Edmund Spenser and English Policy in Ireland

by Howard Amos

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) served as secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton during his suppression of the Desmond rebellion and then lived at Kilcolman Castle following the plantation of Munster (1580) in which he received land. His A View of the Present State of Ireland was written in 1596 as a direct result of his familiarity with Ireland. The View examines the condition of Ireland during the 1590s and proffers a series of steps for the resolution of the problems it identifies. It is some 65,000 words long and consists of a dialogue between two fictional characters, Eudoxus, a rational Englishman largely ignorant of Irish affairs, and Irenius, someone who speaks from experience of Ireland, much like Spenser himself.

William Blake wrote that 'Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose'. It is in this light that the significance of Spenser's View should be considered. Debate centres on whether the solutions it offered can be dismissed as the opinions of a Protestant extremist, or are representative ideas not incompatible with ideas proclaiming the efficacy of moral re-education. The former interpretation was prevalent until the 20th century and only recently has scholarship attempted to rationalise Spencer's work as flowing from the traditions of 16th-century humanism. Even so, it is often claimed the View is too confused to be persuasive and that Spenser's posthumous literary reputation has given it undue prominence. There is also, especially among Irish historians, intense hostility to the viability of Spenser's propositions. More recent analysis has been influenced by postmodernist thought and, consequently, emphasises the role of language and rhetoric in sustaining the colonial structure of the text.

Although the influence Spenser's work had on subsequent English policy is difficult to gauge, at least 20 manuscript copies have survived and Nicholas Canny cites the Queen and her court as, ultimately, the intended audience. Undeniably therefore, the View, at least to a degree, articulated and elaborated on prevalent ideas and prejudices making options previously dismissed appear feasible. This new awareness of possibility, in conjunction with the urgent desire to halt the decline of English influence in Ireland during the late 1590s, made extreme solutions, like those of Spenser, increasingly attractive for the Tudor government. Indeed, as the culmination of Spenser's political life in Ireland, the View outlines a highly ambitious plan for social reform. Nevertheless, these proposals proved unrealistically artificial and, in conjunction with failures in strategy, ensured the emergence of a huge dichotomy between Spenser's ultimate aim, to 'settle an eternall peace in that country', and the actual course of events.

Spencer on Ireland

Edmund Spenser's View is clearly an example of colonial writing, with its sense of two separate and patently unequal 'sides'. This idea of a distinct Irish 'otherness' almost imperceptibly increases the political and moral acceptability of his proposals. There are two clear examples of such writing: Spenser discounts campaigning in Continental Europe for army officers as preparation for service in Ireland, thus implying it is a different, colonial, situation; and he fails to recognise the striking parallels between the Irish bards he so denigrates and himself (as Richard McCabe notes, the View is not, at any point, disturbed by a 'ripple of conscious irony'). For Eudoxus and Irenius even language serves to demonstrate Irish inferiority--the latter defines the meaning of 'county palatinate' so as to imply 'Irish corruption of a prior established meaning'. Another salient facet of Spenser's thought, almost ubiquitous in imperial expansionism, is the repulsion felt towards a fluid social structure that resists the imposition of uniform and monolithic government. Irish traditions which Spenser finds objectionable include the practices of Tanistry (the election of sept leaders), Gavelkind (the splitting of patrimony amongst male heirs), Coign and Livery (the forced billeting of soldiers) and the continued use of Brehon law. There is also a reaction against the custom of transhumance ('booleying'), the prominence given to bards, the wearing of mantles (cloaks) and the fashion of glibs (long beards). The View claims in justification that a mantle is 'meet Bedd for a Rebell and apte cloak for a theef', while a glib is purported to make it 'very hard to discerne a thievish countenance'. Moreover, the View contains evidence to 'prove' Irish barbarity: current inhabitants have their ancestry traced directly back to Scythians, Gauls, Spaniards, Bryttens and English degenerates. Spenser repeatedly mentions 'that barbarous nation', as well as recounting more anecdotal evidence (for example, he remembers how 'at the execution of a notable traytor ... I saw an ould woman ... who tooke up his heade, whilst he was quartered, and sucked up all the blood running thereout').

