Count of Tyrone
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The title of Count of Tyrone (or Comte de Tyrone) was created in the Spanish Netherlands in 1622 or 1623 for Patrick O'Neill, second son of Sean O'Neill. Sean was the eldest living son of Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone and claimant in exile of the Earldom of Tyrone. It was granted by the Infanta of Spain. The Counts of Tyrone were active in Ireland, throughout their exile on the Continent.
This O'Neill family was descendant from the O'Neill Mór line of Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and last king of Ulster in Ireland. The title "Count of Tyrone" was created in 1623 as a Spanish Netherlands title by the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain and the Netherlands, for Patrick O'Neill, the second son of Sean O'Neill, the 3rd Earl of O'Neill (some say 4th Earl). Sean was the son of "Red" Hugh O'Neill, famous for the Flight of the Earls who died in Rome in 1615 under the protection of the Pope.
At the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, Patrick, his cousin General Eoghan or Owen Roe O'Neill, and many of the other family members serving in Continental armies returned to Ireland and fought in the Irish Confederate Wars (1641-53). However Owen Roe's death in 1649 and the eventual defeat of the Irish during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649-1653, caused Patrick to leave Ireland and to take up loyalty and arms for the French king. Patrick's son James (2nd Comte de Tyrone) received lands from the Compagnie des Iles d'Amérique or (Company of the American Islands) and moved his family to the island of Martinique, [Basse Pointe] in the early 1670s. According to The Nobilities of Europe, James fought for King James II in Ireland. Upon his defeat in 1690, he left Ireland with the King and returned to France and then back to Basse Pointe, Martinique.
For roughly the next 200 years, the Counts of Tyrone lived peacefully in Martinique. The family's sons served proudly as officers in Dillon's or Walsh's Irish Regiments, in the Irish Brigade (French) Army. During the American Revolution, at least one officer of the family served with General Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez of the Spanish Army, under French approval, in his campaigns against the English in Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida.
In the late 1700s, the Comté de Tyrone was a fellow sugar plantation owner and friends with the Tascher de le Pagerie family there in Martinique. This proved eventful when Napoleon Bonaparte took as his wife, Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, born in Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique, and widow of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais. She was a daughter of Joseph-Gaspard de Tascher, chevalier, seigneur de la Pagerie, lieutenant of infantry of the navy, and his wife, the former Rose-Claire des Vergers de Sanois. When their friend Josephine became Empress of France in 1804, the fortunes of the Counts O'Neill improved as well. Jacques, the 6th Count, took his two sons and joined the Irish Legion of Napolean. The three of them were officers in the 7th Cuirrassier Regiment. During the war, Jacque won the Legion de Honor. The second sons of the Count were given the courtesy style of Vicomte de Tyrone. Jean Laurent O'Neill and Francois Henri O'Neill were the 1st and 2nd such holders. Both were officers in Irish regiments of the French Army.
By the mid 1880s, the 7th Comte, Louis O'Neill died having had three daughters, but no sons, so the title was passed to his brother, Francois Henri- 8th Comte de Tyrone. He died without issue right around January 1887 and the title went dormant. The estate was left in the care of Mary Auguste Eugenia Valentine O'Neill, heir general and daughter of the 7th Comté[1]. Mary married Herman, Baron of Bodman, a junior member of the family of Friedrich I, Grand Duke of Baden. Herman was later Prime Minister of Baden. The politics of post World War I ousted the Baden royal family and they lived out a quiet life in Germany. The title was dormant after 1888. There were numerous members of the O'Neill family that could and did lay claim to the title. The Spanish crown had the right to restore the title, as it was an original grant from the Viceroy of the Spanish Netherlands. The Vatican also had the right to grant the title onto a recognized heir. The ability to restore noble rank is retained by the Vatican as the font of all nobility, and was the originator of the title when it recognized Hugh, the 2nd. Earl of Tyrone in 1607 and placed him under Papal protection from Ireland, and his 2nd son Patrick in 1622 to the secondary title of Comte de Tyrone. There is also an account of Mary the O’Neill daughter and heir making a pact to invest the title onto the Portuguese branch of the O’Neill family at the turn of the 20th century. To date the legitimate line of Clandeboye O’Neills from Portugal do not use this title in any form. The present O’Neill of Clandeboye uses his chiefly title, and his Princely title of Clandeboye or Clanaboy, but makes no claim to the senior line or title of the Tyrone branch.
Wars during the 20th century prevented an heir from being determined. During the Spanish Civil War and the exile of the Spanish king, the various claimants looked to the Vatican to be the final authority to determine seniority. O'Neill families made claims and genealogical work was active in the 1930s in Ireland, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, and North America. The work stalled during the Second World War, but later petitions were made and after years of research and study the Vatican Secretariate of State in 2006 issued a "confirmamus" or confirmation of the dignity of Count and gave territorial reference to a closely related line that also descends in the male line from Conn Bacach O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and is a close cousin to the 1st Count of Tyrone.
