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Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell

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Rory O'Donnell
Ruaidrí Ó Domhnaill
Earl of Tyrconnell
Rory O'Donnell, depicted in a fresco in the Vatican
King of Tyrconnell
Reign10 September 1602 – 4 September 1603
PredecessorHugh Roe O'Donnell
SuccessorTitle abolished
1st Earl of Tyrconnell
Reign4 September 1603 – 14 September 1607
PredecessorTitle created
SuccessorThe 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell
Born1575
Tyrconnell, Ireland
Died28 July 1608(1608-07-28) (aged 32–33)
Rome, Papal States
Burial
San Pietro in Montorio, Rome
SpousesBridget Fitzgerald
IssueThe 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell
Lady Mary Stuart O'Donnell
DynastyO'Donnell
FatherSir Hugh O'Donnell
MotherInion Dubh
ReligionRoman Catholic

Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (Irish: Ruaidrí Ó Domhnaill, 1d Iarla na Tír Chonaill; 1575 – 28 July 1608),[1][2][3] was an Irish Gaelic lord and the last King of Tyrconnell. He was a younger brother of Hugh Roe O'Donnell and in 1603 became the first to be styled the Earl of Tyrconnell.[4]

Early life[edit]

O'Donnell was one of the many children of Sir Hugh O'Donnell,[3] who reigned as Chief of the Name and Lord of Tyrconnell from 1566[5] until he abdicated in favour of his eldest son by his second wife, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, in 1592.[6][7] By this point, the sons of his first wife had been disabled or killed, mostly by his Scottish-born second wife, Iníon Dubh.[8]

After the defeat at Kinsale in December 1601, Rory, as Tanist of Tyrconnell, became acting Chief when his older brother left to seek desperately needed reinforcements from Spain. He led the clan back to Connacht and maintained guerilla warfare until December 1602, when he submitted to Lord Deputy Mountjoy at Athlone.[3]

Head of the clan O'Donnell[edit]

In 1602, O'Donnell succeeded his recently deceased brother Hugh as King of Tyrconnell and Chief of the Clan O'Donnell.[3] Having submitted in London to the newly crowned King James I, Rory, under the policy of surrender and regrant was required to renounce his traditional titles and was in return created as Earl of Tyrconnell[1] per letters patent of 4 September 1603, with the subsidiary title Baron of Donegal reserved for his heir apparent. He was further granted the territorial Lordship of Tyrconnell per letters patent of 10 February 1604.[citation needed]

A 1614 Hiberno-Latin history of Donegal Abbey, however, criticized the title of Earl as, "how inferior to that with which the Prince of Tyrconnell used to be acclaimed on the sacred rock of Kilmacrenan!"[9]

Grave of Tyrconnell, Rome.

Flight of the Earls[edit]

Main article: Flight of the Earls

There was much fury in Ireland and England that he and Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, had been treated so gingerly after allegedly committing treason (this became known as the Sham Plot), but time was on the side of the English authorities.[citation needed] On 14 September 1607, both Earls set sail from Lough Swilly with their families and followers for eventual exile in the Spanish Netherlands and Rome.[10][11]

The journey was difficult and harsh, and conditions on their boat were extremely poor.[12] The Earls arrived in France, not Spain as expected, then made their way north to the Spanish Netherlands. They eventually arrived in Rome[10] on 29 April 1608.[3] Tyrconnell and Tyrone were welcomed to Rome by a guard of cardinals.[3] The next day, they met with Pope Paul V, who gave them and their families a small pension.[10]

Rome[edit]

In early July 1608, Tyrconnell travelled to Ostia, a coastal town fifteen miles west of Rome, in order to "make holiday and take a change of air". He was accompanied by his brother Cathbarr, Hugh, Baron of Dungannon, and Donal O’Carroll, Vicar General of Killaloe.[13]

Unfortunately, the men "all agreed that that particular place [was] one of the worst and most unhealthy for climate in all Italy". Tyrconnell became ill on 18 July, and shortly afterwards he died in Rome on 28 July 1608. He was buried the next day in San Pietro in Montorio.[13]

His magnificent funeral was funded by the Marqués de Aytona, Spanish ambassador to Rome, who provided Tyrconnell's younger sister Nuala with 300 crowns.[13]

Family[edit]

Around Christmas 1606,[3] Tyrconnell married Bridget FitzGerald, daughter of the 12th Earl of Kildare,[1] by whom he had two children: Hugh and Mary.[2] After his death, Bridget married the 1st Viscount Barnewall (1592–1663), with whom she had five sons and four daughters that survived him.[citation needed] Tyrconnell left his wife behind in Ireland during his flight.[3]

