Hadfield notes that “we have no actual record of where [Spenser] was living [in the mid-1580s], but he probably stayed in Co. Cork in order to attend the Lord President when they were not on the road.” (189)
Spenser is back in Dublin with Norris, where he copies out letters to the Privy Council detailing the devastation that had been visited upon Ulster. (Hadfield, 188; Maley, 40)
“Scheme for Munster plantation drawn up.” (Maley, 41) Spenser was likely with Norris while Munster’s lands were surveyed, not knowing what would eventually be his. (Judson, 118) Approximately half a million acres would be attained and redistributed…
Maley notes that "between Autumn 1585 and spring of this year, Spenser must have attended the sessions of the presidency court of Munster at Limerick and Cork." (42)
Spenser spectates meetings of the Irish parliament, whose main item of business was “passing a bill of attainder against the earl of Desmond and other rebels” which “invalidated all transfers made for twelve years prior to the…