Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was born in London around 1552, although many details of his birth, even his parents’ names, aren’t known for certain today. He wasn’t from an upper-class background, and so he received aid when he went to Pembroke College (now part of Cambridge). In 1580, he went to Ireland to fight Catholic rebels, fighting next to the famous British explorer and writer Walter Raleigh. Legend has it that he began writing The Faerie Queene—by far his most famous work today—while sitting under a tree in North Cork, Ireland, that lived until it was struck down by lightning in the 1960s. Spenser published the first three books of The Faerie Queene in 1590. Its publication earned him a modest life pension from Queen Elizabeth, but he didn’t earn greater favor in the court and ended up spending much of his life in Ireland. He continued to write both long and short works, including the next three books of The Faerie Queene, which were published in 1596. Spenser died at age 46 while in London after being driven out of his castle in Ireland by Irish forces, and he is buried in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.