Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/288

 268 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 59. 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 senti- ment came the adoption of the Pope's views with regard 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 de- sired, once for all, to sever its connection 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. Through the disappointment and jealousy of the Archbishop, who endeavoured in ain 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. He went to London early in life to seek his fortune, and entered the household and wore the livery of the Duke