Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 3 (of 3)Bagwell, Richard
History
Ireland under the Tudors, with a Succinct Account of the Earlier History. Vol. 3 (of 3)
Bagwell, Richard
Ireland -- History -- 16th century
Spenser had Kilcolman and 4,000 acres allotted to him, but he
complained that the area was really much less. Less or more, he was
not allowed to dwell in peace, and his chief enemy was Lord Roche,
who accused him of intruding on his lands, and using violence to
his tenants, servants, and cattle. The poet retorted that the peer
entertained traitors, imprisoned subjects, brought the law into
contempt, and forbade all his people to have any dealings with Mr.
Spenser and his tenants. An English settler named Keate asked Morris
MacShane, one of Lord Roche's men, why he had no fear of God; and it
was sworn that he answered, 'he feared not God, for he had no cause;
but he feared his Lord, who had punished him before and would have his
goods.' Lord Roche was charged with many outrages, such as killing a
bullock belonging to a smith who mended a settler's plough, seizing
the cows of another for renting land from the owner of this plough,
and killing a fat beast belonging to a third, 'because Mr. Spenser
lay in his house one night as he came from the sessions at Limerick.'
Ultimately the poet's estate was surveyed as 3,028 acres at a rent of
8_l._ 13_s._ 9_d._, which was doubled at Michaelmas 1594, making it
about five farthings per acre. Spenser maintained himself at Kilcolman
until 1598, when the undertakers were involved in general ruin.
Troubles with Lord Roche continued to the end, and it may be doubted
whether even the happy marriage which inspired his finest verses ever
reconciled him to what he has himself described as--
My luckless lot
That banished had myself, like wight forlore,
Into that waste, where I was quite forgot.
[Sidenote: Raleigh.]
[Sidenote: Fatal defects of the settlement.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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