importance in following years it deserves careful study.
Henry VIII. had paid some regard to Irish usages in his dealings with the chiefs. Murrogh O'Brien, last King and iirst Earl of Thomond, was to be succeeded in the Earldom and the lordship of the country not by his son, but by his Tanist, Donough, son of Murrogh's elder brother and predecessor, Conor. Murrogh's son was to be contented with a lesser title, that of Baron of Inchiquin. In a similar fashion Con O'Neill was allowed to select a successor to his dignities, to be named in the patent of the Earldom. For some reason unknown to us he passed over his legitimate sons, and chose as his successor a certain Ferdoragh, anglice Matthew, who was certainly illegitimate, even if he were really Con's son at all. At Con's death the clan rejected Matthew, and chose Shane as O'Neill. He held his ground and compelled Elizabeth to recognize him virtually as lord of almost all Ulster.
But after his tragic downfall and death an Act was passed in 1569 for his attainder.[1] This Act is something of a literary curiosity.
It must be remembered that according to the strict letter of the law Ulster already belonged to the Crown, in right of the Mortimer inheritance, and no title to land therein could be valid in law unless derived from the Crown, the Mortimers, or their predecessors in the Earldom. Now, in the early days of the conquest great parts of Down and Antrim and some of Derry had been overrun and settled. In the fourteenth
- ↑ XI. Elizabeth, chap. 1.
