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Irish mantle; thus shall your English rabble be diverted from my uncouth figure, and laugh at him." In 1588 he defeated his cousin, the Earl of Tyrone, and a large force, at Carricklea, near Stra- bane. In 1592 he received an Anglo-Irish garrison into his stronghold at Strabane, and engaged in a series of operations against the Earl and his allies. Next year, how- ever, he appeal's to have dismissed these troops, and made peace with his cousin. He died at Strabane in 1595, and was buried at Ardstraw. He is represented as having been a staunch friend of the bards and brehons. Professor O'Donovan says : " There are stiU extant several Irish poems addressed to Turlough Luineach, inciting him to shake off the English yoke and become monarch of Ireland like his ances- tors. . . But he was so old when he was made O'Neill that he seems to have then retained little military ardour to tread in the wake of his ancestors ; and he was so much in dread of the sons of Shane the Proud and of Hugh (Earl of Tyrone), that he continued obedient to the Queen." '^4
O'Neill, Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, was born about 1540. He was the second son of Matthew, Baron of Dungannon, the reputed son of Con O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. Hugh's elder brother died in 1 562. His claims to the title were disregai-ded for many years ; but great efforts were made to conciliate him to the English interest, and imbue him with English ideas. He was brought over to court by Sidney, and was given a troop in the Queen's service and an annual allowance. He served in the English army in the Irish wars, was present at the Smerwick massacre in 1580, co- operated with Essex in the settlement of Antrim, and the Ulster wars, and was more than once commended for his zeal in the Queen's service. Fynes Moryson says " he was of a meane stature, but a strong body, abl' ^0 indure labours, watching, and hard fare, being withal industrious and active, valiant, affable, and apt to manage great affairs, and of a high dissembling subtile and profound wit. So as many deemed him borne either for the great good or ill of his countrey." In 1584 he was put in the possession of the south- eastern portion of Tyrone, Turlough Lui- neach being restricted to the north-western. Before long the rival chieftains were en- gaged in hostilities — Hugh being aided by the English government. In his letters to the Queen he lamented the unwilling- ness of his countrymen to accept English manners and customs, and mourned over their barbarous preference for Celtic ways. He even desired that effectual steps should 410
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be taken to suppress the title of The O'Neill, In the Parliament of 1585 he took his seat as Baron of Dungannon, and ere its termination, was promised the title of Earl of Tyrone, which was con- firmed to him by the Queen in 1587, He gave up 240 acres upon the Blackwater for a fort, and renounced all authority over his neighbours. In May 1590 he made suggestions to the Privy Council as to the affairs of Ulster, and express- ed his desire to have it made shire ground, being anxious that his people should adopt English tenure and English laws and dress. He promised that he would " neither receive or maintain any Popish priest, monk, or friar, or any pro- claimed traitor." On the other hand, he was studiously friendly to the crews of some vessels of the Spanish Armada wrecked on the coast of Ulster ; he harboured Hugh Eoe O'Donnell after his escape from Dub- lin Castle ; and constantly augmented the number of his trained retainers, by passing them rapidly through the small troop he was permitted to keep up in the Queen's pay. In 1591 he was again en- gaged in active hostilities against Tur- lough, whereupon the Deputy, B'itzwilliam, summoned him to a conference at Dundalk in June, and was able to report to the Queen : " In the quarrel between the Earl of Tyrone and Sir Turlough O'Neill it was complained that the Earl was alto- gether in fault; but upon examination . . it fell out that Sir Tir was therein for to blame. I and the council have so ended these causes as they are both re- turned home with good contentment, and have given both their consents to have Tirone reduced to shire ground, and to accept of a sheriff." After the death of his second wife, daughter of MacManus O'Donnell, Hugh won the heart of a beauti- ful English girl, sister of Marshal Bagnall. The Marshal opposed the match, and re- moved her from Newry to Dublin. Thi- ther O'Neill followed. She accompanied him from the house of her sister, where she had been placed, to the residence of a friend at Drumcondra, and on 3rd August 1 59 1 they were married by the Protestant Bishop of Meath, Thomas Jones. (The Countess died in January 1596, some years before the last scenes of the contests be- tween her brother and her husband.) In June 1593 Sir Turlough abandoned the contest with Hugh O'Neill, and upon being secured certain lands, and an income for life, agreed that the Earl should stand undisputed master of Tyrone. This posi- tion as head of the O'Neill family made him formidable in the eyes of Elizabeth's
