Edmund Spenser was born around 1552 to poor parents of modest means. He was entered as a "poor boy" in the Merchant Taylor's grammar school, where he probably studied mainly Latin, as well as Hebrew and Greek. In May 1569, Spenser became a student in Pembroke Hall (now Pembroke College) at the University of Cambridge and received his bachelor of arts degree in 1573 and his master of arts degree in 1576. At Cambridge, Spenser was exposed to not only the Greek and Latin classics, but also to the Italian, French and English literature that would greatly influence his poetry.

In 1578, Spenser received his first appointment in the Church of England as secretary to Bishop John Young of Rochester. Spenser's experiences with the Church provided the ground work for his first published work, The Shepheardes' Calendar, published around 1579, the same year he married Machabyas Chylde. By 1580, Spenser was serving the Earl of Leicester, had started working on The Faerie Queene, and had become a member of the literary circle led by Sir Philip Sidney, Leicester's nephew.

Spenser was also appointed secretary to Arthur Lord Grey, the new lord deputy of Ireland, in 1580. As Grey's secretary, Spenser accompanied him on military campaigns as well as more ordinary excursions and he developed a deep attachment to Ireland. From about 1584 to 1589, Spenser occupied another important official position in Ireland, and from this he managed to acquire a 3,000 acre plantation where he probably brought his son, daughter, and wife (though she is thought to have died by 1594) to live.

The first three books of The Faerie Queene were published in 1590 with the help of Sir Walter Raleigh, and Spenser was well received when he returned to London that year. While in England, he supervised the printing of a collection of his poems called Complaints (1591) and Daphnaida (1591) soon followed. After two years, he returned to Ireland where he courted and married Elizabeth Boyle in 1594. Amoretti and Epithalamion, published in 1595, is a sonnet sequence and marriage ode supposedly written about their courtship. Spenser wrote his only extended prose work, A View of the Present State of Ireland, probably around 1595 or 1596, but the work was unpublished until 1633. The fourth, fifth, and sixth books of The Faerie Queene appeared in 1596. This burst of publication ended abruptly with his early death in 1599 in London, where Spenser was carrying official letters about the state of affairs in Ireland. He was buried in Westminster Abbey near the grave of Geoffrey Chaucer.