Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone

“ The settlers retaliated by acts of violence. All over Ireland the soldiers, left without pay, spoiled and maltreated the unfortunate inhabitants. The Irish, exasperated by their cruelty, longed for someone to take up their cause, and in 1594 a rising in Ulster was headed by Hugh O'Neill, known in England as the Earl of Tyrone. How bitter the Irish feeling was against England is shown by the fact that the other Ulster chiefs, who usually quarrelled with one another, now placed themselves under O'Neill. ”

“ Even Shane admitted that Queen Elizabeth was his sovereign. When the original limitation of the peerage took practical effect, and Hugh O’Neill became Earl of Tyrone, the feudal honour was most useful on one side while the tribal chiefry was still fully maintained on the other. In two cases, decided by the Irish judges in 1605 and 1608 respectively, gavelkind or inheritance by division among all males was abolished as to lands not forming part of the chief’s demesne, and Tanistry as to the land of the elective chief. ”

“ THE ULSTER LORDS. Hugh O’Neill owned in fee the counties now styled Derry and Tyrone, with parts of Armagh and Monaghan. In Elizabeth’s reign he tried, after defeating her troops, to bring in King James as Monarch of Ireland; but, when the Scottish ruler came to lawful sway over the Three Kingdoms, the Earl was discerned by Chichester to be an ingrate traitor. O’Neill had just got back his lands by Royal orders after much travail, and had received proof of the clemency of the new King. He was over sixty years of age, and war-worn after a nine years’ campaign. Many of his own clan hated him. ”

“ O'Neill himself evaded the English, but Turlough was soon expelled and forced to take refuge in Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill died a natural death in 1230, though he was 'the person that it was least thought would find death otherwise than by the foreigners' (Annals of Ulster, ii. 285) .
The Irish annalists speak of Hugh O'Neill with much exaggeration, as 'a king who had never rendered hostages, pledges, or tribute to English or Irish; who had gained victories over the English, and cut them off with great slaughter ”

“ Tyrone's first wife was a daughter of Sir Brian MacPhelim O'Neill, lord of Clandeboye, whom he divorced, and who subsequently married Niall MacBrian Faghartach O'Neill. His second wife, the daughter of Hugh MacManus O'Donnell, died in 1591. By her he had Hugh, called the baron of Dungannon, who died in Rome in September 1608, and was buried in San Pietro di Montorio; Henry, a colonel of an Irish regiment in the archduke's army, who died about 1626 ”

“ The Triumph of Hugh O'Neill
Beal an Altra Buidhe (The Fight of the Yellow Ford, 1598.)
Speed the joyful news of victory from Dungannon to Gweedore,
Let the shout of triumph echo 'mid the cliffs of dark Benmore,
Let the flame that gleams on Sperrin light a flame on every strand,
Till one mighty blaze shall tell it to all men throughout the land.
The haughty Saxon boasted he would ravage broad Tyrone,
And lay our fields in ashes, and make our flocks his own,
Nor hold his hand 'till humbled each Irish kerne should kneel
To England's monarch only, and not to Hugh O'Neill. ”

“ When Red Hugh succeeded in escaping from prison he inspired Tyrone with a keen sense of his wrongs, and brought him into the temper of insurrection. O'Neil threw himself completely into the new movement for independence. A confederation of Irish chieftains was organized, and O'Neil took the command. He proved himself possessed of the most genuine military talents, and he could play the part of the statesman as well as of the soldier. ”

“ In 1551, Conn O’Neill was created Earl of Tyrone, and Mathew, who claimed to be his son, was given the right of succession. “Shane, the Proud,” the legitimate son and heir, was a mere boy at that time, but when he grew to manhood he disputed his half-brother’s parentage and apologized for his father’s conduct with the remark that, “Being a gentleman, he never refused a child that any woman named to be his.”
After the death of Henry VIII. Shane O’Neill inaugurated a rebellion which cost England more men and more money than any struggle that has ever occurred in Ireland ”

“ A few weeks later Sussex, who thought it a favourable opportunity to punish Shane O'Neill for his underhand dealings with the Scots, again marched northward on 22 Oct., and, having burned Armagh and ravaged Tyrone with fire and sword, forcibly restored the aged Earl of Tyrone and his son Matthew, baron of Dungannon. He returned to Dublin on 30 Nov., and four days later sailed for England, entrusting the government during his absence to Archbishop Curwen and Sir Henry Sidney. ”

