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5 unusual facts about Count of Tyrone


Count of Tyrone

The title of Count of Tyrone has been used by two European branches of the O'Neill family to claim affiliation with the O'Neill Earls of Tyrone in the Peerage of Ireland.

In 1542, the O'Neill was Conn Bacach O'Neill, younger son of Conn Mor O'Neill in Tyrone; he resigned the position of the O'Neill, and accepted the Earldom of Tyrone; by the patent, his successor was to be his eldest, but illegitimate, son Ferdoragh, who took the name of Matthew, and Matthew's heirs male.

This Flight of the Earls was the legal basis, therefore, for the Plantation of Ulster by the Scots; since Earl Hugh had personally owned much of Ulster, it was now in the King's hands, to give away as he pleased.

In 1585, Queen Elizabeth confirmed Matthew's second son, Hugh O'Neill as Earl of Tyrone; in 1593, he was chosen to be the O'Neill (replacing Shane's tanist, Turlough Luineach O'Neill, his second cousin) despite Elizabeth's policy that all such principalities be abolished.

Ruvigny: Melville Henry Massue, marquis de Ruvigny et de Ravenal: Titled Nobility of Europe, London, 1914.



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