Perrott was reputed to be a natural son of Henry VIII., whom he resembled in appearance, and, although brought up in the household of Thomas Perrott, who had married Mary Berkeley, Henry's mistress, he soon exchanged the serene life of a country gentleman for the freer and gayer court life of London. He was advanced rapidly in the royal favour, and before his deputyship had had considerable experience of Ireland. He now came as viceroy with a strong and definite policy, fully determined to carry it to a successful issue. Munster was the first province selected for the 'plantation' scheme. To induce English families to flock to Ireland, huge estates were offered for next to nothing. Fertile lands were given at rentals of a penny or twopence an acre, and to allow the immigrants time to put their new homes in order, no rent was asked during the first five years, and only half for the following three. Those who took over twelve thousand acres were termed 'undertakers,' and required to settle or plant at least eighty-six English families whose members were skilled in trades and the arts agricultural. Undertakers of smaller estates planted a less number, and so on in due proportion. It was a splendid scheme on paper, and would, no doubt, have settled the Irish question effectively, but its weak point was its total disregard of the Irish. The real owners of the property were in hiding with prices on their heads, but the people themselves were only awaiting {73} their opportunity to win back the lands of their chiefs and restore them to their rightful owners. The majority of the 'undertakers'--wealthy English noblemen and titled adventurers--did not, of course, trouble to come to Ireland, though they imported a number of families into the country. Two of the 'undertakers,' however, in Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, the poet, actually resided on their new estates. Raleigh, as a reward for butchering the peasantry, was given forty-two thousand acres; Spenser was granted twelve thousand acres in Cork, and took up his residence in Kilcolman Castle, residence in Ireland being the only condition upon which he was given the stolen land. Spenser wrote the first three books of the 'Faerie Queen' here, and his only absence from Ireland was occasioned by a journey to London to secure the publication of his masterpiece. On his return he married a country girl, and managed to live in some peace until 1598, when the Earl of Tyrone, eager to avenge his wrongs, roused the country. Kilcolman Castle was burnt to the ground, and Spenser's youngest child perished in the flames. The poet, penniless and ill, escaped to England to die in penury the following year.