Edmund Spenser (abt. 1552 - abt. 1599)

Born about 1552 in London, England

Husband of Machabyas (Childe) Spencer — married 27 Oct 1579 in St.Margaret's Church, Westminster, London, England

Husband of Elizabeth (Boyle) Tynte — married 11 Jun 1594 in Cork, Ireland

Descendants

Died about 13 Jan 1599 at about age 47 in Westminster, London, England

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Biography

Edmund Spenser was a major English Renaissance literary poet.

Birth

Edmund Spenser is generally accepted as born about 1552 in London, England. This year is in part based on a passage in his "Amoretti," where he identifies his age. A passage in "Prothalamion" confirms that London was his birthplace.^[1][2]

He was likely the son of John Spencer, his mother's name was Elizabeth, and he had at least one sibling, a sister Sarah.^[1][3]

Life

Edmund attended Merchant Taylor's school in London, and then the University of Cambridge.^[4].

In 1580 he accepted a position as a private secretary to Arthur Grey, the new Lord Deputy of Ireland. He then spent most of his adult life as an official in the English administration of Ireland. He served in various governmental posts, from clerk of the Privy Council in Dublin, to Queen's justice and sheriff-designate for county Cork.^[4][5]

In 1588, for his services to the crown, as part of the Munster Plantations under Queen Elizabeth 1st that replaced displaced Irish Catholic aristocracy with English Protestant settlers, he was given some of the seized estates of the Earl of Desmond which included Kilcolman Castle, near Cork. This became his principal residence. Such holdings gave him the status of a landed gentleman, and helped him, for example, to make friends with Sir Walter Raleigh and to marry his second wife, Elizabeth Boyle, who came from an important landed family in Herefordshire, England.^[5]

In Ireland he wrote his epic romance "The Faerie Queene", published starting in 1590. Earlier, his poem "The Shepheardes Calendar" had presented religious and social satire. Spenser's shorter poetic works, including his Sonnets, Complaints, and Epithalamion, mark him as one of the greatest lyric poets in the English language. His prose treatise on the Anglo-Irish conflict, the "View of the Present State of Ireland," is noted for its analysis and brutal policy recommendations.

In October 1598, during the Nine Year's War in Ireland, Edmund Spenser's castle at Kilcolman was burned by the forces of Sir Hugh O'Neill Earl of Tyrone.^[4]

Edmund and his family fled to Cork. He subsequently went to London in Dec 1598, and died shortly after "in distress in a lodging in King Street, Westminster."^[4][6]

He was buried in Westminster Abbey.^[7][6]

His date of death is variously listed as 13 Jan 1599^[7][8][9] or 16 Jan 1599.^[4][6][1] The date appears to be based on a letter from John Chamberlain to his friend Carleton noting "Spencer, our principall poet, comming lately out of Ireland, died at Westminster on Saturday last".^[1][9] The Westminster Abbey website indicates that he died on 13 Jan 1599 and was buried on 16 Jan 1599, and the year of 1598 on his memorial was in Old Style dating.^[7] (Note that the memorial was first put up in 1620.^[7][6])

Marriages

His first wife was Machabyas Childe (Maccabaeus Childe). She married Edmund Spenser on 27 October 1579 in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, England. She apparently died around 1588, certainly before Edmund remarried in 1594.^[6]

Not much else is known about her. Some discussions of Edmund Spencer did not even recognize her as his first wife. The evidence for her is summarized by W.H. Welply (1932).^[6]

He secondly married Elizabeth Boyle on June 11, 1594. His romance with her is described in his poetry, notably "Amoretti" and "Epithalamion". They had one child, Peregrine. When their Kilcolman castle was burned during Tyrone's Rebellion in October 1598, the family fled to Cork, a walled city.^[6]

Children

With his first wife, Machabyas, he had two children. A son, Sylvanus, and a daughter, Katherine. Some documents suggest they also had a son Lawrence. The arguments against this are summarized by W.H. Welply.^[6]

Elizabeth Boyle, his second wife, gave birth to a son named Peregrine. He may also have had a child that died in the fire at Kilcolman castle in 1598.^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} "Edmund Spenser" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, p.801. Available here in Ancestry.com
2. ↑ A birth year of 1554 has also been proposed, see Jean Brink, "Revising Edmund Spenser's Birth Date to 1554", Notes & Queries (2009), 56(4), p.523-527.
3. ↑ W.H. Welply. "Edmund Spenser, Being an account of some recent researches into his life and lineage, III." Notes & Queries (20 Feb 1932), p.128-132.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4} "Spenser, Edmund" in J.A. Venn, comp. Alumni Cantabrigienses. Vol. 4, p. 132 (London, England: Cambridge University Press, 1922-1954). Available at archive.org
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Poetry Foundation: Edmund Spenser. © 2013 Poetry Foundation
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7} W.H. Welply. "Edmund Spenser: Being an account of some recent researches into his life and lineage, with some notice of his family and descendants, IX." Notes & Queries (12 March 1932), p.182-187.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3} Westminster Abbey http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/edmund-spenser
8. ↑ Encyclopedia Brittanica: Edmund Spenser
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2} Andrew Hadfield. "Edmund Spenser: A Life." Oxford University Press (2012).

See also:

• Wikipedia: Edmund Spenser
• Public Outreach Series : The Planting of Munster 1580-1640. pdf by JP Nunan, website www.jpnunan.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/josephnunanmunsterplantation.pdf (Feb 2023: Site no longer available)
• Edmund is mentioned in the book 'BOOSEY & HAWKES: THE PUBLISHING STORY' written by Helen Wallace.'Boosey & Hawkes, the Publishing Story' by Helen Wallace-1

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Maggie N. for starting this profile.