Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell

Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell (Irish: Ruairí Ó Domhnaill) (1575–1608) was the last King of Tyrconnell. An apparent original of the Letters Patent of the Earldom are in the possession of Count O'Donell von Tyrconnell 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.

Rory was one of nine known children of Sir Hugh O'Donnell (Irish: Aodh mac Maghnusa Ó Domhnaill), who reigned from 1566 until he abdicated in favour of his eldest son by his second wife, "Red" Hugh O'Donnell (Irish: Aodh Rua Ó Domhnaill), in 1592, the sons of his first wife having been disabled or killed (mostly by his second Scottish-born second wife).

In 1602, Rory succeeded his recently deceased brother Hugh as King of Tyrconnell and head of the clan O'Donnell. Having submitted in London to the new King, James I, he was created Earl of Tyrconnell 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. Soon afterwards, he married Lady Bridget FitzGerald, daughter of the 12th Earl of Kildare, by whom he had three children: Elizabeth, Hugh (Aodh) and Mary. Hugh succeeded Rory as 2nd Earl.

There was much fury in Ireland and England that he and the 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. On September 14, 1607, with the discovery that he and Tyrone were to be arrested and imprisoned,Fact|date=August 2008 both Earls set sail from Lough Swilly with their families and followers for eventual exile in Spanish Flanders and Rome (see Flight of the Earls). Tyrconnell died in Rome in 1608.

Parents and siblings

Tyrconnell's father had at least nine known children by at least two different women. The eldest was Tyrconnell's half-sister, Siobhán, who married the Earl of Tyrone in 1574 and died in January 1591, about the same time that his brother Hugh was escaping from Dublin Castle. Other half-brothers were Donnchadh, Domhnall Dónall, and Ruaidhri, who was killed in 1575. Domhnall was killed in 1590, but left a son, Dómhnall Óg. Tyrconnell's second eldest sibling, a daughter whose name is unknown, is believed to have married a son of Turlough Luineach O'Neill sometime before or during 1579. The following are all believed to be full-blood siblings of Tyrconnell by Sir Hugh's infamous wife, Fionnghuala "Inghean Dubh" MacDonnell: Nuala, Aodh Ruadh, Maghnus, Mairgheag, Máire and Cathbharr. Nuala married Niall Garve O'Donnell (Irish: Niall Garbh O Dómhnaill) in 1592; when he sided with the English during the Nine Years War, she abandoned him and subsequently joined Tyrconnell on the Flight of the Earls with her daughter, Grania. Maghnus and Cathbharr are known to have been dead by September 1608, while a poem written in the same month addresses Mairghead and Máire. Nothing is known of Mairéad beyond this. However, Máire had married Sir Donnell Ó Cathain before 1598 but they divorced and she married Tadgh Ó Ruairc, who died in 1605, leaving her with two sons. She herself died in 1662.

Children

Elizabeth was born in 1604, about a year after Rory became Earl of Tyrconnell, and became the 1st Countess of Fingall, through marriage to Lucas Plunkett, the 1st Earl of Fingall (see also Fingal). Rory's only son, Aodh (Hugh), was three weeks shy of his first birthday when the Earls sailed from Lough Swilly, 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 left no known offspring, and the title of Earl would have descended to his first cousin Domhnall Oge's line were it not meanwhile attainted in 1614.

Rory's youngest child, Mary, left a more lasting impression on posterity. Born in England in 1608 after her father's death, where King James I of England, the first Stuart King of England, who was James VI of Scotland 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. She was descended, through her mother, Ineen Dubh, from the Stuarts. She was raised by her grandmother, Lady Kildare, suggesting that her mother too had died. She seems to have been raised in England, where Lady Kildare made an unsatisfactory (to Mary) match for her. Mary donned male attire, and with her maid and a manservant, escaped to Ireland. It is said that "Whenever her disguise aroused any suspicion, she allayed it by making passionate love to a girl, or offering to fight a duel!"

She made her way to Brussels and from there to Genoa where she married a Mr. O'Gallagher (like her, a descendant of the Cenél Conaill. What exactly became of her seems to be a mystery; it is said that "When she was expecting her second child she wrote in great distress to Cardinal Barberini" and was "last heard of this remarkable woman was that she was a widow living in Prague", seemingly around 1649.

