The Other Tudors (20 page)

Panic reigned in Ireland and London. From April to July 1574 letters flew between the Court and Dublin. The Mayor and officers of Waterford wrote to the Lord Deputy about preparations of a fleet in Andalusia, ‘of Spaniards, Portuguese and Flemings.’ ‘Stucley,’ they reported, was threatening to come into Ireland at any time. They enclosed a letter from Roger Winston to the Lord Deputy to the effect that a ship from Calais reported that Thomas was coming to Waterford with his men and a fleet of 100 ships.
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The following year, 1575, Thomas was once more in Rome, seeking the approval of the new Pope, Gregory XIII, to bring forward the plans to fruition. The year of 1577 saw Thomas rarely still. He was in Rome, then Flanders, then Lisbon with the Irish nobleman, James Fitzgerald Fitzmorris, the Earl of Desmond’s kinsman. He had been waiting for the promised, rumoured help, but now had almost given up. In November Thomas wrote to the Cardinal of Como that he would return to Ireland: ‘... without arms, without ships, without men, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, relying on the Pope’s authority, and trusting much in your prayers to obtain victory against the enemies of the Church.’
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Still the talk in Madrid and Rome was that the Pope would send men and ships, and that Thomas would command them. At the end of November, the figure of 2,000 men was mentioned. There is also a suggestion that the Pope wished the throne of Ireland to go to his bastard son, Giacomo Buoncompagno, Duke of Sora (born before Gregory XIII became Pope). There were a mass of reports and rumours about attacks on England and Ireland, some to be led by Thomas.

Suddenly, in early 1578, things seemed to be moving. One of the Fugger papers held in the Vienna Library is a memorial from Fitzgerald and Thomas to the Pope. It said that Ireland was firmly Catholic and that it needed only a small, determined army to wrest it away from English control. The Pope was convinced and gave 40,000 scudi towards buying ships and men. Philip II, although he would not get involved personally, gave another 20,000 scudi, and persuaded other exiled Englishmen, like Leonard Dacres and Charles Goade, to join the expedition.

One story reported that James Fitzgerald recruited Italian bandits, who had been troubling the Roman district, with the grant of a pardon. In February 1578, when Thomas and Fitzgerald had gathered together around 1,000 troops, Thomas went to Lisbon with the soldiers and ships, and Fitzgerald went to France to fetch his wife. This diversion to Portugal would prove to be Thomas’s undoing.

The ships given so generously turned out to be rotten and worm-eaten. Thomas needed a port to carry out repairs, but at that time Philip was still unwilling to be seen publicly supporting the invasion. He ordered Thomas and his fleet out of Cadiz; they sailed slowly and painfully to the nearest friendly port, Lisbon. By 28 May, Thomas was in Lisbon waiting to meet Fitzgerald, but he was never to see his comrade again. In July 1578 the great invasion by Thomas and his Spanish fleet was known to have been called off. The Lord Deputy wrote to the Privy Council that ‘Stucley is diverted from Ireland.’

Thomas’s fate was sealed when he sailed into Lisbon and into the clutches of Sebastian, the young King of Portugal, who had a desperate need for Thomas and his army. Sebastian was the grandson of King John II of Portugal, son of Don John the Crown Prince and his wife, Joanna, daughter of Charles V of Spain. Don John died when his son was less than a year old and Sebastian ascended the throne when he was three years old. He was brought up by his aunt, Catharina, sister of Charles V, and Aleixo de Meneses, a Jesuit. The boy was brought up more as a monk than a king; on the advice of his confessors he never married. He was, however, under pressure from the Cortes, the Portuguese government, to do something about attacks on their shipping by the Ottoman Turkish navy.

Sebastian’s chance came when the Morrocan emperor died. His heir was his nephew, Abu Abdallah Mohammed II Saadi (Mohammed Saadi), but the throne had been taken by Mohammed’s uncle, Abd Al-Malik Saadi (Al-Malik). Mohammed Saadi turned to Portugal for help and was promised an army to assist him in retaking his throne. Al-Malik sought support from the Ottoman Empire. Sebastian was determined to set a friendly king on the throne of Morocco and to deal a blow to the power of the Ottoman Turks. He met with his uncle Philip II, but found him lukewarm on the question, so Sebastian decided he would go forward on his own. The Papacy supported Sebastian, and a comet appeared in the sign of Libra, near the station of Mars on 9 November – this was taken as a sign that the war would go well.

In Lisbon harbour Thomas was on board the San Juan of Genoa, 800 tons, with 700 troops. According to stories, Sebastian saw Thomas’s troops and admired their efficiency and courage. He pressured Thomas into committing his troops to join the foray into Africa. Philip did not interfere because he was trying to avoid any obvious connection with the enterprise, and the Pope was too far away to intervene. Thomas agreed to join Sebastian when he in turn agreed to give aid in the Irish invasion.

