Spenser Timeline
What happened during the lifetime of Edmund Spenser, the author of The Faerie Queene? Learn more about this writer and put his life in context with the Spenser timeline below. This chronological table of events covers the years from Spenser’s birth in 1552 to his death in 1599.
Una and the Lion by Briton Rivière from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene
A Timeline of the Life of Edmund Spenser
By Dr. George Armstrong Wauchope, Professor of English, South Carolina College
| EVENTS IN SPENSER’S LIFE | A.D. | CONTEMPORARY EVENTS |
| Birth of Edmund Spenser (about) | 1552 | Birth of Sir Walter Raleigh |
| 1553 | Death of Edward VI; Mary crowned. | |
| 1554 | Mary marries Philip of Spain. | |
| 1558 | Death of Mary; Elizabeth crowned. | |
| 1560 | Charles IX, king of France. | |
| 1568 | Council of Trent. | |
| Visions of Bellay, published | 1569 | |
| Sonnets of Petrarch, published | 1569 | |
| Enters Pembroke Hall, Cambridge | 1569 | |
| 1572 | Gregory XIII, Pope of Rome. | |
| 1572 | Massacre of St. Batholomew. | |
| 1574 | Henry III, king of France. | |
| Received M.A., leaves Cambridge | 1576 | Rudolph II, emperor. |
| Leaves Lancashire | 1578 | Elizabeth aids the Netherlands. |
| Visits Lord Leicester | 1579 | |
| The Shepheards Calender | 1579 | |
| Goes to Ireland | 1580 | Massacre of Smerwick. |
| 1581 | Tasso’s Jersalem Delivered. | |
| Lord Grey’s return to England | 1582 | |
| 1584 | Assassination of William the Silent. | |
| 1585 | Sixtus V, Pope. Drake’s voyage. | |
| 1585 | Leicester goes to the Netherlands. | |
| 1586 | Death of Sir Philip Sidney. | |
| First marriage (before) | 1587 | Execution of Mary Queen of Scots. |
| Clerk to the Council of Munster | 1588 | Defeat of Spanish Armada. Death of Leicester. |
| Visits England with Raleigh | 1589 | Assassination of Henry III; Henry IV crowned. |
| The Faerie Queene, Books I, II, III | 1590 | Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. |
| Mother Hubberds Tale, Tears of the Muses, Ruines of Time, Daphnaida, The Visions | 1591 | Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, Henry VI. |
| 1591 | Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, trans. | |
| 1593 | Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. | |
| 1593 | Richard III. | |
| Second marriage | 1594 | Shakespeare’s Richard II |
| Colin Clout’s Come Home Again | 1595 | Shakespeare’s King John. |
| Amoretti, Epithalamion, Hymns | 1595 | Johnston’s Seven Champions of Christendom. |
| Astrophel, Prothalamion | 1596 | Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. |
| The Faerie Queene, Books I-VI | 1596 | Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour. |
| Vision of the Present State of Ireland | 1598 | Edict of Nantes, Philip III crowned. |
| Death of Spenser | 1599 | Revolt of Irish. Expedition of Essex to Ireland. |
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This Spenser timeline comes from the introduction to Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Book 1 (New York: MacMillan, 1921).
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For a more in-depth look at Spenser’s incredibly influential life and work, you can read the Edmund Spenser Biography.
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When will you read Edmund Spenser’s writing in Excellence in Literature?
E4.3 Focus text: The Faerie Queene (Book 1) and the “Letter to Raleigh”