Visit to Rome

Prince Rory visited Rome, and was given a hero's welcome by the Pope and Roman nobility. He paid homage to Pope Paul V at the latter's residence in the Quirinal Palace. He most likely also visited St. Peter's Basilica, then under construction in its current form. As such, he would also have had the royal privilege of ascending and later descending the Scala Regia in the Vatican. Some decades later, when Bernini restored the Scala Regia, he placed a sculpture of his own making there, an equestrian statue of Emperor Constantine, and re-designed the stairway such that light shines down through a window above, with the (inter alia) O'Donnell motto In Hoc Signo Vinces, reminiscent of Constantine's vision, overhead. The motto appears prominently placed on a sculpted ribbon unfurled with a passion cross to its left, beneath the window over the Scala Regia, in order that all monarchs and royalty thenceforth visiting the Pope, would be reminded on leaving, to follow the Cross, and thence turn right into the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica, ostensibly so inspired.

Death and Burial

Shortly thereafter, Rory died in Rome, after a short sojourn in Ostia due to his fever (probably malaria). As was customary for his forebears' funerals, he was laid out dressed in Franciscan robes. He was then given a prince's burial in the Church of San Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum Hill. The Church was commissioned by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and marks a traditional location of St. Peter's crucifixion. Historically under Spanish protection, it now forms part of a Franciscan monastery and adjoins a Spanish Royal Academy under the custody of the Spanish Embassy in Rome. Rory O'Donnell's tombstone is a flagstone under a carpet lying before the high altar in that church, and reads as follows: cquote|D.O.M.
RODERICO . PRINCIPI . ODONELLIO .
COMITI . TIRCONALLIAE . IN .HIBERNIA .
QUI . PRO . RELIGIONE . CATHOLICA .
GRAVISSIMIS . DEFUNCTUS . PERICULIS .
IN . SAGO . PARITER . ET . IN . TOGA .
CONSTANTISSIMUS . CULTOR . ET . DEFENSOR .
APOSTOLICAE . ROMANAE . FIDEI .
PRO . QUA . TUENDA . ET . CONSERVANDA . E . PATRIA . PROFUGUS .
LUSTRATIS . IN . ITALIA . GALLIA . BELGIO .
PRAECIPUIS . SANCTORUM . MONUMENTIS .
ATQUE . IBIDEM . PRINCIPUM . CHRISTIANORUM .
SINGULARI . AMORE . ET . HONORE .
SANCTISS. ETIAM P. AC. D. PAULI. PP. V.
PATERNO . AFFECTU . SUSCEPTUS .
IN . MAXIMIS . CATHOLICORUM . VOTIS . DE . FELICI . EIUS . REDITU .
SUMMUM . DOLOREM . ATTULIT . SUIS .
ET . MAEROREM . OMNIBUS . IN . HAC . URBE . ORDINIBUS .
IMMATURA . MORTE . QUAM . OBIIT . III. KALENDAS. SEXTILES .
ANNO . SALUTIS . MDCVIII . AETATIS . SUAE . XXXIII .
QUAM . MOX . SECUTUS . EODEM . TRAMITE .
UT . EADEM . CUM . EO . BEATITATE . FRUERETUR .
CALFURNIUS . FRATER .
PERICULORM . ET . EXILII . SOCIUS .
IN . SUMMA . SPE . ET . EXPECTATIONE . BONORUM .
DE . EIUS . NOBILITATE . ANIMI .
QUAM . VIRTUS . ET . OPTIMA . INDOLES . EXORNAVIT .
RELIQUIT . DESIDERIUM . ET . MAESTITIAM . COEXULIBUS .
XVIII . KAL . OCT . PROXIME . SEQUENTIS . ANNO . AETATIS . XXV .
UTRUMQUE . ANTECESSIT . AETATE . ET . FATI . ORDINE .
FRATER . PRIMOGENITUS .
HUGO . PRINCEPS .
QUEM . PIE . ET CATHOLICE . PRO . FIDE . ET . PATRIA . COGITANTEM .
PHILIPPUS . III . HISPANIARUM . REX .
ET . VIVUM . BENEVOLE . AMPLEXUS . ET . IN . VIRIDI . AETATE .
MORTUUM . HONORIFICE . FUNERANDUM . CURAVIT .
VALLISOLETTI . IN . HISPANIA . IIII . IDUS . SEPTEMB . A. S. MDCII.

