But in the case of
Ireland every evil was exaggerated and every danger intensified by the
system of dualism which encouraged resistance from within and invited
interference from without. For England and English liberty it was more
than once a question of existence or extinction, and the knowledge of
the constant danger from the immediate west did not tend to sweeten the
situation.
In Elizabeth's time the menace was from Spain; Spanish forces twice
succeeded in effecting a landing on the Irish coast, and were welcomed
by the inhabitants. Spain was then the most powerful enemy of England
and of civil and religious liberty all the world over; Elizabeth was
declared by the Pope to have forfeited the crown of England, and if the
Armada had been successful at sea, the Spanish army in England would
have found enthusiastic supporters in Ireland. Later on it was in
Ireland, and by the aid of subsidies from an Irish Parliament, that
Strafford raised 10,000 men to invade Scotland and England in support of
Charles I. against his Parliament, and, incidentally, to drive the
Scottish settlers out of Ulster.
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