A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — CompleteMcGee, Thomas D'Arcy
History
A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Complete
McGee, Thomas D'Arcy
Ireland -- History
We must enumerate some of the more remarkable instances of Wolsey's
twofold policy of concession and intimidation. In the third and fourth
years of Henry, Hugh O'Donnell, lord of Tyrconnell, passing through
England, on a pilgrimage to Rome, was entertained with great honour at
Windsor and Greenwich for four months each time. He returned to Ulster
deeply impressed with the magnificence of the young monarch and the
resources of his kingdom. During the remainder of his life he cherished
a strong predilection for England; he dissuaded James IV. of Scotland
from leading a liberating expedition to Ireland in 1513—previous to the
ill-fated campaign which ended on Flodden field, and he steadily
resisted the influx of the Islesmen into Down and Antrim. In 1521 we
find him described by the Lord Lieutenant, Surrey, as being of all the
Irish chiefs the best disposed "to fall into English order." He
maintained a direct correspondence with Henry until his death, 1537,
when the policy he had so materially assisted had progressed beyond the
possibility of defeat. Simultaneously with O'Donnell's adhesion, the
same views found favour with the powerful chief of Tyrone. The O'Neils
were now divided into two great septs, those of Tyrone, whose seat was
at Dungannon, and those of Clandeboy, whose strongholds studded the
eastern shores of Lough Neagh. In the year 1480, Con O'Neil, lord of
Tyrone, married his cousin-germain, Lady Alice Fitzgerald, daughter of
the Earl of Kildare. This alliance tended to establish an intimacy
between Maynooth and Dungannon, which subserved many of the ends of
Wolsey's policy. Turlogh, Art, and Con, sons of Lady Alice, and
successively chiefs of Tyrone, adhered to the fortunes of the Kildare
family, who were, however unwillingly, controlled by the superior power
of Henry. The Clandeboy O'Neils, on the contrary, regarded this
alliance as nothing short of apostasy, and pursued the exactly opposite
course, repudiating English and cultivating Scottish alliances. Open
ruptures and frequent collisions took place between the estranged and
exasperated kinsmen; in the sequel we will find how the last surviving
son of Lady Alice became in his old age the first Earl of Tyrone, while
the House of Clandeboy took up the title of "the O'Neil." The example
of the elder branch of this ancient royal race, and of the hardly less
illustrious family of Tyrconnell, exercised a potent influence on the
other chieftains of Ulster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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