Catalogue description EARL OF TYRONE and LORD MAGONIUS O'DONELL.

Order taken by the Lord Deputy and Council between Con O'Neyle, Earl of Tirone, and Magonius O'Donell, chief of Tirconnell, as also between the aforesaid Magonius and his brothers and other inferior captains of those parts, at Dublin, 14th July, 35 Hen. VIII.

Indenture quadripartite, 14 July, 35 Hen. VIII.--Final composition and concord between the Lord Con O'Neile, Earl of Tyrone, and the Lord Magonius O'Donell, chief of Tirconnell, concerning a dominion called Inishon, [Note by Carew: "About this country of Inishon and the castle of Liffer there was many years together strife and wars between O'Neale and O'Donnell, and yet to this day the challenge is not forgotten, but is revived upon every small occasion."] unjustly detained by O'Donell from the said Earl, as he asserted, and the superiority of dominion, rents, and services of the Lords of Clanyboy, McCuylin, McGwyre, O'Rwirch, and other inferior captains in Ulster, whom each of them claims to be immediate subjects and tributories to himself; and also concerning the complaints of Con Egin[a]ghan, Donough, and other younger brothers of the Lord O'Donell, brought forward against him for their incarceration and exile, and for the usurpation of the castle of Leffer by Hugh, the son of O'Donell. They had submitted themselves to the decree of Lord Anthony Sentleger, one of the Privy Chamber of the King, and his Deputy in Ireland, John Alen, Chancellor of the same, and the other Councillors of the King, who ordered and adjudged as follows:--

(1.) Whereas the Earl of Tyrone claims Inyshon, because O'Donell before the Lord Deputy and Council exhibited divers writings, confirmations, or releases of that lordship made by the Earl's ancestors to his ancestors, it is ordered that O'Donell shall enjoy that dominion.

(2.) As to the manor of Chinalmughan, the Earl and O'Donell shall each hold his part of the same according to the partition made thereof between them.

(3.) Whereas the Earl alleges that O'Donell has refused to pay him an annual rent of 60 kine issuing out of the dominion of Inyshone, since the Earl submitted himself to the King, it is ordered that, as O'Donell confesses that the said rent was granted by him to the Earl on condition that the Earl should restrain all malefactors under his power from molesting the inhabitants of Inyshone, the Earl shall henceforth enjoy the said rent with all arrears, and that O'Donell shall restrain all malefactors from perpetrating damages against the Earl and his dominion.

(4.) Whereas the Earl claims personal obedience and service from O'Donell as his vassal, and rents, tributes, and services from other lords and inferior captains of Ulster, and O'Donell claims the same from the lords and inferior captains dwelling on his borders; and as upon this depend all the enmities, thefts, robberies, burnings, homicides, and public crimes, the stronger exacting from the weaker whatever he pleases; and because the Earl and O'Donell have produced no other title or legal proof than certain old parchments or bills (libelli), confirmed by no seal, signature, or other testimony, but such as are composed by vain poets and ploratores of Irish histories, who are often-times hired for small reward, and blinded by affection for their lords: it is ordered that O'Donell shall not be bound to show any manual or personal obedience to the Earl of Tyrone, but each of them shall be free and exempt from all subjection, and immediately subject to the King; that the Earl shall have the government of the country of Tyrone according to the King's letters patent; that O'Donell shall have the government of Tirconell, so long as he shall remain captain there, under his Majesty; and that neither the Earl nor O'Donell shall exact outside of their territories any tribute, bonaught, or service from any inferior captains, who shall always be immediately under the peace of the King.

(5.) As to the dissensions between O'Donell and his aforesaid brothers, it is ordered, with their common assent, that O'Donell shall not only restore to Con [and] Eginaghan the office of tanist of Tirconnell, with all those lands and farms in Tirconnell which, by the gift of their father, they possessed before their exile; but also restore to Donough and his younger brothers all the lands which they possessed in Tirconnell of his own gift before their exile, saving to O'Donell the dominion, bonaught, rent, and service due to him out of the premises; that O'Donell shall restore to the said Egynaghan all his goods lost by occasion of his unjust incarceration, when he shall come into those parts; that O'Donell shall keep peace towards his brothers under pain of forfeiture of all his lands; and that his brothers under the same penalty shall do the same towards him and his.

(6.) It is ordered that Hugh, the son of O'Donell, shall restore the castle of Leffer to his father, on these conditions. O'Donell shall deliver to the Lord Deputy as hostage his son Magonius, until in his place he shall deliver a better hostage of Calough, his eldest son, ["Quousque loco suo meliorem obsidem Calvacii, senioris filii sui, dederit."] as well for keeping peace with his brothers, as for security that he will commit the castle to one of the followers of the same Hugh, in order that after the death of his father he may be able to retain the castle, which was built for him at the expense of his mother. O'Donell moreover has taken his oath that he will not alienate the castle from the said Hugh; and further he gives the Lord Deputy, the Earls of Desmond, Ormond, and Tirone, the Lord O'Brien, McWilliam, and all other nobles of Ireland for intercessors and sureties of his covenant and promise not to alienate the said castle from his son, but only to have the use of the same while he lives, when he shall come to those parts. If the said Hugh shall refuse to deliver the castle to his father, he shall be excluded from all right to and possession of the same for ever.

(7.) It is ordered that the Earl and O'Donell, and the other inferior captains in Ulster, shall freely permit the Primate of all Ireland, Bishops, and other ecclesiastical persons to exercise their jurisdictions, and to have their ecclesiastical patrimonies free from all exactions and bonaughts; and that they shall never admit the usurped primacy of the Roman Pontiff. For the observance of this article the Earl and O'Donell pledged their solemn oath.

Contemp. copy.

Printed in "State Papers," III. 478, from the original in the Record Office.

Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, ed. J. S. Brewer & W. Bullen (6 vols., 1867-73), vol. I, document 180.