Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/130

 towards the end of December Stucley arrived in England with the Duke of Savoy. It was no doubt during his visit that he attempted to retrieve his fortunes by marrying Anne, granddaughter and sole heiress of Sir Thomas Curtis, a wealthy alderman of London. On 13 May 1555, however, the sheriffs of Devon and Cheshire were ordered to arrest him on a charge of coining false money (Acts P. C. v. 125, 131). Stucley escaped over sea, and on 14 June the council ordered his goods to be ‘praysed openly and delyuered’ to his wife, who was to give security to appear when called upon (ib. p. 152). Stucley again took service under the Duke of Savoy, and shared in the victory of the imperialists over the French at St. Quentin on 10 Aug. 1557. Then he appears to have resorted to piracy, and on 30 May 1558 he was summoned before the council in London on a charge of robbing some Spanish ships. On 7 July he was ordered to present himself on penalty of 500l. in the court of the lord high admiral, who, however, reported on the 14th that ‘he did not find matter sufficient to charge Stucley withal’ (State Papers, Dom. 27 Aug. 1558). On 7 Nov. following Stucley induced a Spanish admiral—possibly Juan de Fernandez—in whose service he was, to intercede with Queen Mary with the object of securing part of his father's property so that he might ‘be the better able to serve her majesty.’ This scheme, which aimed at defrauding his four brothers, seems to have failed. In the same year Serjeant Prideaux, who had married Stucley's sister Mary, died, and the Marquis of Saria persuaded Queen Mary to grant Stucley the wardship of Prideaux's son. In his haste to profit by the transaction Stucley seized Prideaux's house, which again brought him into trouble with the privy council (Acts P. C. vii. 8). On 25 Nov. 1559 Chaloner reported that his wife's grandfather, Sir Thomas Curtis, was dead, and Stucley was busy in the midst of his coffers.

For a time this new source of wealth kept Stucley to comparatively respectable pursuits. In May 1560 he was employed in raising levies in Berkshire, and in April 1561 he was given a captaincy at Berwick. In the following winter he entertained and formed a close friendship with Shane O'Neill [q. v.] during his visit to England; and on 14 June 1563 he amused Queen Elizabeth with a sort of sham fight on the Thames off Limehouse (, Diary, p. 309).

By this time Stucley had squandered the greater part of his wife's fortune, and he determined to seek a new source of wealth by privateering. The pretended object of his expedition was to colonise Florida, and he was to be accompanied by Jean Ribault, a Dieppe sailor, who had previously been in English service (see Cor. Pol. de Odet de Selve, passim). Ribault had in 1562 made a voyage to Florida. Queen Elizabeth engaged in the venture, and supplied one of the six ships that formed Stucley's force. He had three hundred men, and was well furnished with artillery (De Quadra to Philip II, in Simancas Papers, i. 322). He took leave of the queen on 25 June 1563, sailing with three vessels from London, and picking up the other three at Plymouth. Abroad it was generally known that Florida was a mere pretext for piracy (cf. Lettres de Catherine de Médicis, 1885, ii. 209). For two years, though Stucley is stated to have actually landed in Florida (Simancas Papers, iii. 349), his robberies on the high seas were a scandal to Europe. Spanish, French, and Portuguese ships suffered alike, and Chaloner, the English ambassador at Madrid, confessed that ‘he hung his head for shame’ (Cal. State Papers, For. 1564–5, p. 272). On one occasion Stucley cut out two French ships worth thirty thousand ducats from a port in Galicia. At length the remonstrances of foreign ambassadors compelled Elizabeth to disown Stucley and take measures for his apprehension. Some ships with this object were sent early in 1565 to the west coast of Ireland, and Stucley's galley was seized in Cork harbour in March. He seems to have landed and surrendered beforehand. On 19 May the privy council ordered his removal to London, reprimanding the lords justices of Ireland for not having sent him before, and the queen informed Philip that ‘there was no English pirate left upon the sea.’ Stucley arrived in London at the end of June; but Shane O'Neill, Lord-justice Arnold, and Hugh Brady, bishop of Meath, interceded in his favour, and on 27 Sept. he was released on recognisances. No charge, it was said, was brought against him except by some Portuguese, who, with the Spanish ambassador, acquiesced in his liberation (Acts P. C. vii. 261).

Stucley now found employment in Ireland. Shane O'Neill asked for his services against the Scots, who had landed in Ulster, and Sir Henry Sidney [q. v.], the lord-deputy, thought Stucley's help would be invaluable in keeping O'Neill to his engagements with the government. On 4 Nov. he was sent to Ireland with a letter of recommendation from Cecil, and he was immediately employed by Sidney to negotiate with O'Neill. Shane refused the terms offered him, and in March