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The word iamb comes from an ancient Greek genre of invective poetry. The metrical term takes its name from the genre with which it was associated. Etymologically, the word iambos is related to the Greek word for cripple, with the short syllable representing the lame leg and the long the strong one. Deriving from this Greek origin, a foot of one short and one long syllable was called an iamb in Latin poetry as well. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics says:

The word iamb comes from an ancient Greek genre of invective poetry. The metrical term takes its name from the genre with which it was associated. Deriving from this Greek origin, a foot of one short and one long syllable was called an iamb in Latin poetry as well. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics says:

It is true that Chaucer and Wyatt, among others, had used iambic meter earlier. But the 15th and 16th centuries were a time of tremendous change in the English language. Chaucer's late 14th C. poetry was firmly in Middle English, and Sidney's late 16th C. poetry just as firmly in Modern English. The very different pronunciation the phrase pale knight would have between Chaucer and Sidney immediately calls into question any easy statement such as "Chaucer used iambs, so English poetry followed Chaucer in that regard". Chaucer would have pronounced pale knight as two trochees; Sidney as a single spondee. As for Wyatt, nobody tf knows how to pronounce, let alone scan, Wyatt. There's a wonderful Lit SE question to be asked about that, as I've said before (see Note 2 in that answer).

Yet, few poems would conform rigidly through this poem throughout. In fact, doing so would yield a rigid and stilted work. Sidney's achievement was to play natural speech rhythms against the abstract framework of iambic pentameter so that the tension between the two could be manipulated for poetic effect. Thompson discusses poem 5 of Astrophel and Stella:

• It was a time of tremendous change in the language itself, thanks to the Great Vowel Shift.
• The establishment of printing allowed a certain degree of standardization as well.
• The great success of Spain in establishing New World colonies, alongside the rivalries between England and Spain, led to an upsurge of nationalist sentiment that made it imperative to establish a cultural poetics for England; this caused poets to explicitly discuss questions about what an English poetry and poetics would look like.
• When Sidney and Marlowe established successful examples of what English poetry could accomplish, by using a metrical pattern that was assertive, flexible, and supple, that quickly became the default subsequent poets followed.

We tend to think of Shakespeare as the default poet for English. And indeed, his achievements in iambic pentameter are better-known (some might argue just "better", tout court) than those of Sidney and Marlowe with that same meter in poetry and drama respectively. But Sidney and Marlowe were those who first showed the tremendous possibilities that iambic pentameter offered English poetry, and they established it as the default that endured until Ezra Pound: "To break the pentameter, that was the first heave".

It is true that Chaucer and Wyatt, among others, had used iambic meter earlier. But the 15th and 16th centuries were a time of tremendous change in the English language. The Great Vowel Shift, which separates Middle English from its modern counterpart, was underway through this period. Chaucer's late 14th C. poetry was firmly in Middle English, and Sidney's late 16th C. poetry just as firmly in Modern English. The very different pronunciation the phrase pale knight would have between Chaucer and Sidney immediately calls into question any easy statement such as "Chaucer used iambs, so English poetry followed Chaucer in that regard". Chaucer would have pronounced pale knight as an amphimacer (‘ x ‘); Sidney as a single spondee ( ‘ ‘ ). As for Wyatt, nobody tf knows how to pronounce, let alone scan, Wyatt. There's a wonderful Lit SE question to be asked about that, as I've said before (see Note 2 in that answer).

Yet, few poems would conform unvaryingly to this pattern throughout. In fact, doing so would yield a rigid and stilted work. Sidney's achievement was to play natural speech rhythms against the abstract framework of iambic pentameter so that the tension between the two could be manipulated for poetic effect. Thompson discusses poem 5 of Astrophel and Stella:

• It was a time of tremendous change in the language itself, thanks to the Great Vowel Shift.
• The establishment of printing allowed a certain degree of standardization as well.
• The great success of Spain in establishing New World colonies, alongside the rivalries between England and Spain, led to an upsurge of nationalist sentiment that made it imperative to establish a cultural poetics for England; this caused poets to explicitly discuss questions about what an English poetry and poetics would look like.
• When Sidney and Marlowe established successful examples of what English poetry could accomplish, the meter they used quickly became the standard that subsequent poets adopted.

It needs to be stated that poets didn't consciously set out to imitate Sidney and Marlowe in choosing iambic pentameter for poetry and drama respectively. Iambic pentameter in English has a well-documented history before those poets. The point here is that iambic pentameter has certain built-in advantages for poetic effects in English. These poets were writing when Modern English was in the late stages of its emergence as something drastically different from Middle English. As English poets sought appropriate vehicles for poetic expression in the wake of the Great Vowel Shift, Marlowe and Sidney showed that iambic pentameter was an assertive, flexible, and supple pattern that allowed poetic achievement of a high order in what was practically a new language. Their example made that meter the default for English poetry.

We tend to think of Shakespeare as the default poet for English. And indeed, his achievements in iambic pentameter are better-known (some might argue "better" tout court) than those of Sidney and Marlowe with that same meter in poetry and drama respectively. But Sidney and Marlowe were those who first showed the tremendous possibilities that iambic pentameter offered English poetry, and they established it as the default that endured until Ezra Pound: "To break the pentameter, that was the first heave".

Edit based on comments: Continuity between Middle English and Modern English meters

As @PeterShor points out, entirely correctly, in the comments, Middle English poets such as Chaucer and Gower used iambic pentameter extensively. The practice of iambic pentameter could have continued throughout the Great Vowel Shift that marks the transition from ME to ModE. Poets could have imitated what they saw Chaucer doing, even if Chaucer's own scansion became impenetrable to them as the shift occurred. This argument deserves more consideration than is practical in this already overlong answer, but there is another question on this site that takes up the issue.

Yet, few poems would confirm rigidly through this poem throughout. In fact, doing so would yield a rigid and stilted work. Sidney's achievement was to play natural speech rhythms against the abstract framework of iambic pentameter so that the tension between the two could be manipulated for poetic effect. Thompson discusses poem 5 of Astrophel and Stella:

• It was a time of tremendous change in the language itself, thanks to the Great Vowel Shift
• The establishment of printing allowed a certain degree of standardization as well
• The great success of Spain in establishing New World colonies, alongside the rivalries between England and Spain, led to an upsurge of nationalist sentiment that made it imperative to establish a cultural poetics for England; this caused poets to explicitly discuss questions about what an English poetry and poetics would look like
• When Sidney and Marlowe established successful examples of what English poetry could accomplish, by using a metrical pattern that was assertive, flexible, and supple, that quickly became the default subsequent poets followed.

Yet, few poems would conform rigidly through this poem throughout. In fact, doing so would yield a rigid and stilted work. Sidney's achievement was to play natural speech rhythms against the abstract framework of iambic pentameter so that the tension between the two could be manipulated for poetic effect. Thompson discusses poem 5 of Astrophel and Stella:

• It was a time of tremendous change in the language itself, thanks to the Great Vowel Shift.
• The establishment of printing allowed a certain degree of standardization as well.
• The great success of Spain in establishing New World colonies, alongside the rivalries between England and Spain, led to an upsurge of nationalist sentiment that made it imperative to establish a cultural poetics for England; this caused poets to explicitly discuss questions about what an English poetry and poetics would look like.
• When Sidney and Marlowe established successful examples of what English poetry could accomplish, by using a metrical pattern that was assertive, flexible, and supple, that quickly became the default subsequent poets followed.