Life
Egan obtained the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Divinity from a Spanish university. In 1600 he was in Ireland actively encouraging rebellion, meeting Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone in February at Tipperary, and co-operating with Florence MacCarthy Reagh. [1] [2]
Tyrone and Florence MacCarthy sent Egan to Rome in quest of an excommunication for all that did not rebel. One result was that the Jesuit Luigi Mansoni was appointed papal nuncio to Ireland. Egan then gained access to the Spanish court at Valladolid, travelling there with Mansoni, and influenced Philip III of Spain, in the direction of sending men and money to Kinsale in 1601, to support the rebellion which Tyrone had raised in the south of Ireland. Pope Clement VIII summoned Egan back to Rome, appointed him apostolic vicar, created him D.D., and conferred on him livings in Munster. [1] [2]
Egan arrived at Kilmakilloge in Kenmare Bay in June 1602, in a ship bringing troops and finance from Spain. Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy had enjoyed success in the field against Tyrone's rebellion, and Kinsale was closely invested. The rebel forces grew. [1]
Egan's career ended in an encounter with English soldiers under William Taaffe in Carberry on 5 January 1603, where he was killed. He was buried in the convent of Timoleague, in the diocese of Ross, and a small cross was placed above his tomb. [1] [2] A breviary (printed in Venice in 1600) apparently held by Egan when he was killed is now at Cambridge University Library (shelfmark Rel.e.60.2). It contains a note apparently in the hand of Sir Thomas Stafford, who came into possession of Egan's books, and was later in the library of John Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield & Coventry, who bequeathed it to the Library in 1670.
Charles Blount, 1st Earl of Devonshire, KG was an English nobleman and soldier who served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I, and later as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under King James I.
Hugh O'Neill was an Irish Gaelic lord, Earl of Tyrone and was later created The Ó Néill Mór, Chief of the Name. O'Neill's career was played out against the background of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and he is best known for leading a coalition of Irish clans during the Nine Years' War, the strongest threat to the House of Tudor in Ireland since the uprising of Silken Thomas against King Henry VIII.
Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, was an Irish Gaelic lord, the last King of Tyrconnell. He was a younger brother of Hugh Roe O'Donnell and became the 1st Earl of Tyrconnell.
The Nine Years' War, sometimes called Tyrone's Rebellion, took place in Ireland from 1593 to 1603. It was fought between an Irish confederation—led mainly by Hugh O'Neill of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tyrconnell—against English rule in Ireland, and was a response to the ongoing Tudor conquest of Ireland. The war began in Ulster and northern Connacht, but eventually engulfed the entire island. The Irish alliance won numerous victories against the English forces in Ireland, such as the Battle of Clontibret (1595) and the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), but the English won a pivotal victory against the alliance and their Spanish allies in the siege of Kinsale (1601–02). The war ended with the Treaty of Mellifont (1603). Many of the defeated northern lords left Ireland to seek support for a new uprising in the Flight of the Earls (1607), never to return. This marked the end of Gaelic Ireland and led to the Plantation of Ulster.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "MacEgan, Owen". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
