIII., he attended in a military capacity the Earl of Surrey in his expedition to the coast of Brittany, and commanded the troops in the attack of the town of Morlaix, which he took and burnt. For this service he was knighted on the spot by the earl. In 1529 he was sent ambassador to France, and the year following to Rome, on account of the king's divorce. He was gentleman of the privy chamber to king Henry VIII. and to his successor Edward VI., in the beginning of whose reign he marched with the protector against the Scots; and, after the battle of Musselburgh, in which he commanded the light horse, he was made banneret. In 1548 he was appointed chief governor of Ireland, where he married the Countess of Ormond. He died soon afterwards, and was buried at Waterford. He wrote, 1. Songs and Sonnets, some of which were printed with those of the Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt, Lond. 1565; 2. Letters written from Rome concerning the king's divorce, manuscript.