The case of the Catholic confederates can best be told in Fitzgibbon’s own words. In recommending his suit to Philip and to the Pope, he recited the fidelity of Ireland to the Holy See during the 1,127 years which had elapsed since the time of St. Patrick and Pope Celestine, and then continued:—
‘Notwithstanding that for fifty years they have been very often sorely provoked, molested, and afflicted by divers schisms, errors, and heresies of the unstable and restless sect and nation of the kingdom of England, yet has God’s clemency preserved all your people firm and steadfast in their accustomed Catholic faith, obedience, and devotion, and has inspired them not to acquiesce in the errors propounded to them.
‘Your Holiness and your Catholic Majesty must know that all the nobility and the entire people of that kingdom wish to walk as usual in the footsteps of their forefathers, and to remain firm, steadfast, and constant in the same faith and unity of the Catholic Church, and to persevere to the death in perpetual obedience and devotion to the supreme Pontiffs and to the Apostolic See. They hate and abhor sects and heresies so much, that they prefer to leave their homes and go abroad rather than to live under heretics, or to acquiesce in the errors and restlessness of the English, who, in the last schism under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., plundered and devastated the churches and monasteries of Ireland, proscribed and afflicted Catholic bishops and religious persons, and threw the whole population into the greatest confusion. This Queen Elizabeth has revived the tragedy, and has imprisoned the chief bishops and other religious persons of the kingdom for their perseverance in the faith and their Catholic obedience, and throughout the whole island has executed the policy of her father and brother with the greatest determination and vigour, sending new preachers and heretical bishops with great store of heretical books to be circulated among the people. Wherefore the people of that kingdom with all humility pray God without ceasing that He will pity their calamities and end their afflictions, and that He will condescend so to inspire the minds of his Holiness and of the most clement Catholic King, that they may be pleased to make it their immediate care that that people, devoted as it is to God, to his Holiness, and to his Catholic Majesty, shall not be contaminated and destroyed by the accursed and contagious heresy which flourishes in England.
‘Your Holiness and your Catholic Majesty must know that it has long been, and now is, the highest desire of the nobility and all the people of that kingdom to come absolutely under the patronage and protection of his Holiness, and of the most clement and Catholic King of Spain, to whom all men of position and property in that island look directly for the means of avoiding the affliction and danger of the heresy and schism in the ever-changing kingdom of England. They have, therefore, deliberately resolved, with God’s help and the favour of the most clement Catholic King, to accept the person of any active Catholic Prince of his Catholic Majesty’s blood, whether of the Spanish or Burgundian branch, specially appointed by him for the purpose, and to receive him and crown him as their true, legitimate, and natural King, and thus to re-establish in perpetuity the royal throne of that island,[199] and to venerate the presence of one King, one faith, and one kingdom, the donation of that island having been first obtained from and confirmed by the Apostolic See. Thus they hope to remain henceforth for ever in their accustomed obedience and devotion to the supreme Pontiff, and in union with the Holy Catholic Mother Church of Christ, and in their pristine friendship and alliance with the Royal House of Spain, from which nation the whole nobility of that kingdom derived its origin.
‘Not without cause do all the states of that island most strongly desire this, since that kingdom in extent, in its temperate climate, in its fertility, and in its wealth, might well vie with the kingdom of England, if only it were ruled justly and piously by a religious resident Catholic Prince or royal head. They all in general detest the tyrannous and inconstant yoke of the English State, and still more its heresies, with which they desire to have nothing in common, except neighbourliness and Christian love.
‘Underwritten are the names of those prelates, chiefs, barons, and nobles who are thus well-disposed towards the Holy Apostolic See, and that most potent prince the Lord Philip, King of all the Spains.’ Then follows a list of all the nobles, prelates, chiefs, and towns in Ireland who were prepared to promote Spanish interests in their country, ‘together with those of many English residents in the island.’ The Archbishop urged Philip to seize at once all Irish forts and harbours, a proceeding which the English were in no condition to prevent. ‘Success,’ he said, ‘altogether depends on celerity, for your Majesty will be able to do with 10,000 men and a little expense what you will not afterwards be able to accomplish with 100,000 men and all available power.’ We know from other sources how weak the English Government was at this time, and how difficult it would have been to dislodge even 5,000 Spaniards; but to ask Philip to do anything quickly was as vain as speaking to the winds or writing upon the running water.[200]
Fitzgibbon too sanguine. Philip II. hesitates.
Yet Fitzgibbon certainly did not underrate the importance to Spain of an Irish alliance. Few will think that the resources of Ireland were at any time equal to those of England. Of the twelve prelates whom he enumerates not more than three or four were in a condition to give an invader material help. Among the six Earls whom he mentions Desmond was a prisoner in England, Ormonde a loyal subject of Queen Elizabeth, and Clanricarde at least not actively disloyal. There was no Earl of Tyrone. Thomond and Clancare were ready enough both to rebel and to submit when pressed. The Irish chiefs were all Catholics no doubt, but nothing like continuous combined action could be expected from clans who had from time immemorial been fighting against each other. From the chartered towns a Catholic prince might expect much sympathy, but very little open aid; England had always been strong enough to punish them. Forty years before, Charles V., after a careful investigation, had made up his mind that the Desmonds could not be maintained against the Tudors, and the more he learned about the matter the less likely was Philip to disagree with his father’s opinions.
Thomas Stukeley.
Some account must now be given of one of the most extraordinary adventurers which even the England of the sixteenth century produced. Thomas Stukeley, a gentleman belonging to an old English family in North Devon, having run through his younger brother’s portion by riotous living while in the Duke of Suffolk’s retinue, sought after his patron’s death to enrich himself at the expense of others. Claiming a legacy from another West-countryman, Serjeant Prideaux, he broke into the testator’s house and searched his coffers in spite of an injunction to the contrary. He tried piracy for a while, and was imprisoned in the Tower at the suit of an Irish gentleman whom he had robbed. His friends managed to procure his enlargement, and he soon persuaded the only daughter and heiress of Alderman Curtis to marry him. When his father-in-law died he spent his money in every kind of dissipation. If a balladmonger of the day may be believed, he squandered 100l. a day, selling at last the blocks of tin with which the Alderman, probably a Cornishman or Devonian, had paved the yard of his London house. When all was gone he deserted his wife.