establish garrisons in Tyrconnel and to demand hostages from Hugh MacManus O’Donnell, which the latter refused to hand over. In 1587 Perrot conceived a plan for kidnapping Hugh Roe (Hugh the Red), now a youth of fifteen, who had already given proof of exceptional manliness and sagacity. A merchant vessel laden with Spanish wines was sent to Lough Swilly, and anchoring off Rathmullan, where the boy was residing in the castle of MacSweeny his foster parent, Hugh Roe with some youthful companions was enticed on board, when the ship immediately set sail and conveyed the party to Dublin. The boys were kept in prison for more than three years. In 1591 young O’Donnell made two attempts to escape, the second of which proved successful; and after enduring terrible privations from exposure in the mountains he made his way to Tyrconnel, where in the following year his father handed the chieftainship over to him. Red Hugh lost no time in leading an expedition against Turlough Luineach O’Neill, then at war with his kinsman Hugh, earl of Tyrone, with whom O’Donnell was in alliance. At the same time he sent assurances of loyalty to the lord deputy, whom he met in person at Dundalk in the summer of 1592. But being determined to vindicate the traditional claims of his family in north Connaught, he aided Hugh Maguire against the English, though on the advice of Tyrone he abstained for a time from committing himself too far. When, however, in 1594 Enniskillen castle was taken and the women and children flung into the river from its walls by order of Sir Richard Bingham, the English governor of Connaught, O’Donnell sent urgent messages to Tyrone for help; and while he himself hurried to Derry to withstand an invasion of Scots from the isles, Maguire defeated the English with heavy loss at Bellanabriska (The Ford of the Biscuits). In 1595 Red Hugh again invaded Connaught, putting to the sword every soul above fifteen years of age unable to speak Irish; he captured Longford and soon afterwards gained possession of Sligo, which placed north Connaught at his mercy. In 1596 he agreed in conjunction with Tyrone to a cessation of hostilities with the English, and consented to meet commissioners from the government near Dundalk. The terms he demanded were, however, refused; and his determination to continue the struggle was strengthened by the prospect of help from Philip II. of Spain, with whom he and Tyrone had been in correspondence. In the beginning of 1597 he made another inroad into Connaught, where O’Conor Sligo had been set up by the English as a counterpoise to O’Donnell. He devastated the country and returned to Tyrconnel with rich spoils; in the following year he shared in Tyrone’s victory over the English at the Yellow Ford on the Blackwater; and in 1599 he defeated an attempt by the English under Sir Conyers Clifford, governor of Connaught, to succour O’Conor Sligo in Collooney castle, which O’Donnell captured, forcing Sligo to submission. The government now sent Sir Henry Docwra to Derry, and O’Donnell entrusted to his cousin Niall Garve the task of opposing him. Niall Carve, however, went over to the English, making himself master of O’Donnell’s fortresses of Lifford and Donegal. While Hugh Roe was attempting to retake the latter place in 1601, he heard that a Spanish force had landed in Munster. He marched rapidly to the south, and was joined by Tyrone at Bandon; but a night-attack on the English besieging the Spaniards in Kinsale having utterly failed, O’Donnell, who attributed the disaster to the incapacity of the Spanish commander, took ship to Spain on the 6th of January 1602 to lay his complaint before Philip III. He was favourably received by the Spanish king, but he died at Simancas on the 10th of September in the same year.
