The deputy,
informed of the danger to which the southern provinces were exposed,
left the prosecution of the war against Tyrone, who was now reduced to
great extremities, and marched with his army into Munster."
"At last the Spaniards, under Don Juan d'Aquila, arrived at Kinsale;
and Sir Richard Piercy, who commanded in the town with a small garrison
of one hundred and fifty men, found himself obliged to abandon it on
their appearance. These invaders amounted to four thousand, and the
Irish discovered a strong propensity to join them, in order to free
themselves from the English government, with which they were extremely
discontented. One chief ground of their complaint was the introduction
of trials by jury,[25] an institution abhorred by that people, though
nothing contributes more to the support of that equity and liberty for
which the English laws are so justly celebrated. The Irish also bore a
great favour to the Spaniards, having entertained the opinion that they
themselves were descended from that nation; and their attachment to the
Catholic religion proved a new cause of affection for the invaders.
D'Aquila assumed the title of general in this '_holy war_,' for the
preservation of the faith in Ireland; and he endeavoured to persuade the
people that Elizabeth was, by several bulls of the Pope, deprived of her
crown; that her subjects were absolved from their oaths of religion, and
that the Spaniards were come to deliver the Irish from the dominion of
the devil.
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