As usual, troubles began in the North.  Henry VIII., it will be remembered, had granted the hereditary lands of Tyrone to Con O’Neill, with remainder to Matthew, the new Baron of Dungannon, whereas lands in Ulster, as elsewhere in Ireland, had always hitherto, by the law of Tanistry, been vested in the tribe, who claimed the right to select whichever of their late chiefs’ sons they themselves thought fit.  This right they now proceeded to exercise.  Matthew, if he was Con’s son at all, which was doubtful, was unquestionably illegitimate, and, therefore, by English as well as Irish law, wrongfully put in the place.  On the other hand, a younger son Shane—­called affectionately “Shane the Proud” by his clansmen—­was unquestionably legitimate, and what was of much more importance, was already the idol of every fighting O’Neill from Lough Foyle to the banks of the Blackwater.

Shane is one of those Irish heroes—­rather perhaps Ulster heroes, for his aspirations were hardly national—­whom it is extremely difficult to mete out justice to with a perfectly even hand.  He was unquestionably three-fourths of a savage—­that fact we must begin in honesty by admitting—­at the same time, he was a very brilliant, and, even in many respects attractive, savage.  His letters, though suffering like those of some other distinguished authors from being translated, are full of touches of fiery eloquence, mixed with bombast and the wildest and most monstrously inflated self-pretension.  His habits certainly were not commendable.  He habitually drank, and it is also said ate a great deal more than was good for him.  He ill-used his unlucky prisoners.  He divorced one wife to marry another, and was eager to have a third in the lifetime of the second, making proposals at the same time to the deputy for the hand of his sister, and again and again petitioning the queen to provide him with some “English gentlewoman of noble blood, meet for my vocation, so that by her good civility and bringing up the country would become civil.”  In spite however of these and a few other lapses from the received modern code of morals and decorum, Shane the Proud is an attractive figure in his way, and we follow his fortunes with an interest which more estimable heroes fail sometimes to awaken.

The Baron of Dungannon was in the meantime dead, having been slain in a scuffle with his half-brother’s followers—­some said by his half-brother’s own hand—­previous to his father’s death.  His son, however, who was still a boy, was safe in England, and now appealed through his relations to the Government, and Sir Henry Sidney, who in Lord Sussex’s absence was in command, marched from Dublin to support the English candidate.  At a meeting which took place at Dundalk Shane seems however to have convinced Sidney to some degree of the justice of his claim, and hostilities were delayed until the matter could be reported to the queen.