ABSTRACT
The Queen’s hesitancy reflected the expediential character of the appointment. Whereas most of his predecessors had taken office with comprehensive and clearly conceived programs for the general reform of Ireland’s political and social problems, Grey assumed the viceroyalty with no further objective than the suppression of rebellion by force. A man of no previous experience of Ireland who openly confessed his ignorance of the origins of the broils he came to quell, he preferred to leave these deeper issues to one side. Such was the man to whom Spenser became private secretary, presumably arriving with him in Ireland on 12 August 1580.
