The mercenary Thomas Stukley had left Ireland for London with twenty-eight men on board, but only the sole Italian had known their real destination lay at Vimiero, in Portugal, and the rest fall into despair when they arrive in Iberia after a five day voyage.

Philip II invites Stukley to Madrid, where he is loaded with honors, probably with a view to impressing upon Elizabeth the threat of an invasion of Ireland to detract from English support for the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands.

With the approbation of the Duke of Feria, Stukley is known at the Spanish court by the title of "Duke of Ireland", and is established with a handsome allowance in a villa near Madrid, while his son, William, is sent to Alcala to be educated with the Prince of Orange.

His own wish is to be made Duke of Leinster, and his son a marquis, but the highest honor he receives is a knighthood in the order of Calatrava, and he prepares to become a member of a religious order.

Speculation about Stukley's future role becomes intense.

It is claimed in 1570 that he had sought to interfere in the Ridolfi plot with an attack on Ireland in the following year during the planned invasion of England from Flanders.

The Irish invasion was to have been aided by the Plymouth fleet of Sir John Hawkins, who betrayed the supposed plot to the privy council, which led to the arrest of the Duke of Norfolk.

Stukley seeks in the same year to have an English spy, Oliver King, brought before the Inquisition.

The suspect has a history of attendance at mass and of knocking his breast daily and so is merely stripped and banished, but he then has to cross the Pyrenees in the snow while Stukley's thugs pursue him.