Mabel Bagenal

Mabel O'Neill, Countess of Tyrone (née Bagenal; – December 1595) was an Anglo-Irish woman, best known as the third wife of the prominent Gaelic Irish lord Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone.

Mabel was born in Newry to British parents. Her father, Marshal Nicholas Bagenal, died in February 1591 and her older brother Henry was charged with her safekeeping. In August, against Henry's will, Mabel eloped with Tyrone, a Gaelic lord twice her age who was a political opponent to Nicholas and Henry. The marriage caused a major scandal and intensified Henry and Tyrone's rivalry. Mabel ultimately became disillusioned with her marriage and eventually died of illness, aged 24.

As her brother and her husband commanded opposing forces during the Nine Years' War, Mabel has been called the "Helen of the Elizabethan Wars".

Family background Mabel Bagenal was born around 1571 in Newry, Ireland. She was the eleventh and youngest child of Sir Nicholas Bagenal, a prominent Staffordshire soldier and Marshal of the Irish Army, and his wife Eleanor Griffith of Penrhyn, Wales. Her older siblings included Henry, Dudley and Anne. Before Nicholas's death in February 1591, he charged Henry with the "careful disposing" of Mabel Hugh Roe MacMahon were divided and granted to Henry rather than himself. Tyrone's second wife Siobhán died in January 1591, and he was further frustrated when Henry was named chief commissioner of Ulster on 18 May.

Shortly afterwards, Tyrone made overtures to Henry for Mabel's hand in marriage. Mabel was twenty years old at the time; Tyrone was forty-one. Henry was alarmed and kept Mabel out of Tyrone's reach by sending her to live with their sister Mary (wife of Patrick Barnewall) in Turvey, County Dublin. Henry referred the decision to the queen and privy council, claiming that his sister was not prepared to live in what he termed an uncivil Gaelic household. though most historians believe that he recognised the advantages of marrying into the powerful Bagenal family. In July, Tyrone convinced Mabel to elope.

Married life Mabel's brother Henry was outraged at the marriage. He was infuriated "that my blood which in my father and myself hath often been spilled in repressing this rebellious race, should now be mingled with so traitorous a stock and kindred". He withheld Mabel's £1000 dowry, even two years after the marriage, on the grounds that satisfactory jointure arrangements had not been made.

Mabel converted to Catholicism (against her brother's wishes), which, along with Tyrone's alleged infidelity, stoked Henry's enmity further. Mabel was deeply upset by her brother's disapproval and by the increasing rivalry between her husband and brother. Afterwards he did not allow Mabel to appear in public, effectively imprisoning her in Dungannon.

Casway believes that despite the romantic circumstances of their courtship, the marriage "probably ran its course" and Tyrone would have continued with his concubines. Mabel appears to have soon repented her marriage. According to Tyrone himself, "because I did affect two other gentlewomen, [Mabel] grew in dislike with me, forsook me, and went unto her brother to complain upon me to the council of Ireland, and did exhibit articles against me".

The Nine Years' War began in 1593, as a confederacy of Irish lords (secretly led by Tyrone) rebelled against British rule. Throughout 1593 and 1594, Henry Bagenal repeatedly accused Tyrone of treason and sought the Earl's arrest. Tyrone made a show of his loyalty to the Crown by assisting Henry at the Battle of Belleek. In 1594, Mabel and her husband were described as papists who supported seminary priests. Tyrone eventually went into open rebellion in February 1595 with an assault on the Blackwater Fort, and Mabel's husband and brother first openly fought each other at the Battle of Clontibret in May 1595. Tyrone succeeded Turlough Luineach as O'Neill clan chief in September 1595. This made Mabel briefly queen consort of Tír Eoghain under brehon law.

Death Mabel fell ill and ultimately died in December 1595, aged 24. Alternatively, she might have died whilst in Tyrone's captivity at Dungannon. particularly for overtly romanticising Mabel's marriage. She seldom appears in Making History, though her impact on Tyrone's life and legacy is significantly explored. Maria Gaviña Costero notes that Friel shifts Mabel from "a historically marginal position to the decisive figure she is in this play", and portrays her with greater agency and depth than Ó Faoláin. Though Mabel died in 1595, in Making History she is anachronistically alive and still married to Tyrone in the 1600s.