The Spanish ambassador informs King Philip on …

Years: 1570 - 1570
February

The Spanish ambassador informs King Philip on the twelfth of February, 1571, that news had been had in London from France of the pope’s cession to the Spanish crown the kingdom created for Philip and Queen Mary of England, which had fallen vacant upon the excommunication of Elizabeth by the bull Regnans in Excelsis, and that it is rumored that Stukley is to be sent to England with fourteen to fifteen companies of troops.

Amidst this international feinting and shaping, the papal Archbishop of Cashel, Maurice Reagh Fitzgibbon —an ally of the Irish rebel, James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald—makes some effort while in Spain to discredit Stukley's ambitions, much to the dislike of Feria, and is supported by the Duke of Alba, who dismisses the proposed invasion on the ground that, once England falls, Ireland will fall of itself.

The archbishop's brief is to request the appointment of Don John of Austria as king of Ireland, but the upstart's arrival has disrupted his efforts, although Stukley's Irish followers had deserted to him upon their arrival.

Fitzgibbon, on removing to Paris, informs the English ambassador there, Sir Francis Walsingham, of Stukley's schemes.

Stukley’s credit with Spain has by now been seriously injured by Fitzgibbon, and he obtains his passports to leave Spain after Elizabeth demands his dismissal.

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