Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone
| Hugh O'Neill | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Earl of Tyrone | |
| Reign | 1587 – 1607 |
| Coronation | 1595 |
| Predecessor | Turlough Luineach O'Neill |
| Successor | Henry O'Neill |
| Born | c. 1550 Tyrone, Ireland |
| Died | 20 July 1616 (aged c. 66) Rome |
| Burial | San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, Italy |
| Spouse | Katherine O'Neill Joanna (Siobhán) O'Donnell Mabel Bagenal Katherine Magennis |
| Issue | Hugh Henry Alice |
| House | O'Neill Dynasty |
| Father | Matthew O'Neill |
| Mother | Siobhán Maguire |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Hugh O'Neill (Irish: Aodh Mór Ó Néill; literally Hugh The Great O'Neill; c. 1550 – 20 July 1616), was an Irish Gaelic lord, Earl of Tyrone (known as the Great Earl) and was later created The Ó Néill. O'Neill's career was played out against the background of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and he is best known for leading the resistance during the Nine Years' War, the strongest threat to English authority in Ireland since the revolt of Silken Thomas.
O'Neill came from a line of the O'Neill dynasty - derbfine - that the English authorities recognized as the legitimate successors to the chieftainship of the O'Neills and to the title of Earl of Tyrone. He was the second son of Matthew O'Neill (Feardorcha Ó Néill), reputed illegitimate son of Conn, 1st Earl of Tyrone.
Shane O'Neill (Seán an Díomais) a legitimate son of Conn, employed the ambivalent status of Matthew's paternity to affirm his own claim to the title The O'Neill, although illegitimacy in itself made little or no difference in terms of the Irish legal system of derbfine, where five degrees of consanguinity through the male line with a blood ancestor who had held the O'Neill title were required of any claimant. Once Matthew was accepted by Conn as his son, he was as entitled to the O'Neill lordship as Shane, although, if proven, Shane's constant assertion that Matthew was actually an adoptee, affiliated to the O'Neills, rather than the illegitimate issue of Conn would have rendered his claim to the earldom void and would have entirely disqualified him from succession also under derbfine.
In the ensuing conflict for the succession Matthew was killed by the Ó Donnaile followers of Shane and Conn, placing his sons Brian and Hugh in a precarious situation. The continuing support for their claims came from the English administration in Dublin, which was anxious to use the reliance of the sons of Matthew on their support to break the independent power of the O'Neill lords of Ulster. This was part of a general English policy to transform Irish Gaelic titles into feudal titles granted under the crown that would bring them entirely within the English legal system through a policy known as surrender and regrant, in which the Irish forcibly surrendered their lands to the crown and had them granted back into their keeping as property of the crown, rather than the property of the sept, or Gaelic extended family.
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