The Portuguese invasion force was a mix of nationalities. There were 3,000 Germans contributed by the Prince of Orange, a few Spanish professional soldiers (Philip had forbidden his subjects from joining the expedition, possibly hoping to discourage Sebastian) and now Thomas’s professional Italian soldiers. The Portuguese troops, however, were less valuable. The Portuguese historian, Juan de Mariana (1537?–1624) wrote:

On 17 June, after receiving his consecrated battle standard from the cathedral, Sebastian boarded his ship, stayed eight days in port, and then sailed for Africa on 24 June 1578. He landed at Arzila, in Portuguese-controlled Morocco, where Mohammed Saadi and his soldiers joined the army. Al-Malik was seriously ill, but he led an army of 100,000 men against the invaders. The armies met at a place that was called Alcazar by the Europeans, but was more correctly known as Alcácer Quibir, in northern Morocco between Tangier and Fez.

On 4 August, battle was joined. Al-Malik sent Moorish troops into his centre (men who had been driven out of Spain and were particularly bitter against the Portuguese), with cavalry on the wings, encircling the Portuguese forces. It was said either that the Portuguese advanced too fast, or that their allies held back, but in the event there was a massacre. Some 8,000 Portuguese and their allies were killed, with an additional 15,000 taken prisoner. Sebastian was killed, as were nearly all the young nobles who had come with him on this glorious enterprise. The King was last seen leading a charge into the heart of the opposing army; he must have been hacked to death, as his remains were never conclusively identified.

This battle was commonly called the Battle of the Three Kings. Sebastian died. Al-Malik, who was terminally ill, died of natural causes during the battle; his brother and successor, Ahmad al-Mansur, had the body propped up in a chair and carried about the field as if he were still alive. Mohammed Saadi, once he saw the battle was lost, attempted to flee and was drowned when he tried to escape across the river.

Thomas Stukeley, probably their best professional soldier, commanded the centre, where his Italians took the brunt of the fighting. He died almost at once, hit by a cannon ball. It was reported that both his legs were shot off and that he bled to death in moments. Westcote, in his
Views of Devon
, recorded that Thomas:

Back in Madrid, Philip continued to favour Thomas Stukeley’s son, William, who was at the Spanish Court in 1584. In 1630 James Wadsworth wrote that, ‘At Milan there resides Sir Thomas Stucley, who hath 100 crowns a month pension from the King of Spain. This Stucley is a grand traitor and enemy to his country, and were it not for the Duke of Feria, who entertains him at his own table, he might long since have rode back to Madrid on an ass as he came.’
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This could be one of Thomas’s sons, grown old in the Spanish Court, or even his grandson, William’s child, fated to spend his life in Spain, refused entry to England because of his grandfather’s history. It may even be that Thomas’s descendents made a new life for themselves in the Catholic world.

On his death, two versions of the life of Thomas Stukeley arose. One is best typified by a biography that was produced for Burghley in 1583 and was edited in his own hand. Burghley said of Thomas:

This, however, was not the public opinion. It was only a matter of a few years before plays and epic poems surfaced with Thomas as the hero. George Peele wrote a play titled,
The Battell of Alcazar, fought in Barbarie, between Sebastian King of Portugal, Abdelmelec King of Marocco, with the death of Captain Stukeley
. It was performed in the late 1580s by the Lord Admiral’s Men. Their ‘star’ was Edward Alleyn, one of the most illustrious Tudor actors; he may well have played the lead role of Thomas Stukeley.
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An anonymous author penned,
The Famous History of the life and death of Captain Thomas Stukeley with his marriage to Alderman Curteis Daughter and valiant ending of his life at the Battle of Alcazar
. This version of events starts with Thomas winning the hand of Anne Curtis from Vernon, who was to have been her husband. Vernon, crossed in love, goes adventuring to get over his loss until both he and Thomas die at Alcazar.

In the Roxburgh collection, in the British Museum, is a copy of a ballad by an unknown author telling the story of ‘lusty Stucley,’ which is to be sung to the tune of ‘King Henry’s going to Boulogne’. Another, earlier ballad was written before Thomas’s abortive plan to settle Florida. It is called, ‘A Commendation of the adventurous voyage of the worthy captain, Thomas Stutley Esquire and others towards the land called Terra Florida’.

Finally, Westcote, in his
Views of Devonshire
, quotes two verses from yet another early rhyme, a ‘ditty, made by him [Thomas Stukeley] or of him’:

Thomas is portrayed as a hero, a valiant warrior, a victim of fate and the machinations of villains like Philip II. Here and there are references to the secret of Thomas’s birth:

As Thomas’s character lies dying on the stage, he tells his English companion:

The author was right; Thomas’s fame has crossed the centuries and his bloodline may survive today.