The Papal finding is written in Latin and reads “Jacobum de Tyrone, Comes” or Count James of Tyrone. This signifies a change in the title, as the Vatican no longer issues historical judgments that contradict the laws or findings of other sovereign nations; in this case the UK peerage title of the modern Earl of Tyrone. The change shows the familial lineage of the title, the O’Neill Earls & Counts of Tyrone, but the title has been separated from the dignity of the land (the previous title would have been written as James, Count of Tyrone). This is in recognition to agreements made in the restored relations between the Vatican and the United Kingdom.
Recently the O’Neill clan as a whole has taken steps to organize the entire extended family, incorporating all the O’Neill family groups, septs, and associated clans. In September 2007, under the leadership of the the O'Neill of Clanaboy, to celebrate of the 400th anniversary of the departure of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and the Earl of Tyrconnell, the Flight of the Earls, out of Ireland, the leaders of the various O'Neill clans from across the world met at Shane's Castle, Co. Antrim, Ireland. It was the first time in four centuries that all O’Neill leaders were in Ireland at the same time. At the invitation of Baron O’Neill, the Association of O’Neill Clans was officially started with membership granted to those invited: the Prince of Clandeboye (Portugal), Baron O'Neill of Shane’s Castle, Baron Rathcavan, the O’Neill of France, the O’Neills of Tyrone (Germany), the Count of Tyrone, the representative of the Prince of the Fews (Spain), the O’Neills of Bellaghy, the chiefs or heads of the clans McShane (O’Neill), Dogherty, O'Cahan, and Donnelly.
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[edit] Counts of Tyrone (1623)
- Patrick O'Neill, 1st Count of Tyrone b. 1623
- James O'Neill, 2nd Count of Tyrone (b. 1660), lived in Ireland then moved to Martinique
- Henry O'Neill, 3rd Comte de Tyrone
- Jacques Henri, 4th Comte de Tyrone, brother was Jean Laurent, 1st Viscount Tyrone, Dillon Regt
- Paul Francois Henri, 5th Comte de Tyrone (b. 1749)
- Jacques, 6th Comte de Tyrone (1783–1839), brother was Francois Henri, 2nd Viscount Tyrone
- Louis Jacques Tiburce, 7th Comte de Tyrone (d. 1859)
- Francois Henri, 8th Comte de Tyrone (brother of Louis Jacques) (d. aft. 1887)
- title dormant 1887-1937
- Jacobum de Tyrone, Comes, claimed in 1937 and restored in 2006 by Vatican
[edit] Sources
- Government Office, MS #610, pg 29 (4A) genealogies held by Irish government
- Burke's Peerage 1970 ed., (John/Sean)pg. 2028/2
- "Irish Pedigrees", O'Hart 1892, O'Neill #5 pg. 739-40
- "The Ancient and Royal Family of O'Neill", Desmond O'Neill 1996, pg. 125-130
- State Papers of Ireland, Pardon Rolls of Queen Elizabeth 1599 & 1602 dealing with Hugh O'Neill
- State Papers of Ireland, Irish Patent Rolls of King James I, 1609 dealing with Hugh's sons
- "Anticipate", M. McShane, 2002 pg 35-45, O'Neill genealogies
- Vatican Patent #11006B14
- "The History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France" Shannon 1969
- "Napoleon and Josephine: An Improbable Marriage",Evangeline Bruce, 1995, ISBN 0025178105
- Almanach de Gotha, John Kennedy 1999, pg. 50, ISBN 0953214214
- General History of Martinique, 1650-1699 & 1750-1799
- "Cromwell in Ireland", James S. Wheeler
- "Gobernantes de México" Panorama Editorial, Orozco Linares, Fernando, 1985, ISBN 968-38-0260-5
- "Destruction by Peace",Kerney Walsh, pages 3-4
- "Annuaire de la noblesse de France et des maisons souveraines de l'Europe" by M. Borel D'Hautderive, pg 248, Paris 1859.
- "The Nobilities of Europe By Melville H. Ruvigny, Melville Henry Massue, marquis de Ruvigny" pg. 362, Paris.
- "The Life and Times of Aodh O'Neill" James Duffy Pub. 1846
- "County Tyrone Ireland, Genealogy and Family" History Notes: Genealogy & Family History Special Extracts from the Irish Archives, By Irish Genealogical Foundation (U.S.), Irish Genealogical Foundation, Michael C. O'Laughlin Published by Irish Roots Cafe, 2002
ISBN 0940134799, 9780940134799
- "The Nobilities of Europe" by Melville Henry Massue; marquis de Ruvigny, 2000
- http://www.oneillsummerschool.com/
