Ellis MacDonnell | |
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Countess of Antrim | |
Born | Ellis O'Neill 1583 |
Died | 1665 |
Spouse(s) | Randal, 1st Earl of Antrim |
Issue Detail | Randal, Alexander, & others |
Father | Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone |
Mother | Siobhan O'Donnell |
Ellis MacDonnell, Countess of Antrim was an Irish aristocrat of the late Elizabethan and early Stuart eras.
Ellis [lower-alpha 1] was born in 1583, [lower-alpha 2] the third daughter of Hugh O'Neill and his second wife, Siobhan O'Donnell. [lower-alpha 3] Her father was Earl of Tyrone and the leading Gaelic figure in late 16th-century Ireland. He is counted as the second or the third earl. [9] Her paternal grandfather had been Matthew O'Neill, 1st Baron Dungannon, illegitimate son but recognised successor of Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone. Ellis's mother was a daughter of Sir Hugh O'Donnell, king of Tyrconnell and his first wife whose name is not known.
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While she was a child, her father was the leader of the insurgents in Tyrone's Rebellion, also called the Nine Years' War (1594-1603). James MacDonnells, third son of Sorley Boy MacDonnell succeeded his father [12] and supported the insurgents. However, he died in 1601 and Randal, the fourth brother and Alice's future husband became the head of the family. In August 1602 he submitted to the Lord Deputy Charles Blunt, 8th Baron Mountjoy, and changed sides. He was rewarded with most of the possessions of his father that should normally have gone to his brother's descendants.
In 1604 Alice married Randal MacDonnell, the fourth son of Sorley Boy MacDonnell, Lord of the Glynns and the Route. [13] Alice was described as "of good cheerful aspect, freckled, not tall but strong, well set, and acquainted with the English tongue". [14] Her marriage was a dynastic match that brought Tyrone into an alliance with the MacDonnells, the dominant family in northern County Antrim, who also had strong connections in Scotland. Tyrone's other children made similar marriages with leading families across Ulster. Despite being Gaelic and Catholic, Randal was a strong supporter of settling Scottish Protestants in north-eastern Ulster, anticipating the Ulster Plantation. [15] After the Flight of the Earls in 1607, when her father fled into exile in continental Europe, Ellis's husband became the foremost Gaelic aristocrat in Ulster following.
Alice and Randal had two sons, both of whom followed their father as earls:
—and six daughters:
In 1607 her father Hugh O'Neill left Ireland with the Flight of the Earls. He died in Rome in 1616. [22] On 12 December 1620 her husband was created Earl of Antrim [23] and Alice thereby became countess. Her husband died in 1636. [24] Ellis outlived him by almost 30 years, dying in 1665. [25]
James Hamilton, 1st Earl of AbercornPC (S) (1575–1618), was a Scottish diplomat for James VI and an undertaker in the Plantation of Ulster in the north of Ireland.
Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone was an Irish Gaelic lord and key figure of the Irish Nine Years' War. Known as the "Great Earl", O'Neill led the coalition of Irish clans against the English Crown in resistance to the Tudor conquest of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I.
Shane O'Neill was an Irish chieftain of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster in the mid-16th century. Shane O'Neill's career was marked by his ambition to be the O'Neill—sovereign of the dominant O'Neill family of Tír Eoghain. This brought him into conflict with competing branches of the O'Neill family and with the English government in Ireland, who recognised a rival claim. Shane's support was considered worth gaining by the English even during the lifetime of his father Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone. But rejecting overtures from Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, the lord deputy from 1556, Shane refused to help the English against the Scottish settlers on the coast of Antrim, allying himself for a short time instead with the MacDonnells, the most powerful of these settlers. Shane viewed the Scottish settlers as invaders, but decided to stay his hand against them with hopes of using them to strengthen his position with the English. However, tensions quickly boiled over and he declared war on the Scottish MacDonnell's defeating them at the Battle of Glentaisie despite the MacDonnells calling for reinforcements from Scotland. The Scottish MacDonnells would later assassinate Shane O'Neill and collect the bounty on his head.
