Thomas Starkey (c. 1498–1538) was an English political theorist, humanist, and royal servant.
His mother, Maud, was a daughter of Sir John Mainwaring, one of the wealthiest men in the palatinate.
[4] Together with Pole, Starkey went to Avignon in 1532 where he studied civil law, before returning to Padua.
Starkey returned to England in late 1534 and caught the eye of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII, in early 1535.
[5] In 1536 he published An Exhortation to the People instructing them to Unity and Obedience, a defence of Royal Supremacy and commissioned by Thomas Cromwell.