Lord Tyrconnell's only son, Hugh, was three weeks shy of his first birthday when the Earls sailed from Lough Swilly,[2][14] and was raised in Louvain, Spanish Flanders. In time he joined the service of the King of Spain, and was killed in action when his ship engaged a French vessel in August or September 1642 and caught fire. He succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, but left no offspring; the title of Earl would have descended to his first cousin Domhnall Oge's line were it not meanwhile attainted in 1614.[citation needed]

Lord Tyrconnell's youngest child, Mary Stuart O'Donnell, left a more lasting impression on posterity. She was born in England[2] around 1607.[14] After her father's death, King James VI and I, the first Stuart King of England, gave her the name Stuart in recognition of their common Stuart ancestry – they were ninth cousins – hence she was known as Mary Stuart O'Donnell.[2] She was descended, through her mother, from the Stuarts. Mary was raised by her mother in the Kildare lands in Ireland until she was twelve years old.[citation needed] In 1619, Mary was sent to live with her grandmother, Lady Kildare,[15] in London, where Lady Kildare aimed to educate the girl and make her her heiress.[citation needed] Her mother Bridget meanwhile remarried and had a further nine children.[16]

Portraiture[edit]

Lord Tyrconnell is depicted as part of a fresco in the Vatican. He stands next to Hugh O'Neill during the 1608 canonization of Frances of Rome by Pope Paul V.[17][18] It was painted circa 1610.[18]

According to historian Francis Martin O'Donnell, many historians believe that the figure next to O'Neill is actually a Spanish ambassador - either Francisco de Moncada or his father Gastón. Francis Martin O'Donnell argues that the figure lacks Francisco's distinctive facial hair and portly appearance, and looks too young to depict Gastón, who was in his mid-50s at the time. The figure also lacks the ornate clothing an ambassador would be required to wear during such a ceremony. Therefore, it is most likely that the figure standing next to O'Neill is fellow Irish earl Rory O'Donnell.[18]

Family tree[edit]


References[edit]

Citatoins[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Webb, Alfred (1878). "Rury O'Donnell". A Compendium of Irish Biography.
  2. ^ a b c d e Bagwell, Richard (1895). "O'Donnell, Rory" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 41. pp. 444–447.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h O'Byrne, Emmett (October 2009). "O'Donnell (Ó Domhnall), Ruaidhrí". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  4. ^ An apparent original of the letters patent of the Earldom were in the possession of Count Maximilian Karl Lamoral O'Donnell in Austria, (See Ó Domhnaill Abu – O'Donnell Clan Newsletter, no.2, Summer 1985), although that family did not inherit the title, nor the related territorial Lordship of Tyrconnell, the remainders of which were destined elsewhere
  5. ^ Dunlop, Robert (1894). "O'Donnell, Hugh Roe" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 40. pp. 436–440.
  6. ^ O'Byrne, Emmett (October 2009). "O'Donnell (Ó Domhnaill), Sir Aodh mac Maghnusa". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006332.v1.
  7. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "O'Donnell s.v. Calvagh O'Donnell". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 7.
  8. ^ O'Byrne, Emmett (October 2009). "MacDonnell (Nic Dhomhnaill), Fiona (Fionnghuala) ('Iníon Dubh')". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006337.v1.
  9. ^ Meehan 1870b, p. 15.
  10. ^ a b c Morgan, Hiram (September 2014). "O'Neill, Hugh". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006962.v1. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
  11. ^ Smith, Murray (1996). "Flight of the Earls?: changing views on O'Neill's departure from Ireland". History Ireland. 4 (1). Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  12. ^ Casway 2016, p. 75.
  13. ^ a b c FitzPatrick, Elizabeth (August 2007). "San Pietro in Montorio, burial-place of the exiled Irish in Rome, 1608-1623". History Ireland. 15 (4).
  14. ^ a b Silke 2006. "Hugh Albert O'Donnell, born [to Rory and Bridget] about October 1606, was the only son of this marriage, Mary Stuart O'Donnell being born about a year later." sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFSilke2006 (help)
  15. ^ Casway 2003, p. 60-61
  16. ^ Casway 2003, p. 61
  17. ^ "Priest penetrates Vatican secrecy in quest for lost portrait of Irish rebel leader Hugh O'Neill". Mid-Ulster Mail. 18 February 2016. Archived from the original on 17 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  18. ^ a b c O'Donnell, Francis Martin (2020). What did they really look like? An Iconography of the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell: myth, allegory, prejudice, and evidence. Tyrconnell-Fyngal Publishing.

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "O'Donnell s.v. Rory O'Donnell". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 8.

Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Tir Conaill
1602–1608 		Vacant
Peerage of Ireland
New creation Earl of Tyrconnell
1602–1608 		Succeeded by
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