Other Englishmen also highlighted Irish savagery. Sir Henry Sidney claimed that 'matrimony among them is no more regarded in effect than conjunction between unreasonable beasts' and Moryson describes 'the wives of Irish lords ... who often drink till ... they void urine in full assemblies of men'. Cavanagh notes that such a focus on the body 'stresses the connection ... between the Irish and the more base animal qualities of humanity'. At one point in the View the current sophistication of Irish society is equated with that in England, 700 years previously, under Alfred the Great. Concentrating in this way on the underdeveloped nature of Irish civilisation implicitly suggests English superiority and 'suitability' to rule.

Degrading the population, however, is only the first part of the key colonial process. Spenser proceeds to eulogise Ireland, claiming it is 'a most beautifull and sweete Country as any is under heaven' and admitting he does 'moch pittie that sweet land, to be subject to so many evills'. This separation of land and people is crucial for any colonial venture as it not only provides moral justification but also contains an economic motive for plantation. Ireland is, therefore, never presented as a hopeless case: it remains 'a salvage nation' capable, under English tutelage, of redemption from its inept and depraved inhabitants.

The essence of the View's argument for the subjugation of Ireland is articulated by Sir John Davies in his pronouncement that 'a barbarous country must be first broken by war before it will be capable of good government'. This process, Spenser proposes, should consist of two phases: the defeat of rebellious Irish and the removal of degenerate English elements. The intention of such a policy would be, as Lupton observes, to create a 'surface capable of infinite articulation, erasure and re-ordering'. In the View Spenser proposes measures of extreme violence to attain this: when Eudoxus queries, 'Howe then doe you thincke is the reformacon thereof to begynne?', Irenius replies, 'Even by the sworde ... evilles must first be cutt awaye with a stronge hand, before any good can be planted'. Rather optimistically, Spenser believes that the deployment, over a period of one and a half years, of 'ten thousand footemen, and 1000 horse' will be enough to suppress open insurrection. Military force, however, is not Spenser's only weapon as he suggests working on the principle that 'what the soldyer spares the rebel will surelye spoyle' and essentially advocates a scorched earth policy, intended to cause famine.

Although often quoted, Spenser's description concerning the anticipated outcome of such tactics, based on his service with Lord Grey of Wilton, who suppressed the Desmond rebellion of the 1580s, remains chilling:

Out of everye corner of the

woode and glens they came

creepinge forth upon theire

handes, for theire legges could

not beare them; they looked

Anatomies of death, they spake

like ghostes, crying out of theire

graves; they did eate of the

carrions, happye wheare they

could find them.

Grey had been recalled for excessive violence (he once wrote to Queen Elizabeth: 'If ... killing of kerne and churles had been worth advertising ... I would have every day to have troubled your Highness'), but Spenser praises him and puts forward a plan that mirrors his methods but which seeks to avoid 'any remorse or drawing back for the sight of suche ruefull object as must thereupon follow'. Although not explicitly stated in the View, Spenser also wanted to rid Ireland of its degenerate elements. The seriousness of this problem is, however, heavily emphasised: Irenius explains, 'O lord, howe quickly doth that country alter men's natures!'. Spenser accounts for such 'treachery' by the apparent slackness in law enforcement, intermarriage and the adoption of both Irish clothes and the Irish language by settlers. Eudoxus labels these habits a 'most dangerous lethargie' and the desire to remove such corruption is closely linked with the recurrent motif, of Ireland as a diseased patient. This 'greate Contagion' within Gaelic society helps Spenser to legitimize the comprehensive devastation of the country through 'mass starvation, exemplary killing and the imposition of full military repression'. Policy in Ireland

The actions of Lord Mountjoy, Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1600-01, were the closest approximation to the reduction of that country to 'dissolute estate' as had ever previously been achieved. After the 'idle and fruitless journes' of Essex, the appointment of Mountjoy proved to be representative of a strengthening English resolve. This was reflected financially: J.B. Black has calculated that between 1598 and 1603 the English treasury provided over 1.25 million [pounds sterling] for use in Ireland, while Burghley grumbled that the country was a 'gulf of consuming treasure'. Mountjoy's tactics against Tyrone were undoubtedly analogous to those offered by Spenser as, ably backed by Docwra and Carew, he employed 'total destruction of material resources as an instrument of policy'. Within three years the Irish had effectively been subdued.

