May 8 1586
subject: May 8
description: "Irish parliament passes act nullifying all conveyances"; Spenser condemns these such conveyances in A View. (Maley, 42)

July 18 1586
subject: July 18
description: Date of Spenser’s sonnet to Harvey from Dublin, published in Harvey's Foure Letters (1592). (Maley, 43) Spenser is back in Dublin, either having returned by this date or having stayed in Dublin for much of the first half of the year, indicating that he had not yet moved down to the Cork area. (Hadfield, 190)

September 2 1586
subject: September 2
description: "Sir Thomas Norris appointed one of the commissioners for the survey of attainted lands" including Kilcolman. Maley notes "it is likely that Spenser, when he took up residence, lived in a house on the estate, and not in the castle itself." (43)

September-October 1586
subject: September-October
description: "Spenser probably attended sessions of [the] presidency court of Munster which met in latter half of this month at Dungarvon and the first half of October at Lismore and Youghal to allot immense seignories to Sir Christopher Hatton and Sir Walter Raleigh." (Maley, 43)

Winter 1586
subject: Winter
description: Spenser lives in Co. Cork. "From now until he leaves Ireland with Raleigh in 1589, Spenser is intimately involved with the complex business of the Munster plantation." (Maley, 43).

December 8 1586
subject: December 8
description: December 8: Spenser becomes "delinquent in payment of first fruits, a sum required of the occupant of a benefice upon taking his charge, with respect to the prebendary of Effin, possibly a sinecure post (CSPI 127.18)." (Maley, 44) Hadfield notes this amount at £3, and explains that the Act for First Fruits gave the pope a "claim to a percentage of the income derived from the first year of any ecclesiastical benefice to the king." (191) Both Maley (44) and Hadfield (191-92) mention that Spenser satirizes unqualified (un-ordained) holders of clerical offices in Mother Hubberds Tale.

1587
subject: 1587
description: Spenser was “involved in the illegal seizure of a Spanish carvel full of Canary wines, which had been captured by the Tomas Bonaventure, a ship owned by the London merchant Thomas Cordell.” The carvel had been blown off course and put into harbor on the Dingle Peninsula. It was sailed to Cork and looted of its cargo under Spenser's command, along with his fellow undertaker, William Herbert, and the Norris brothers. “When Cordell and his fellow merchants discovered what had happened, they immediately resorted to legal action. Piracy was common in south-west Ireland, perpetrated especially by crown officials”: “Despite his condemnation of cynical abusers of clerical positions in Mother Hubberds Tale, Spenser undoubtedly did what he felt he had to do.” Perhaps Spenser was prepared to resort to accepting dubious government handouts for personal gain, or, most likely, felt that he, unlike others in England, had earned such benefits in Ireland. There are more examples of possible sharp practice. (Hadfield, 191-92)

February 8 1587
subject: February 8
description: Mary Stuart beheaded; Spenser later writes in FQ about Queen Elizabeth’s reluctance to kill her cousin and the justice of Mary’s punishment. (Judson, 122)

March 14 1587
subject: March 14
description: Legal documents indicate that Kilcolman was assigned to Andrew Reade on this day. Hadfield suspects that Reade possibly "was involved in a speculative plan that was always designed to benefit Spenser." No records after this date indicate that Spenser remained in Dublin, leading Hadfield to believe that Spenser lived in Kilcolman before it was legally his property. Hadfield notes that "Spenser and Reade had drawn up an agreement whereby Spenser would occupy the lands and assume control of the estate if Reade had not done so by 22 May 1589, a clear indication that Reade had never had plans to live there" (200-201) Maley also notes that Kilcolman was assigned to Reade and that "there is no evidence to suggest that Reade ever occupied his lands." (45)

March 1587
subject: Spenser in Cork for spring session of Munster Council. (Maley, 45