Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/289

 1570.] STATE OF IRELAND. ^69 of Suffolk. He was perhaps connected with Wyatt's insurrection, for, after the execution of his patron, he joined Peter Carew and the Killigrews, bought a vessel, and made his first experiments in buccaneering. His occupation took him to the south of Ireland, where he contrived to acquire a shadowy title to some vast estates in Cork. In the time of Edward VI. two brothers the name of the family is not mentioned quarrelled over their inheritance. The elder was the favourite of the people the younger appealed to the English Deputy, and, promising to hold his lands of the Crown and be a loyal subject, obtained a decision in his favour. Giving trouble however soon after, in religious matters, he too was in turn ejected. The Deputy bestowed the lands on an English soldier, and the soldier finding that he could make nothing of them and was likely to be murdered, sold his interest for some trifling sum to Stukely. Shortly after, and before he could take possession of his purchase, he was arrested on a charge of piracy, sent to London, and thrown into the Tower. His friends interceded for him and obtained his pardon from Queen Mary ; and being again adrift, he tried his fortune in another direction. He contrived, Othello-like, to bewitch the daughter of a rich London merchant with his* fine talk and tales of adventures. The lady was beguiled into a secret marriage ; the father broke his heart and died. She was an only child, and Stukely became possessor of her wealth. The accumulations of an industrious life were soon squandered in extravagance ;