Nonetheless, Mountjoy proceeded to contravene one of Spenser's dictums when he negotiated, and then compromised, with Tyrone. In the View Spenser's prediction of Tyrone's behaviour is remarkably prescient: 'he will offer to come in ... but it is without any intent of true submission'. Mountjoy, however, conceded an exceptionally lenient settlement largely due to the Queen's recent death (which meant he wanted to return to court) and because James I was likely to be favourably disposed to Tyrone. At the same time, Mountjoy also pardoned some of the lesser nobles in Ulster. These compromises immediately meant plantation would not be possible and they led directly to another significant deviation form Spenser's View: the disbandment of Mountjoy's army of at least 15,000 men. Spenser (and many others) had alleged these soldiers would be critical to the establishment of any lasting English presence as they could 'kepe [Ireland] from that relaps'. Following Mountjoy's peace at Melifont, however, English policy was one of informal plantation in which the 1606 Commission for Defective Titles was exploited to facilitate the transfer of land to English Protestants.

Paradoxically, although the View puts forward a more planned structure for plantation, such legal seizures of land promoted an intermingling of the races (as Spenser wanted) whereas later efforts would be based on segregation. English strategy in this period also focused on the undermining of Tyrone and Tyrconnel by supporting and orchestrating legal challenges, through lesser Lords, to their right of land ownership. Spenser would have approved of such a policy which succeeded in the removal of these two powerful Lords in the 1607 'Flight of the Earls'. When coupled with the land confiscations after Sir Cahir O'Doherty's rebellion, plantation now became feasible. Mountjoy's campaign was a rough implementation of Spenser's preferred methods, but subsequent clemency towards Tyrone led to a loss of momentum in the development of the colonisation process.

Edward Said defines colonialism as 'the implanting of settlements on distant territory' and this is exactly what Spenser perceives as a natural progression from an Ireland that has been made 'a desert--desolate, uninhabited, and unowned'. As Lupton has argued, once such a situation is achieved, colonisation is no longer an option but rather a moral duty. Considering the English 'inability to place the Irish population within comfortable categories', this obligation is made even more attractive by the opportunity to establish some semblance of order on the transitory Irish way of life. In addition to the moral reasons for plantation, Spenser proposes economic ones. Not only does he praise the land where 'there are manie goodlie vallies ... fyt for fayre habytation', but he also promises to make Ireland 'very profitable to her Majestie'.

Thus, by suggesting ultimate benefit to England, Spenser justifies a large initial expenditure, encourages permanent migration and promotes long-term investment. To build on this and reach 'that perfect establishment and new commonwealth', however, Spenser outlines four major steps which need to be taken. The vigorous application of Common Law as a part of this procedure is intended to prevent degeneration or a slide back into barbarity. These stages begin with the self-sufficient settlement of 6,000 soldiers across Ireland. Garrisons will be maintained by a universal tax and intermingling will be promoted in order to bring the inhabitants 'by dayly conversatyon unto better likinge of each other'. Next, Common Law will be instituted and the country politically divided so that 'the people are broken into many small parts, like lytle streames, that they canot easely come together into one heade'. Having established a rigorous framework, the Irish are then to be brought out of savagery and their 'desire of warre and tumults' through a replacement of sept-based names, education, purging of remaining rebels, allocation of a trade to everybody and the inculcation of Protestantism. Finally, the country's infrastructure is to be recreated along 'civil' lines so that trade can flourish. Spenser's idealistic measures are clearly unachievable but, nonetheless, this process was a credible, and not totally impractical, guide to the creation of a new social and political state whose citizens would, in a 'short tyme, learne quyte to forget this irish natyon'.

