، 'me whether the Catholic King may help us, and what I 'am myself to do, for I may not be longer absent from my country, and leave my flock to the wolves. The Viceroy has sacked one of my castles, and carried off ‘the pall. Entreat His Holiness to send a second for me hither, as the ports of Ireland are for the most part ' in English hands; and meanwhile, let his Majesty know 'His Holiness's pleasure through his ambassador at your 'court." ، No immediate reply seems to have been sent to this letter. The Pope was probably watching the progress of the Catholic reaction in England. Philip had not made up his own mind, and waited also before making the required application, and the Archbishop lingered on at Madrid, expecting his resolution. The Hugue The Queen The old pro But European politics, as has been already seen, assumed in the year 1570 a new phase. nots recovered their influence at Paris. mother turned her back on Mary Stuart. jects were revived for the conquest of Flanders, and with them the scheme for a marriage between a French prince and Elizabeth. The Queen of Scots flung herself upon Philip; and Philip, seeing her separated from France, began to look less unfavourably on her promotion to the English throne. Set at liberty by a Spanish army, and married to the Duke of Norfolk, as the leader of the great Burgundian faction among the English nobility, she would be no longer likely to be politically dangerous to him; and it became possible to reconcile his interests as King of Spain with his duty to the Catholics and to the Pope. With this change of sentiment came the adoption of the Pope's views with regard 1 The Archbishop of Cashel to Cardinal Alciati, Simancas. 1570.- MSS. CHAP XXIV 1570 CHAP XXIV 1570 to Ireland, and the abandonment, if he had ever seriously entertained it, of all thought of accepting the overtures of the Bishop of Cashel. The Archbishop was the representative of Irish nationality, which desired, once for all, to sever its connexion with England. The English Catholics would be ill-pleased to see Mary Stuart the sovereign of a divided dominion; and, so long as the English Empire was recovered to the Church, Philip had little desire to embarrass himself with a troublesome addition to his own responsibilities. The object now, therefore, was to direct the insurrec tionary spirit in Ireland, not against England as such, but against heresy and England's heretic Queen; and an instrument for this purpose came ready to Philip's hand in a person who has been already named in this history, Thomas Stukely. He Through the disappointment and jealousy of the Archbishop, who endeavoured in vain to warn Philip against him, a closer insight can be obtained into the history of this noticeable man than is to be found in the English Records. He was a younger son of Sir Lewis Stukely or Stuckley, of Ilfracombe in Devonshire. went to London early in life to seek his fortune, and entered the household and wore the livery of the Duke of Suffolk. He was perhaps connected with Wyatt's insurrection, for, after the execution of his patron, he joined Peter Carew and the Killegrews, bought a vessel and made his first experiments in buccaneering. His occupation took him to the south of Ireland, where he contrived to acquire a shadowy title to some vast estates in Cork. In the time of Edward VI. two brothers— the name of the family is not mentioned-quarrelled over their inheritance. The elder was the favourite of the people the younger appealed to the English Deputy, and, promising to hold his lands of the Crown and be a loyal subject, obtained a decision in his favour. Giving trouble however soon after, in religious matters, he too was in turn ejected. The Deputy bestowed the lands on an English soldier, and the soldier finding that he could make nothing of them and was likely to be murdered, sold his interest for some trifling sum to Stukely Shortly after, and before he could take possession of his purchase, he was arrested on a charge of piracy, sent to London, and thrown into the Tower. His friends interceded for him and obtained his pardon from Queen Mary; and being again adrift, he tried his fortune in another direction. He contrived, Othello-like, to bewitch the daughter of a rich London merchant with his fine talk and tales of adventures. The lady was beguiled into a secret marriage; the father broke his heart and died. She was an only child, and Stukely became possessor of her wealth. The accumulations of an industrious life were soon squandered in extravagance; in a few years but little remained, and with the wreck that was left he fitted out a small squadron and obtained leave from Elizabeth to colonise Florida. He told her, in his vain style, that he 'would rather be sovereign of a molehill than the greatest subject of the greatest king in Christendom.' He said he would found an empire and would write to her 'in the style of Princes to his dearest sister.' But the principality at which he was aiming was nearer home than Florida. He took to his old pirate trade, then made respectable by the name of privateering. He went back to Ireland, where Sir Henry Sidney condescended to make use of him, and Shan O'Neil became so charmed with him that he recommended Elizabeth to divide the country between CHAP XXIV 1570 CHAP XXIV 1570 Stukely and himself, and together they would convert it into a Paradise. Elizabeth, however, would accept neither Shan's nor Sidney's estimate of her scandalous subject. He had hoped to establish his title to the lands in Cork under the southern commission, and share with St. Leger and Carew in the partition of Munster; but the Queen, hearing reports of murders, robberies, and other outrages committed by him, ordered Sidney to lay hands upon him, and he was locked up in Dublin Castle. Implicated as he had been in the spoliation scheme, and concerned also, it seems, in the pillage and destruction of certain religious houses, he had made no friends among the Irish except Shan, and when Shan was dead he was regarded with more than the detestation which was commonly bestowed upon Englishmen.' Yet, understanding Philip's difficulties about Ireland, and feeling that he had no further favour to expect from Elizabeth, he contrived while in prison to establish a correspondence with Don Guerau, to pass himself off as a person of great influence among the chiefs, as an ardent Catholic, devoted to the Church, to Mary Stuart, and to Spain, and anxious to play a part by the side of the noblemen who were working for a revolution in England. Having thus opened a way towards his reception in Madrid, he pretended to Sidney that he wished to go in 1 Esta claro que ninguno en toda Irlanda hizó mayor destruccion en iglesias, monasterios y imagenes; siendo natural Ingles y muy abhorrecido de los suyos, es muy mas abhorrecido de los Irlandeses, assi por el natural y comun odio que les Irlandeses tienen á los Ingleses, como por particular odio que todos le tienen á él, por haber comprado y ocupado aquellas tierras, sabiendo la mayor parte de Irlanda que ni la Reyna ni él tiene ningun derecho á ellas.'-El Arzobispo de Cashel en Madrid á vi. de Deciembre 1570. MSS. Simancas. person to his mistress and clear his reputation with her; and Sidney, instead of sending him over under a guard, apparently was contented with his parole.1 Stukely told him that his defence would require the presence of certain Irish gentlemen, who were willing to accompany him to the Queen. The Deputy permitted him to purchase and fit out a ship at Waterford to transport both them and himself; and when at last he sailed, it was pretended that no one on board suspected his destination. He had seven or eight Celtic cavaliers with him, with their servants and horses, and a miscellaneous crew of adventurers. They had embarked as if for London,2 and Sidney professed to believe that they were going there but the story reads like collusion. When clear of the harbour they made for the ocean; a few days after they landed in Gallicia, and sent messengers to Philip to announce their arrival. The Archbishop of Cashel, not at that time knowing much of Stukely, and hearing merely that a party of gentlemen had arrived from Ireland, supposed that their errand was like his own, and recommended Philip to receive them. The Duke of Feria, who had perhaps heard of Stukely from Don Guerau, made himself responsible for his character, and the King sent for him to the Court, knighted him, loaded him with presents, gave him a palace at Madrid and a splendid allowance for his expenses. He threw The Archbishop of Cashel indicates that Sidney was afraid that he might be required to execute him. He says:- La cual cosa el Vicerey concedió, porque ainsi piensó de escapar la invidia que podia haber incurrido de algunos en haber hecho justicia del, aunque justamente.' 2 The account sent from Ireland agrees exactly with the Archbishop's story at Madrid Stukely had with 3 El Arzobispo de Cashel al Rey, СНАР XXIV 1570 |