"Guiseppe and Petruccio Barducci, author of a subsequent account of the massacre, go this evening to see Grey. Spenser and Captain Edward Denny are mentioned by Barduci as benefiting from the colonel as hostage. Barducci claims that Spenser and…
Fort surrenders and 600 captives executed. Hadfield notes that Spenser defends Grey in both the FQand A Viewbut does not defend Grey’s actions at Smerwick, an indication of how controversial the killing of captives was deemed even fifteen years…
Spenser probably present when Chancellor Gerrard, at a meeting of Grey’s council, accuses the Earl of Kildare and his son-in-law Christopher Nugent, fifth Baron Devlin, of treason in Dublin (CSPI 79.26; Maley, 16; Hadfield, 173 ; Judson 94)
Spenser would have accompanied Grey on most, if not all, of his military expeditions, such as the one into the midland counties of Leix and Offaly in this month. (Hadfield, 173)
Grey and Spenser are joined by Lodowick Bryskett, clerk of the council at Dublin. Spenser and Bryskett became friends and “later played a part…in the writings of the other.” (Judson, 94-95)
Spenser would have traveled through or around the Bog of Allen, the largest in Ireland and a noted problem for soldiers; the Bog dominates the Irish midlands to the west of Dublin. Spenser compares the forces besieging the Castle of Alma to insects…