Which may be translated:

cquote|To God, Best and Greatest:
To Prince Rory O'Donnell
Count of Tyrconnell in Ireland
Who for the Catholic Faith
overcame very serious dangers,
in war and in peace equally
a most constant supporter and defender
of the Apostolic Roman Faith;
for defending and preserving it, [he was] exiled from his fatherland,
having visited in Italy, France, and Belgium
the outstanding monuments of the saints,
and in the same place having been received with the exceptional
love and honor of the Christian princes
and the paternal affection
of our father and lord Pope Paul V
in the very great prayers of Catholics about his happy return,
he brought the highest pain to his people
and grief to all orders in this city
by the immature death which he suffered on the third day before the Kalends of Sextilis [July 29]
in the Year of Salvation 1608, in the 33rd year of his life.
How soon after on the same path,
in order that he might enjoy the same beatitude with him,
followed his brother Cathbarr,
the comrade of his dangers and exile,
in the highest hope and expectation of good things
regarding the nobility of his spirit,
which the best virtue and character adorned;
he left longing and grief to his fellow exiles;
on the 18th day before the Kalends of October [September 14] of the year immediately following, in the 25th year of life.
In both age and order of death both were preceded by
the firstborn brother
Prince Hugh,
whom, when he was taking thought in a pious and Catholic way for his faith and fatherland,
Philip III, King of the Spanish Lands,
both embraced him in good will while he was alive, and took care for
burying him honorably when he had died in his flourishing age,
at Valladolid in Spain on the 4th day before the Ides of September [September 10] , in the Year of Salvation 1602.

A Note on the name Rudhraighe

Rudhraighe's name has been anglicised as Rory, but should be written and pronounced as "Rury".

Clann Aodh Ó Domhnaill

Aodh mac Maghnusa Ó Domhnaill/Sir Hugh O'Donnell, died 1600. = 1stly, an unnamed Irish wife = 2ndly, Fionnghuala "Inghean Dubh" Ní Seamus MacDonnell (married Aodh in 1569)

__|______________________________________ |_________________________________________________________________
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | Donnchadh Domhnall Ruadhri Siobhán daughter Nuala Aodh Ruadh Rudhraighe Maghnus Mairghead Máire Cathbarr (Scaite) d.1590 d.1575 d. 1591 fl.1579 fl.1592 1571-1602 d.1608 alive 1608 died 1662 |
=Brigid FitzGerald | Hugh (dsp)
| Conn (dsp.) Domhnall Oge ___________________________|__________________________
| |
| |
Luke Plunkett = Elizabeth Hugh, 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell Mary Stuart O'Donnell, 1608-49? Earl of Fingall 1st Countess October 1606-August/September 1642 =O'Gallagher 1589-1637 of Fingal (dsp) | 1604-c.1630
(dsp) had at least one child

References

ources

*"The Fate and Fortunes of the Earls of Tyrone (Hugh O’Neill) and Tyrconnel (Rory O’Donel), their flight from Ireland and death in exile", by the Rev. C. P. Meehan, M.R.I.A., 2nd edition, James Duffy, London, 1870.
*"Wealth of Dignity, Poverty of Destiny - The Destitution of a Catholic Princess for her Devotion" (The tragic story of Mary, Princess of Tyrconnell, Rory's daughter), by Francis Martin O'Donnell, Knight of Malta, in pages 3-6 of "O'Domhnaill Abu", the O'Donnell Clann Newsletter no. 32, published by V. O'Donnell, Inver, County Donegal, Summer 2004 [ISSN 0790-7389] .
*"History of Killeen Castle", by Mary Rose Carty, published by Carty/Lynch, Dunsany, County Meath, Ireland, April 1991 (ISBN 0-9517382-0-8) - page 18 refers to Elizabeth O'Donnell as 1st Countess of Fingall.
*"Calendar of State Papers - 1603-4 - James I" (item 123, pages 79-80), National Library of Ireland, Dublin.
*"Irish Leaders and Learning", ed. O'Muraile, Dublin, 2004.
*http://www.araltas.com/features/odonnell/
* [http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimedia/video/detail.html?siteSect=15045&sid=8867902 Swiss commemoration / short film on commemoration of Rory's Flight of the Earls; March, 2008]