h he was distinguished
for gifts and graces of body and mind. For a long time Tyrone seemed a
loyal supporter of English rule. He commanded a troop in the Queen's
service, and even took part in the suppression of risings in his own
country, cooperating with the Earl of Essex in the Ulster wars and the
settlement of Antrim. One romantic incident of his life brought him into
personal antagonism with Sir Henry Bagnal, the Lord Marshal of Ireland.
Hugh O'Neil had been left a widower, and he fell in love with Bagnal's
beautiful sister. Bagnal highly disapproved of the match, but, as the
lady was heart and soul in love with the Irish chieftain, her brother's
opposition was vain. She eloped with her lover and married him. Bagnal
became O'Neil's determined enemy. It may be that Sir Henry Bagnal did his
best to prejudice the ruling authorities against O'Neil, and at that time
no very substantial evidence was needed to set up a charge of treason
against an Irish chieftain.

Perhaps when O'Neil returned to his own country he was recalled to
national sentiments by the sight of oppression there, and it is certain
that he was roused to indignation by the arbitrary imprisonment of one of
his kinsmen known as Red Hugh. When Red Hugh succeeded in escaping from
prison he inspired Tyrone with a keen sense of his wrongs, and brought
him into the temper of insurrection. O'Neil threw himself completely into
the new movement for independence. A confederation of Irish chieftains
was organized, and O'Neil took the command. He proved himself possessed
of the most genuine military talents, and he could play the part of the
statesman as well as of the soldier. The confederation of Irish chieftains
soon became an embattled army, and the brothers-in-law met in arms as
hostile commanders on the shores of the northern Blackwater. As one
historian has well remarked, there was something positively Homeric about
this struggle, in which the two men connected by marriage encountered
each other as commanders of opposing armies. Events had been moving on
since the marriage between Tyrone and Bagnal's sister. O'Neil's young
wife had found her early grave before this last engagement between her
husband and her brother. The army of Bagnal was completely defeated, and
Bagnal was killed upon the field.

For a time victory seemed to follow Tyrone. Before long the greater part
of Ireland was in the hands of the Irish forces. The Earl of Essex was
sent to Ireland a