Prescription and Reality

The actual establishment of the Ulster plantation was broadly similar to Spenser' s outline, but the ultimate results were very different from those imagined. The discrepancies between reality and the View help explain the effective failure of the former. Plantation got under way shortly after the 'Flight of the Earls' and it took the shape of the 'sweeping colonisation' favoured by Davies rather than the 'gradual Anglicisation' Chichester preferred. The counties to be settled were Donegal, Fermanagh, Coleraine, Tyrone, Armagh and Cavan. Land was to be assigned in 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 acre packages. Recipients were to be of three classes: undertakers (who had building and settler obligations), servitors (encouraged, but not required, to have English or Scottish tenants) and 'deserving natives' (who had building obligations but were allowed Irish tenants). When distributionwas complete, undertakers controlled the largest portion of land (160,500 acres), natives had 94,013 acres, while the 'civilising influences' of the church and educational institutions received 74,852 acres. London companies were granted what was to become county Londonderry (45,520 acres) but, in the long run, profit tended to replace development as their primary aim. In direct contradiction of Spenser, the Ulster plantations were based upon the segregation of natives from settlers. This proved completely impractical as the Irish were willing to pay higher rates for poorer land than most English. Thus, 'the Irish were from the beginning so closely integrated into the economy of the colony as to become indispensable to it'. Although the principle of segregation was abandoned in 1625, for over 15 years it had been a tenet of policy that actually resulted in exploitation. Natives were given short leases and charged excessively high rents while English and Scottish settlers pushed them into less profitable areas. Overall therefore, in the words of Godfrey Davies, 'enough was done to fill the Irish with a burning sense of injustice, but not enough to clear them out and to bring in sufficient settlers'. Inevitably this impacted on the internal stability of the plantations. Indeed, with colonisation largely confined to Ulster, and no equivalent of Spenser's Marshal in every province who could 'worke that terror in the harten', settler colonies had the feel of frontier zones. One undertaker, Thomas Blenerhasset, wrote in 1610 that 'the wood kerne and many other (who now have put on the smiling countenance of contentment) doe threaten every houre'. Reading the View also highlights other problems with the Ulster plantations in that they contained too few soldiers and lacked sufficient firearms: there were only 2,000 'friendly' weapons in the whole area. Building did not progress as fast as had been hoped due to unforeseen expenses and the difficulty of obtaining materials. Despite Spenser's stress on the 'civilising influence' of such a programme, the eventual value of most towns 'was based as much on their symbolic as on their commercial and strategic worth'. Indifferent undertakers were a further problem for the plantations as their lack of commitment meant little more occurred than 'the superimposition of a substantial number of absentee landlords upon the inferior Irish'. Nonetheless, the failure to even attempt a solution to the religious question was the crucial error after 1607. The perennial problem, that 'the Irish cannot endure to love the English, bicause they differ so much in religion', remained unaddressed.

Although it was agreed that in Gaelic life there was 'no more demonstration of religion than among Tartars and cannibals', even Spenser's idea to have Protestantism 'delivered and intimated with myidness and gentleness' was not effected. Religion remained a major divide and consequently, even in the wake of segregation's failure, integration proved impossible. It is, therefore, clear that the intellectual ideas behind the Ulster plantation were, in some respects, broadly similar to Spenser's View. However, practical exigencies exacerbated existing differences and introduced new deviationsthat distorted the entire process.

Assessment

Although components of Spenser's A View of the Present State of Ireland clearly manifested themselves in English strategy, the tract did not dominate contemporary thinking. Arguably, the View cannot be regarded as practically achievable. Certainly, events were to show that the unavoidable element of pragmatism would only impact to the detriment of following a predetermined course. In one sense, therefore, Spenser's 'ruthlessly oppressive' work canonly be considered a useful theoretical yardstick. As such it is able to help illuminate and explain the successes or failures of any attempt to achieve an amelioration of what Ralegh called 'the common woe of Ireland'. However, in terms of crystallising widely held opinions into more extreme, yet tenable, policies the View can, despite a lack of aesthetic intentions, be considered an example of Art preceding Empire. It is undoubtedly, therefore, on a par with a text like The Prince as regards to its apparently specific, yet actually universal, potential for application.

It was Mountjoy's subjugation of Ireland that came nearer to what Spenser had envisaged than any previous English initiative. After his brutality, however, there was a loss of impetus and, due to an absence of commitment, the colonisation of Ulster was never likely to succeed. The issue of religion was dealt with unsatisfactorily by both Spenser and English policy, the former because it was a dangerous field to meddle in (he claimed he was 'not professed therein') and the latter through fear of poisoning foreign relations. This proved to be a crucial omission which strengthened the damaging schism between Irish and English by ensuring the 'position of the Counter-Reformation church was ... consolidated'. Flaws in English planning meant 'nothing substantial' had been erected 'on the foundations of what had been destroyed' and settlement did not succeed in fettering Ireland to England. As Machiavelli warns against, the people were neither 'pampered nor crushed' but exploited and left without power--a fact that would ensure future hostility. Although Mountjoy provided the opportunity, the hopes of James' reign were a failure, and the View's solutions would have to wait for their apotheosis in the work of Cromwell. Spenser presaged such mutually destructive cycles in Anglo-Irish association when he wrote of the 'fatall destiny of that land'.