O'Neil's Agreement

Justin McCarthy
1903
Chapter IV | Start of Chapter

O'Neil made a formal act of submission to the Queen, and negotiations set in for a definite and lasting arrangement. Nothing came of it. O'Neil seems to have understood that he was acting under a promise of safe conduct, and was to be confirmed in the ownership of his estates in return for his submission. But whatever may have been the misunderstanding, it is certain that these terms were not carried out according to O'Neil's expectation. He was detained in London in qualified captivity, and was informed that he could only be restored to his lands when he had engaged to make war against his former allies the Scots, had pledged himself not to make war without the consent of the English Government, and to set up no claim of supremacy over other Chiefs in Ireland.