“ The O'Neill, called Earl of Tyrone, had been long time a thorn in the side of Queen Elizabeth, taking gold from the King of Spain to sustain his treasons, and in the year 1597 making open war upon the English governor. He did great despite upon the people of the Plantation, and lurking in the forests, long defied the English soldiery. My Lord Mountjoy, whom the Queen had sent to Ireland as her deputy in the room of Essex, being resolved to make an end of the rebellion, ravaged and wasted the country, driving off the cattle, starving the people, and fortifying all the passes through the woods. ”

“ Like most of the public men of that age, he was both soldier and statesman. In temper he resembled his reputed father, Henry VIII.; for he was impatient of contradiction and control; fond of expense and magnificence, with a high opinion of his own abilities for diplomacy and legislation. The Parliament of 1585-6, as it was attended by almost every notable man in the kingdom, was one of his boasts, though no one seems to have benefited by it much, except Hugh O'Neil, whose title of Earl of Tyrone was then formally recognized. ”

“ Returning to Ireland, "restored in blood," O'Neill lived as he best could, in his new and strange character of an earl, infested by spies upon all his movements. "Notice is taken," says Attorney-General Davies, "of every person that is able to do either good or hurt. It is known not only how they live and what they do, but it is foreseen what they purpose or intend to do; insomuch, as Tyrone has been heard to complain that he had so many eyes over him, that he could not drink a full carouse of sack, but the state was advertised thereof a few hours thereafter." ”

“ Hugh O’Neale, nephew to Shan O’Neale, had been raised by the queen to the dignity of earl of Tyrone; but having murdered his cousin, son of that rebel, and being acknowledged head of his clan, he preferred the pride of barbarous license and dominion to the pleasures of opulence and tranquillity, and he fomented all those disorders by which he hoped to weaken or overturn the English government. He was noted for the vices of perfidy and cruelty, so common among uncultivated nations ”

“ Descendants of the 1st earl in Spain continued to style themselves earls of Tyrone till the death early in the 18th century of Owen O'Neill, grandson of Owen Roe O'Neill. In 1673 Richard Power, 6th Baron Le Power and Coroghmore, governor of Waterford, was created viscount of Decies and earl of Tyrone, being succeeded in these titles by his two sons successively, on the death of the younger of whom in 1704 they became extinct. ”

“ After resting until [Pg 227] the evening of next day, they rode all night, and passed through Dundalk as soon as the gates were opened in the morning. The danger was now over, and Tirlogh MacHenry O’Neill, whose power lay in the south part of Armagh, forwarded them safely to Dungannon, whence Tyrone sent Hugh O’Donnell, under escort, to Lough Erne. Here he was met by Maguire, and brought in triumph to Ballyshannon. Henry MacShane O’Neill did not go to Glenmalure at all, but escaped northwards from the Dublin mountains, among which his brother had died, and thus fell into Tyrone’s hands. ”

“ Tyrone (171) , a central county of Ulster, Ireland; is hilly, picturesque, and fertile in the lower districts; a considerable portion is taken up by barren mountain slopes and bogland, and agriculture is backward; coal and marble are wrought; Omagh is the capital, and Strabane and Dungannon are prosperous towns.
Tyrone, Hugh O'Neil, Earl of, a notable Irish rebel; assumed the title of “The O'Neil,” and offered open rebellion to Queen Elizabeth's authority, but, despite assistance from Spain, was subdued by Essex and Mountjoy ”

“ Gordon O'Neill (d. 1704) , captain of grenadiers in the infantry regiment of William Stewart, lord Mountjoy, was one of those catholic officers greatly favoured by the Earl of Tyrconnel in carrying out his plan for remodelling the government of Ireland in the interests of James II. He was made lord lieutenant of Tyrone, and represented the county in parliament in 1689. When the war of the revolution broke out he raised a regiment of foot for the royal cause, and was actively engaged at the siege of Derry, where he was wounded in the thigh. ”