Rory O’Donnell, 1st earl of Tyrconnel (1575–1608), second son of Hugh MacManus O’Donnell, and younger brother of Hugh Roe, accompanied the latter in the above-mentioned expedition to Kinsale; and when his brother sailed for Spain he transferred his authority as chief to Rory, who led the O’Donnell contingent back to the north. In 1602 Rory gave in his allegiance to Lord Mountjoy, the lord deputy; and in the following summer he went to London with the earl of Tyrone, where he was received with favour by James I., who created him earl of Tyrconnel. In 1605 he was invested with authority as lieutenant of the king in Donegal. But the arrangement between Rory and Niall Garve insisted upon by the government was displeasing to both O’Donnells, and Rory, like Hugh Roe before him, entered into negotiations with Spain. His country had been reduced to a desert by famine and war, and his own reckless extravagance had plunged him deeply in debt. These circumstances as much as the fear that his designs were known to the government may have persuaded him to leave Ireland. In September 1607 “the flight of the earls” (see O’Neill) took place, Tyrconnel and Tyrone reaching Rome in April 1608, where Tyrconnel died on the 28th of July. His wife, the beautiful daughter of the earl of Kildare, was left behind in the haste of Tyrconnel’s flight, and lived to marry Nicholas Barnewell, Lord Kingsland. By Tyrconnel she had a son Hugh; and among other children a daughter Mary Stuart O’Donnell, who, born after her father’s flight from Ireland, was so named by James I. after his mother. This lady, after many romantic adventures disguised in male attire, married a man called O’Gallagher and died in poverty on the continent.
Rory O’Donnell was attainted by the Irish parliament in 1614, but his son Hugh, who lived at the Spanish Court, assumed the title of earl; and the last titular earl of Tyrconnel was this Hugh’s son Hugh Albert, who died without heirs in 1642, and who by his will appointed Hugh Balldearg O’Donnell (see above) his heir, thus restoring the chieftainship to the elder branch of the family. To a still elder branch belonged Daniel O’Donnell (1666–1735), a general of the famous Irish brigade in the French service, whose father, Turlough, was a son of Hugh Dubh O’Donnell, elder brother of Manus, son of an earlier Hugh Dubh mentioned above. Daniel served in the French army in the wars of the period, fighting against Marlborough at Oudenarde and Malplaquet at the head of an O’Donnell regiment. He died in 1735.
The famous Cathach, or Battle-Book of the O’Donnells, was in the possession of General Daniel O’Donnell, from whom it passed to more modern representatives of the family, who presented it to the Royal Irish Academy, where it is preserved. This relic, of which a curious legend is told (see P. W. Joyce, A Social History of Ancient Ireland, vol. i. p. 501), is a Psalter said to have belonged to Saint Columba, a kinsman of the O’Donnells, which was carried by them in battle as a charm or talisman to secure victory. Two other circumstances connecting the O’Donnells with ancient Irish literature may be mentioned. The family of O’Clery, to which three of the celebrated “Four Masters” belonged, were hereditary Ollaves (doctors of history, music, law, &c.) attached to the family of O’Donnell; while the “Book of the Dun Cow” (Lebor-na-h Uidhre), one of the most ancient Irish MSS., was in the possession of the O’Donnells in the 14th century'; and the estimation in which it was held at that time is proved by the fact that it was given to the O’Conors of Connaught as ransom for an important prisoner, and was forcibly recovered some years later.
O’DONNELL, HENRY JOSEPH (1769–1834), count of La Bisbal, Spanish soldier, was descended from the O’Donnells who left Ireland after the battle of the Boyne.[1] Born in Spain, he early entered the Spanish army, and in 1810 became general, receiving a command in Catalonia, where in that year he earned his title and the rank of field-marshal. He afterwards held posts of great responsibility under Ferdinand VII., whom he served on the whole with constancy; the events of 1823 compelled his flight into France, where he was interned at Limoges, and where he died in 1834. His second son Leopold O’Donnell (1809–1867), duke of Tetuan, Spanish general and statesman, was born at Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, on the 12th of January 1809. He fought in the army of Queen Christina, where he attained the rank of general of division; and in 1840 he accompanied the queen into exile. He failed in an attempt to effect a rising in her favour at Pamplona in 1841, but took a more successful part in the movement which led to the overthrow and exile of
- ↑ A branch of the family settled in Austria, and General Karl O’Donnell, count of Tyrconnel (1715–1771), held important commands during the Seven Years’ War. The name of a descendant figures in the history of the Italian and Hungarian campaigns of 1848 and 1849.
