Although the literary merits of his writings have been called into question, it has been generally acknowledged that Henry Parker, eighth Baron Morley (c. 1481–1556) was an innovator in his choice of form and of subject matter. He was one of the first English writers in the Renaissance to translate Boccaccio or Petrarch and he also attempted to adapt ‘an Italion ryme called soneto’ to English more or less contemporaneously with Wyatt and Surrey. He presented his translations, given as New Year's gifts, to Henry VIII, to Henry's daughter Mary, and to Thomas Cromwell. Most of his writings were presented in manuscript form, but Morley did venture into print on two occasions: in 1539 his Exposition and Declaration of the Psalme, Deus ultionum Dominus, made by Syr Henry Parker knight, Lord Morley, dedicated to the Kynges Highnes was printed by Thomas Berthelet, and in the early 1550s a printed version of his translation of Petrarch's Triumphs, dedicated to Henry Fitzalan, Lord Maltravers, was published by John Cawood, the Queen's printer.

During the late 1520s and the 1530s Morley seems to have associated himself with three different factions – the Boleyns, Mary and Thomas Cromwell – and his conflicting loyalties led to potentially dangerous situations. Regularly, he used books (or at least the written word) as a means of wooing or placating patrons.

Morley had various links with the Boleyns, with whom his own family had been connected as early as the fifteenth century: