Queen of Scots. The reconciliation of Mary and Argyll had greatly encouraged him in the belief that one determined effort would lead to the emancipation of Ireland, and in April he addressed letters to Charles IX and the cardinal of Lorraine, calling on them to assist him in expelling the English, and promising for himself and his successors to become the humble subjects of the crown of France. Elizabeth had rightly conjectured that on hearing of the preparations that were being made against him, he would ‘break his bryckle peace.’ About the middle of July he invaded the Pale with fire and sword, but an attempt to capture Dundalk was repulsed with heavy loss. He was proclaimed a traitor on 3 Aug. 1566, and, probably feeling that the outlook was critical, he burned Armagh, razed most of his castles, entered into negotiations for a reconciliation with Alexander Oge MacDonnell, and sent a pressing message to the Earl of Desmond, urging him to join with him against the English. It was September before Colonel Edward Randolph [q. v.] landed at Derry, and the middle of the month when Sidney entered Tyrone. Pursuing his usual tactics, Shane, though able to muster four thousand foot and seven hundred horse, evaded a battle, contenting himself with hanging on the rear of the enemy and cutting off stragglers. At Lifford Sidney effected a junction with Randolph, and, leaving reinforcements with him, crossed the Foyle into Tyrconnel. Donegal, Ballyshannon, Belleek, and Sligo were captured, and having re-established O'Donnell in his former possessions, the deputy continued his journey into Connaught.
Beyond the loss of some corn and cattle, the usual results of a raid, Shane had suffered comparatively little, and, the death of O'Donnell in the hour of his triumph affording him apparently an opportunity to recover all that he had lost, he invaded Tyrconnel. He was defeated by Randolph, but the death of the English commander speedily gave him all the advantages of a victory. At first being harassed by the attacks of the Scots under Alexander Og MacDonnell, he wrote to the lord deputy and council, expressing his readiness to agree to the articles of Sir Thomas Cusack's peace. But his overtures meeting with no response, he renewed his application for assistance to the court of France, and endeavoured to secure the support of the Earl of Argyll, sending him as a propitiatory offering, among other things, the robes of state given by Henry VIII to his father Con. In May the garrison at Derry was withdrawn, and Shane at once seized the opportunity to invade Tyrconnel. He was defeated, and his army almost annihilated by the O'Donnells in the neighbourhood of Letterkenny. Riding for his very life, he managed, ‘under the guidance of a party of the O'Gallaghers,’ to reach his own country in safety. For a moment he thought of appealing to Sidney for mercy with a rope round his neck, but was ultimately persuaded to appeal to the MacDonnells for assistance.
Taking with him his captive, Sorley Boy, and Catherine MacLean, formerly wife of Calvagh O'Donnell, subsequently O'Neill's mistress, but now his wife, and attended by a few retainers, he made his way to Cushendun. It was a foolhardy step, but possibly, if he could have kept a civil tongue in his head, the MacDonnells might have consented to a reconciliation on his own terms of restoring Sorley Boy, surrendering Clandeboye, and paying a heavy fine. It is doubtful whether his assassination was premeditated, but his injuries to the MacDonnells were too fresh in their memory to be easily forgotten, and it is probable that when heated with wine he may have irritated them by his insolent behaviour beyond endurance. He met his death on the evening of 2 June 1567. He was literally hacked to pieces, and his body, ‘wrapped in a kerne's old shirt,’ was thrown into a pit near the place of his assassination. A reward of 1,000l. had been offered by the state for his body, one thousand marks for his head, and 500l. ‘to him that shall kill him, though he bring neither heade nor bodie.’ Of this his murderers seem not to have been aware; but the governor of Carrickfergus, Captain William Piers, ‘by whose devise the tragedie was practised,’ having managed to get hold of his head, and sent it, ‘pickled in a pipkin,’ to Sidney, obtained the promised reward. It was stuck on a pole over Dublin Castle, where it was seen by Campion in 1571. Shane's body is said to have been privately buried in the Franciscan monastery at Glenarm. A local tradition (Hill, MacDonnells of Antrim, p. 145) states that soon after his burial there a friar from Armagh appeared at the gate of the monastery to claim it. ‘Have you,’ asked the friar, ‘brought with you the remains of James MacDonnell, lord of Antrim and Cantire, who was buried among strangers at Armagh?’ The monk confessed that he had not. ‘Then,’ replied the friar, ‘whilst you continue to tread on the grave of James, lord of Antrim and Cantire, know ye that we here in Glenarm will trample on the dust of your great O'Neill.’ Shane O'Neill was attainted by act of parliament in 1569, and his lands declared forfeit to the crown, but no advantage was taken of the act till after the flight of Hugh, earl of Tyrone, in 1607.
O'Neill married, first, Catherine, daughter
