Editing Scorched earth (section)

===Anglicisation of the Irish===
Further use of scorched-earth policies in war was seen during the 16th century in [[Ireland]], where it was used by English commanders such as [[Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex|Walter Devereux]] and [[Richard Bingham (soldier)|Richard Bingham]].

The [[Desmond Rebellions]] were a famous case in Ireland. Much of the province of [[Munster]] was laid waste. The poet [[Edmund Spenser]] left an account of it:
{{blockquote|In those late wars in [[Munster]]; for not withstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought they could have been able to stand long, yet ere one year and a half they were brought to such wretchedness, as that any stony heart would have rued the same. Out of every corner of the wood and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs could not bear them; they looked Anatomies [of] death, they spoke like ghosts, crying out of their graves; they did eat of the carrions, happy where they could find them, yea, and one another soon after, in so much as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves; and if they found a plot of water-cresses or shamrocks, there they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue therewithal; that in a short space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man or beast.{{sfn|Spenser|1849|p=510}}}}