Elyot was a model of a Renaissance humanist: scholar, diplomat, courtier. He served as an ambassador to the court of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, probably to help persuade him to look favorably upon the divorce Henry VIII was seeking from Catherine of Aragon, who happened to be the emperor's aunt. Since ambassadors were expected to pay their own expenses, this post was an empty honor, since the amount of entertaining and gift-giving (and bribery) he was expected to provide proved ruinous, forcing him to sell much of the estate he had inherited from his father. It was said that Elyot was also supposed to help apprehend William Tyndale, though he may have sympathized to some extent with the reform movement. He knew Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and probably Erasmus. He visited the Lutheran states in Germany along with Thomas Cranmer, future Archbishop of Canterbury and the English Reformation's most important figure.
Elyot is known for three great works.
The Castle of Helth (1536), was a medical treatise and book of wisdom. In it, he summarized most knowledge of the time about medicine, especially the theories of the Greek physician Galen. Contemporary physicians were not entirely happy with Elyot's intrusion into their sphere, but his popularization of medical knowledge and advice to men and women who did not know Latin about how to diagnose their own ailments was very popular. It should be noted that the famous physician Thomas Linacre probably helped him with it, and Castle strongly advised its readers to seek a physician's assistance for treatment.
The Boke Named the Governour (1531) was a conduct book in the manner of Castiglione's Il Cortegiano and Machiavelli's Il Principe. It's possible that Cromwell gave him a copy of Castiglione. Elyot advocates a strong monarchy and an orderly chain of command. Governour is important to early modern studies because of its first section, which prescribes the classical texts that every gentleman should read for his profit and advancement
Syr Thomas Elyot His Dictionary (1536, 1542), the first comprehensive Latin-English dictionary, a landmark in the field of lexicography. It was not the first of its kind, but it was the first to cite classical sources and to be compiled according to humanist principles.
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-8782;jsessionid=047E7566C4BA8EF6F113BDF29BE4E1E3
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