Riches to rags story of poet
This is the story of a famous 16th century poet and his wife. The famous poet was Edmund Spenser and his wife was Elizabeth Boyle.
I am sure that many will have heard of Spenser, but hands up anyone who has heard of Elizabeth Boyle.
Don't worry, neither had I, until, quite by accident, I discovered a Northamptonshire link.
Now we know a lot about Spenser, but we don't know too much about Elizabeth Boyle, except that she was the daughter of Stephen Boyle and she came from Bradden, near Towcester.
Having said that, other authoritative sources imply that, although Elizabeth did, indeed come from Bradden, her father was James Boyle.
Whatever the truth, she was well connected and her Anglo-Irish family were kinsmen of Richard Boyle, who later became the first Earl of Cork and Elizabeth was definitely the second wife of Edmund Spenser.
So what about Edmund? Well, we know that he was born in London, probably in 1552, and that his family had strong Northamptonshire connections. In spite of the difference in spelling, Spenser claimed relationship to the Spencers of Althorp and, with the words "The honour of the noble family of which I meanest boast myself",
he dedicated a poem to Sir John Spencer's
daughters.
Edmund also had relatives in Badby and Everdon and was a first cousin by marriage to Sir Erasmus Dryden of Canons Ashby, where he was a frequent visitor. There is even a Spenser Room in Canons Ashby House and on the west wall is a mural showing the kind of scenes described in Spenser's most famous poem, The Faerie Queene.
Since Elizabeth came from Bradden, I would like to bet that they met at Canons Ashby, which is only about five miles away, cross country.
So they can both rightly claim a place in Northamptonshire's history.
Edmund and Elizabeth married on June 11, 1594. Edmund indicates the date in another famous poem, Epithalamion: "This day the sunne is in his chiefest hight, with Barnaby the bright".
The epic poem was written especially for his wedding and has 365 long lines (for the days of the year), 68 short lines (the sum of 52 weeks, 12 months and four seasons) and 24 stanzas (for the hours in a day).
However, the wedding did not take place in Bradden's little Parish Church of St Michael, but in the Cathedral in Cork, since the same poem speaks of a "great church".
But why Cork? Well, in 1580 Edmund was appointed secretary to Lord Grey, the Lord Deputy of Ireland. And six years later he was given a three-thousand-acre estate at Kilcolman Castle, near Cork, as a reward for hard work; so Elizabeth became a woman of substance.
Tragically, in 1598, the Tyrone rebellion broke out and the castle was destroyed by fire. Poor Edmund, with his wife and family, had to flee to England.
All was lost and he went from wealth and high status to death a year later in London in poverty. He was, though, buried in Westminster Abbey.
After Edmund died in 1599, Elizabeth went on to marry two more husbands; first Roger Seckerton (about whom I know nothing) and then, on March 3, 1612, she married Sir Robert Tynte. They settled in Ballycrenane, County Cork, and had two sons, Robert and Henry. Other than this, dear reader (unless someone from Bradden can help me)
I know no more.
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