Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell

Born in 1575, Rory O'Donnell was the second son of Irish lord Sir Hugh McManus O'Donnell and his second wife Iníon Dubh. Iníon Dubh was a Scottish aristocrat of Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg. Rory's full-siblings included Hugh Roe, Mary, and Caffar. In July 1588, Sir Hugh promised Rory to the government as a pledge for good behaviour, though this does not seem to have been accepted. == Nine Years' War ==

Rory O'Donnell became tanist upon his brother Hugh Roe's 1592 inauguration as Lord of Tyrconnell. Rory fought in the Nine Years' War, though his role is largely overshadowed by Hugh Roe's leadership. On 9 October 1600, Rory's distant cousin and brother-in-law, loyalist Niall Garve O'Donnell, seized Lifford from him with the help of English forces. Despite attempts from Rory and Hugh Roe to retake Lifford, they were unsuccessful. This culminated in a battle on 24 October, in which Niall fatally wounded Rory's younger brother Manus. Rory and Niall engaged in single combat, though both were lucky to leave the battle with their lives. In December, Rory O'Donnell submitted to Lord Deputy Mountjoy at Athlone. == Head of the clan O'Donnell ==

Upon his older brother's death, O'Donnell succeeded him as King of Tyrconnell and Chief of the Clan O'Donnell. Rory was created 1st Earl of Tyrconnell on 29 September 1603. A 1614 Hiberno-Latin history of Donegal Abbey, however, criticized the title of Earl as, "how inferior to that with which the Prince of Tyrconnell used to be acclaimed on the sacred rock of Kilmacrenan!" ==Flight of the Earls==

There was much fury in Ireland and England that he and Hugh O'Neill, 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 14 September 1607, both Earls set sail from Lough Swilly with their families and followers for eventual exile in the Spanish Netherlands and Rome. The journey was difficult and harsh, and conditions on their boat were extremely poor. The Earls arrived in France, not Spain as expected, then made their way north to the Spanish Netherlands. They eventually arrived in Rome His funeral, which took place on the feast of St Martha, was described as "large and splendid... in grand procession... ordered by his Holiness the Pope, and on either side of the body there were large numbers of lighted waxen torches and sweet, sad, sorrowful singing." His funeral "may have passed south from the Borgo district where he had lived, along Via della Lungara on the west bank of the Tiber to San Pietro in Montorio." Tadhg O'Cianan may have taken artistic liberties in describing the funeral. ==Family==

Around 1604, or Christmas 1606, Lord Tyrconnell's only son, Hugh Albert, 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 succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Tyrconnell, but left no offspring; the title of Earl would have descended to his first cousin Domhnall Oge's line were it not attainted in 1614. Lord Tyrconnell's youngest child, Mary Stuart O'Donnell, was born in England around 1607. After her father's death, King James VI and I, the first Stuart King of England, 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, from the Stuarts. Mary was raised by her mother in the Kildare lands in Ireland until she was twelve years old. In 1619, Mary was sent to live with her grandmother, Lady Kildare, in London, where Lady Kildare aimed to educate the girl and make her her heiress. == Portraiture ==

Lord Tyrconnell is depicted as part of a fresco in the Vatican by Giovanni Battista Ricci. Painted circa 1610 in the Sala Paolina, Tyrconnell is depicted standing next to Tyrone during the 1608 canonization of Frances of Rome by Pope Paul V. Many historians believe that the figure next to Tyrone is actually a Spanish ambassador - either Francisco de Moncada or his father Gastón. The historian Francis Martin O'Donnell argues that the figure lacks Francisco's distinctive facial hair and portly appearance, and looks too young to depict Gastón, who was in his mid-50s at the time. The figure also lacks the ornate clothing an ambassador would be required to wear during such a ceremony. Therefore, it is most likely that the figure standing next to Tyrone is fellow Irish earl Rory O'Donnell. ==Notes==