“ Ninety-nine persons sailed in the vessel which carried Tyrone, Tyrconnel, and Maguire. Among the O’Neills were Lady Tyrone, her three sons Hugh, John, and Brian, and Art Oge, the son of Tyrone’s brother Cormac. Among the O’Donnells were Tyrconnel’s brother Caffar, with his wife Rose O’Dogherty, and his sister Nuala, who had left her husband Neill Garv. What, the Irish annalists ask, might not the young in this distinguished company have achieved if they had been allowed to grow up in Ireland? ”

“ In Tyrconnel young Hugh Roe, or Red Hugh, O’Donnell, was growing fast to manhood, and his fame as an athlete, a hunter, and hater of the English, spread throughout Ireland. Hugh O’Neill, the son of Matthew, Baron of Dungannon, was enjoying himself at Elizabeth’s court, where he made the acquaintance of Cecil, Essex, Bacon, Marshal Bagnal, Mountjoy, and numerous other celebrities, and basked in the sunshine of the royal favor, which he took particular pains to cultivate. He was a handsome young man, of middle size, rigidly trained to arms, and “shaped in proportion fair.” ”

“ That it should be so is only natural; for he is a kinsman, as well as namesake, of the great Hugh O’Neill who, with his fearless followers, swept over Ulster and defeated so many of England’s greatest generals, and brought the heads of some of her pets to the block. And there is no doubt but that some of her favorites of to-day shall be made to bite the dust ere the General has done with them.
“General O’Neill is a man of calm temperament, but a firm will, which, when excited, however, is stern and inflexible ”

“ The old chief had always realised, in a vague way, that an O’Neill could not stand alone, and had listened without enthusiasm to the bards who called upon him to imitate the legendary heroes of his race, and to make himself monarch of Ireland in spite of the English. The real effect of his death was to make Tyrone chief of Ulster in the popular estimation, as he had long been in real power. He also saw that the Queen would be too strong for him unless he could make foreign alliances, and he strove to excite sympathy abroad by appearing as the head of a Catholic confederacy. ”

“ But he was still in the royal favour when Elizabeth sent him to Ireland with fifteen thousand men, his mission being to crush the rebellion of O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. From her palace in London the queen wrote almost daily to the viceroy, seldom commending him, often hampering, and always petulant and capricious. Essex tried one or two encounters with the enemy, and found the battlefields of Ireland profitless and dangerous to the health of one whose chivalry was better suited to the drawing-room. ”

“ The limitations of the Tyrone Patent are disputed. Shane O’Neill.
Sidney, whom most men spoke well of, was confirmed in the office of Lord Justice, and had soon plenty of work in the North. The old Earl of Tyrone was sinking fast, and the horrors of a disputed succession were imminent. Henry VIII. had conferred the Earldom on Con O’Neill for life, with remainder to Matthew Ferdorogh O’Neill and his heirs male for ever. The Barony of Dungannon was at the same time conferred upon the remainder man, with a proviso that it should descend upon the heir to the Earldom. ”

“ From Fitzwilliam downwards, nearly all the officials seemed to think that they could keep things quiet by strengthening a man who aimed at being O’Neill in the fullest sense of the word, but who was quite ready to play at being an earl when it suited him, and to remember his English education. Walsingham saw more clearly from a distance, and wished to make Tirlogh Luineach Earl of Omagh, with an estate of inheritance in his part of Tyrone, and with a superiority over O’Cahan for [Pg 220] life. To his rival he was willing to give the rest, including a perpetual superiority over Maguire. ”

“ In spite of the traditional enmity between the O'Neills and the O'Donnells, Tyrone allied himself with Hugh Roe O'Donnell, nephew of Shane's former enemy Calvagh O'Donnell, and the two chieftains opened communications with Philip II. of Spain, their letters to whom were intercepted by the viceroy, Sir William Russell. They put themselves forward as the champions of the Catholic religion, claiming liberty of conscience as well as political liberty for the native inhabitants of Ireland. In April 1596 Tyrone received promises of help from Spain. ”

“ O'NEILL, Sir TURLOUGH LUINEACH (1530?–1595) , lord of Tyrone, was styled Luineach from having been fostered by O'Luinigh of Muintir Luinigh in Tyrone; he was son of Niall Conallach O'Neill, a grandson of Art Og O'Neill, a younger brother of Con mor O'Neill, the father of Con, first earl of Tyrone, and was born about 1530. His mother was Rose, daughter of Manus O'Donnell [q. v.] He became tanist when his cousin Shane [q. v.] was elected O'Neill. ”