June 1568 he was dismissed in favour of Sir Nicholas White. Stucley had fallen prey to the disputes between Sidney and White's patron, the Earl of Ormonde, which resulted, in the following year, in Elizabeth rebuking Sidney for his use of Stucley in the negotiations with O'Neill. In June 1569 Stucley was committed to custody in Dublin Castle for 18 weeks, on White's claim that he had used 'coarse language' against the queen and supported 'certain rebels'. Spain Again, Stucley was acquitted, and the authorities released him in October 1569. He had been suspected of proposing an invasion of Ireland to King Philip II of Spain, and soon after his release he offered his services to Fénelon, the French ambassador in London. He returned to Ireland in 1570, where he fitted out a ship at Waterford and made a great show of his piety, proceeding through the streets of the city on his knees as he offered himself up to God. He then sailed from Waterford on 17 April, supposedly for London, but his real destination was Vimeiro, northwest of Lisbon. He had 28 men on board, but only the sole Italian knew their course, and the rest fell into despair when they arrived in Portugal after a five-day voyage. Philip II invited him to Madrid, where he was loaded with honours, probably with a view to impressing upon Elizabeth the threat of an invasion of Ireland to detract from English support for the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands. With the approbation of the Duke of Feria, Stucley was known at the Spanish court as the "Duke of Ireland", and was established with a handsome allowance in a villa near Madrid. Speculation about Stucley's future role became intense. In 1570, it was claimed that he had sought to interfere in the Ridolfi Plot with an attack on Ireland in the following year during the planned invasion of England from Flanders. The Irish invasion was to have been aided by the Plymouth fleet of Sir John Hawkins, who betrayed the supposed plot to the privy council, leading to the arrest of the Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. On 12 February 1571, the king was informed by the Spanish ambassador that news was had in London from France that the pope had ceded to the Spanish crown the kingdom created for Philip and Queen Mary I of England, which had fallen