Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/497

 IS78-] THE ALENCON MARRIAGE. 477 cold to him, had applied with better success to the Vatican, and had obtained means from Gregory for the invasion of Ireland. Stukely had 800 Italian soldiers with him, well found and armed; but the vessels in which he brought them round from the Mediterranean were unseaworthy. He put into Lisbon for repairs, and Sebastian tempted him, perhaps with promises of further assistance on his return from Africa, to suspend his Irish enterprise and accompany the Portuguese to Morocco. Common enemies make common friends. When war was expected with Spain, in the preceding year, Elizabeth had made allies of the Moors. She sent an ambassador to Abdulmelech with presents, which were eagerly received. The questionable con- nection was coloured by a good report of his Majesty's religion ; 1 and Abdulmelech, fighting Elizabeth's bat- tles as well as his own, met Sebastian at Alcazar, on the 4th of August. The Emperor fell, but Sebastian fell also, and the Portuguese army was totally destroyed. Stukely, when he saw the battle lost, charged des- perately at the head of his Italians, and found an honourable end to a futile and foolish life. Stukely, 1 ' The King received me with high honour, and promises to be your Majesty's good friend. He tells me the King of Spain had sent to beg him not to receive any one coin- ing from England ; ' but,' said the King, ' I make more account of your coming from England than of any from Spain. That King cannot govern his country, but is governed by the Pope and the Inquisition/ I find the King an earnest .Protent- ant, of good religion and living, well experimented as well in the Old Testament as the New, and bearing great aifection to God's true religion used in your Highness's realm.' Edmund Hogan to Elizabeth, Juno n, 1577 : ELLIS, 3rd series, vol. iv. p. 21.