Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/133

I559-] SHAN CfNEIL. 113 be a fine dashing youth such as an Irish father delighted to honour ; and although the Earl had another younger son, Shan or John, with some pretensions to legitimacy, Henry the Eighth allowed the father to name at his will the heir of his new honours. Matthew Kelly became Baron of Dungannon when O'Neil received his earldom ; and to Matthew Kelly was secured the reversion on his father's death of the earldom itself. No objection could be raised so long as Shan was a boy ; but as the legitimate heir grew to manhood the arrangement became less satisfactory. The other sons whom Con had brought promiscuously into the world were discontented with the preference of a brother whose birth was no better than their own ; and Shan, with their help, as the simplest solution of the difficulty, at last cut the Baron of Dungannon's throat. They manage things strangely in Ireland. The old O'Neil, instead of being irritated, saw in this exploit a proof of commendable energy. He at once took Shan into favour, and had he been able would have given him his. dead brother's rights ; but unfortunately the Baron had left a son behind him, and the son was with the family of his grandmother beyond the reach of steel or poison. Impatient of uncertainty and to secure himself by possession against future challenge, Shan next conspired against his father, deposed him, and drove him into the Pale, where he afterwards died ; and throwing over his English title and professing to prefer the name of O'Neil to any patent of nobility held under an English sove- VOL. VII. 8