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- HUGH O’NEILL, Earl of Tyrone, was chiefly educated at the Court of Queen ELIZABETH, where he learnt, from the English statesmen Burghley, Leicester, and Hatton, that knowledge of political craft which marked his entire career. Eventually, throwing off his allegiance to the English Sovereign, “the Arch Rebel,” as he was styled, disclaimed the title of Earl of Tyrone (which had been confirmed to him by charter, 10 May, 1587) and proclaimed himself the O’Neill. He conquered every army sent against him by ELIZABETH; until after the siege of Kinsale in 1603, he found his cause hopeless and surrendered to Lord Mountjoy, by whom he was received into protection. Subsequently, in 1607, he fled to France, and thence proceeded Louvain, and finally to Rome where he was maintained on a monthly allowance granted by PAUL V. and the King of Spain. He m. 1st, a dau. of Sir Brian McPhelim from whom was legitimately divorced; 2ndly, Judith, dau. of Manus Donnell, and sister of the celebrated Red Hugh O Donnell, by her had issue,
I. HUGH, Baron of Dungannon, d. at Rome, 1609, unin.
II. HENRY, a colonel of an Irish regiment, in the archduke's service, killed in Spain.
III. JOHN, called El Condé de Tyrone, in Spain, in which kingdom he had attained the rank of lieutenant-general, killed in Catalonia.
IV. BRYAN or BERNARD, page to the archduke, murdered at Brussels, 1617.
V. Con, a prisoner in the Tower of London, 1617.
I. Mary, m. to Sir Bryan McMahon, Knt. of Monaghan.
II. –, m. to Donnel Ballagh O Cahan.
III. Sarah, m. to Arthur Magennis, Viscount Iveagh.
IV. Margaret, m. to Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarrett.
He m. 3rdly, Mabel, sister of Sir Henry Bagenall, marshal of the Queen's forces in Ireland, to whom he was m. by Jones, bishop of Meath, 1591, she d. s. p.; and 4thly, the dau. of the Lord Iveagh, who accompanied him to Rome where she died. This lady is described by Peter Lombard, archbishop of Armagh, thus: “Aetate quidem juniorem, sed educatione, prudentiâ, pietate maturam; de Reg. Hib. P. 383. Tyrone d. at Rome, blind and old, 20 July, 1616, and was buried with great pomp in the church of San Pietro Montorio, where the tombs of O’Donnell and O’Neill, Baron of Dungannon, are objects of attraction to English and Irish sojourners in the Eternal City. The tomb of the Earl of Tyrone is no longer in existence, but happily the inscription it bore is still preserved in the Book of Obits, of San Pietro's monastery, and runs thus:
D.O.M.
Hic Quiescunt Ossa
Hugonis Principis O’Neill.
It would appear that this brief epitaph was suggested by that on the tomb of Tasso in the neighbouring church of St. Onofiro. Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, was attainted in 1612.
Arms – Arg., a sinister hand affronté and couped, gu.
source: Burke, Bernard. A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, New Edition. London, UK: Harrison, 1866.
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