Earl of Antrim is a title that has been created twice, both times in the Peerage of Ireland and both times for members of the MacDonnell family, originally of Scottish origins.
Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, was an Irish Gaelic lord and the last King of Tyrconnell. He was a younger brother of Hugh Roe O'Donnell and in 1603 became the first to be styled the Earl of Tyrconnell.
Sir Phelim Roe O'Neill of Kinard was an Irish politician and soldier who started the Irish rebellion in Ulster on 23 October 1641. He joined the Irish Catholic Confederation in 1642 and fought in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms under his cousin, Owen Roe O'Neill, in the Confederate Ulster Army. After the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland O’Neill went into hiding but was captured, tried and executed in 1653.
Randall MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim (1609–1683) was a Roman Catholic landed magnate in Scotland and Ireland, son of the 1st Earl of Antrim. He was also chief of Clan MacDonnell of Antrim. He is best known for his involvement, mostly on the Royalist side, in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
Randall MacSorley MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim, PC (Ire), rebelled together with Tyrone and Tyrconnell in the Nine Years' War but having succeeded his brother, Sir James mac Sorley MacDonnell, as Lord of the Route and the Glynns in 1601, he submitted to Mountjoy, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, in 1602.
Shane O'Neill, 3rd Earl of Tyrone 18 October 1599 – 27/29 January 1641) was an Irish nobleman and soldier. He was the youngest son of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and was known by the Spanish as "El conde de Tyrone".
Events from the year 1607 in Ireland.
Lady Agnes Campbell was a Scottish noblewoman and queen consort of Tír Eoghain. She was the mother of Iníon Dubh.
Alexander MacDonnell, 3rd Earl of AntrimPC (Ire) (1615–1699) was a Catholic peer and military commander in Ireland. He fought together with his brother Randal on the losing side in the Irish Confederate Wars (1641–1653); and then, having succeeded his brother as the 3rd Earl of Antrim in 1683, fought in the Williamite War (1688–1691), on the losing side again. Twice he forfeited his lands and twice he regained them.
Sir Daniel O'Brien, 1st Viscount Clare also called Donal was an Irish politician and soldier. He was born a younger son of Connor O'Brien, 3rd Earl of Thomond. He fought against the insurgents at Tyrone's Rebellion, but for the insurgents in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Irish Confederate Wars. He resisted the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He joined Charles II of England in exile and was in his eighties made a viscount at the Restoration.
Sir Hugh McManus O'Donnell was an Irish Gaelic lord. He was The O'Donnell of his clan, and king of Tyrconnell in Tudor-era Ireland.
Sir Brian O'Neill, 2nd Baronet was an Irish landowner, barrister and judge. He was one of the Roman Catholic judges appointed by King James II of England in his effort to "Romanise" the Irish administration. As such he and his fellow Catholic judges have been treated harshly by historians. However William of Orange, after he overthrew his father-in-law James II, also made use of O'Neill's services for a time. He was the second of the O'Neill Baronets of Upper Claneboys.
Matthew O'Neill, 1st Baron Dungannon, was an Irish aristocrat. He was accepted by Conn O'Neill as his natural son. Matthew was challenged by his half-brother Shane O'Neill over the succession to the Earldom of Tyrone and was murdered by some of his supporters.
Randal MacDonnell, 4th Earl of Antrim (1680–1721) was an Irish aristocrat.
Nuala O'Donnell was an Irish noblewoman of the O'Donnell dynasty who took part in the Flight of the Earls. She was known as "the Lady of the Piercing Wail".
Siobhán O'Donnell, sometimes anglicised Joanna, Joan, or Judith, was a sixteenth-century Irish Gaelic noblewoman of the O'Donnell clan. She is known for being the second wife of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, bearing him most of his children.
Rose O'Neill was an Irish noblewoman and queen consort of Tyrconnell. She was the daughter of Hugh O'Neill and wife of "Red" Hugh Roe O'Donnell, the two leaders of the Irish alliance during the Nine Years' War. Her marriage to O'Donnell was a deliberate move to unite the O'Neills and the O'Donnells, the two most powerful Irish clans of their day. She separated from O'Donnell in 1595.