to Dublin, he was greatly chagrined on learning of the death of Elizabeth; but he signed the proclamation of James I, and on 8 April renewed his submission before the lord deputy and council in Dublin. He consented to go to England, and about the end of May he sailed with Mountjoy and Rory O'Donnell [q. v.] on board the Tramontana.
Narrowly escaping shipwreck on the Skerries, he and his companions landed at Beaumaris, and immediately proceeded to London, where they arrived, not without some rough experience on Tyrone's part of the feelings of hostility with which he was regarded by Englishmen, on 4 June. He was graciously received by the king at Hampton Court, and confirmed in his title and estate. But a feeling of bitter hostility towards him prevailed. ‘I have lived,’ exclaimed Sir John Harington, ‘to see that damnable rebel Tyrone brought to England, honoured, and well liked. … How I did labour after that knave's destruction! … who now smileth in peace at those who did hazard their lives to destroy him.’ He returned to Ireland towards the end of August, and was shortly afterwards involved in a dispute with Donnell O'Cahan [q. v.], formerly his principal urragh, but, by the terms of his submission to Sir Henry Docwra on 27 July 1602, constituted an independent chieftain. Tyrone maintained that O'Cahan's independence was incompatible with the terms of his own restoration, and insisted on exacting his customary rents from him. He was supported by Mountjoy, and O'Cahan submitted. Subsequently, during the deputyship of Sir Arthur Chichester, it became the object of the government to reverse Mountjoy's policy, and, by persuading the minor chiefs ‘to depend wholly and immediately’ upon the crown, to break down the territorial influence of the native aristocracy. At the instigation of George Montgomery, bishop of Derry, O'Cahan in 1606 renewed his suit against Tyrone. The government, which, without having anything very definite to charge Tyrone with, had for some time past suspected his intention to raise up a fresh rebellion, thought the matter worthy of close attention, and in April 1607 summoned the earl to Dublin to answer O'Cahan's plaint. Whether the suspicions of the government were well founded or not—and subsequent revelations seem to show that they were—Tyrone's violent behaviour towards O'Cahan in the council-chamber greatly damaged his cause. The government, unable to come to any definite conclusion, referred the matter to the king's decision, and Tyrone promised to go to London.
Meanwhile information had reached Cuconnacht Maguire in the Netherlands that it was intended to arrest Tyrone if he went to England. Subsequent arrests seem to prove that the information was not so ill-founded as has been imagined, though the undisguised surprise of Chichester when he heard of Tyrone's flight proves that he at least was unaware of any such design. Maguire at any rate believed the information to be sufficiently reliable to justify him in sending a vessel of eighty tons into the north of Ireland in order to facilitate his escape. Tyrone was at Slane with the lord deputy when the news of its arrival reached him. He seems to have come to an immediate decision, and it was afterwards recollected ‘that he took his leave of the lord deputy in a more sad and passionate manner than he used at other times.’ His wife, who hated him for his brutality, showed some reluctance to accompany him, but he swore to kill her on the spot ‘if she would not pass on with him and put on a more cheerful countenance withal.’ In the hurry of the flight his youngest son, Con, was left behind. At midnight on 14 Sept. 1607 Tyrone, Tyrconnel, their wives and retainers—ninety-nine persons in all—‘having little sea-store, and being otherwise miserably accommodated,’ sailed from Rathmullen.
The story of the flight was written in Irish by Teigue O'Keenan, a member of a family who acted as ollavs or hereditary bards to Maguire, in 1609. The original, which is incomplete, is preserved in the Franciscan convent removed from Rome to Dublin, and forms the basis of C. P. Meehan's ‘Fate and Fortunes of Tyrone and Tyrconnel.’ Intending to make for Spain, the fugitives encountered a violent storm, which drove them out of their course, and after three weeks' buffeting about they were glad to make the mouth of the Seine. Proceeding to Rouen, they were on their way to Paris, when, in consequence of the remonstrances of the English ambassador, they were compelled to withdraw into the Spanish Netherlands. Passing through Amiens, Arras, Douay, and Brussels, where they were splendidly entertained by Spinola, they reached Louvain on 9 Nov. There they passed the winter, and there Tyrone drew up that extraordinary catalogue of his grievances now preserved in the Record Office, London, which must astonish any one who expects to find in it any adequate explanation of his flight. Debarred from entering Spain, Tyrone accepted the hospitable offer of Paul V to take up his abode in Rome, and on 28 Feb. 1608 he and his companions, now reduced to thirty-two persons, left Louvain. They reached Rome at the end of April, and were
